The art of decorating a home and interior design doesn’t just include choosing grand pieces of artwork, floor-to-ceiling colour schemes and other big ticket decisions. Even the lowly plinth can be used to stunning and great effect in bringing your preferred aesthetic to life and adding a sense of stylish sophistication to a room.

If you’re not confident about how to use modern plinths and pedestals to elevate your space, we’ve put together some ideas to help get you started. Before we dive into those, however, let’s take the opportunity to clarify some things.

What Is A Plinth?

A plinth, sometimes also referred to as a pedestal, refers to the heavy base or lower slab section of a column. In interior design, these humble sections of a column can be used for fashionable rather than functional purposes. They might support a statue, a vase or an antique artifact. One of the most popular types of plinths is a Calacatta plinth, a sophisticated and elegant statement piece.

Plinths or pedestals come in all sizes, shapes, and levels of thickness. If you’re being particular and technical however, plinths are usually at least 45 centimetres high and, if particularly rounder or smaller than regular pedestals, often referred to as socles.

Why Use A Plinth Or Pedestal To Elevate Your Space?

For thousands of years, literally, people have been using pedestals for decorative purposes. The ancient Greeks would display their gods’ statues on them, and though the decorations we place on top of our plinths may have changed in the proceeding years, the general use of them stylistically has not.

Plinths not only offer an excellent space on which to display an object, but the variety of materials, shapes and sizes of plinths mean they’re a uniquely versatile piece of furnishing that can be used in a number of ways.

Using a plinth in an empty space, unused corner or merely to break up the horizontal line of sight in a room can really breathe some much-needed life and add a jaw-dropping ‘wow’ factor to your home or office.

This under-appreciated item can add dimension, perspective and aesthetics to formal, living and entertaining areas especially where there are awkward spaces or empty corners that could do with something subtle yet effective.

Creatively mixing and matching your plinths within any given room will help you better understand their fashionable function and find the perfect spot in which to use it.

How To Use A Plinth

Mix And Match Different Heights

Pedestals can be aesthetic in and of themselves. A decorative plinth in the style of your home can be a piece of art without anything else adorning its flat top, or it can work as a subtle under-statement for whatever you choose to display on top of it.

Either way, make sure you mix and match with different heights when using a plinth.

If you have a coffee table, hallway table, chest of drawers, couches, lamps or any other piece of furniture, focus on using the plinth/pedestal to help break up monotonously continuous heights and add some variety and depth to the room.

Choose Stone For a Classic, Modern Look

Stone is an exceptionally popular choice of construction material both structurally and for design. Your plinth is no different. Opting for a stone plinth will infuse a classic, natural aesthetic with a modern and sleek visual. There are plenty of natural stones to choose from, so you’re guaranteed to find a stone that best suits your preferences.

Choose Wooden Plinths For A Natural Look

If you’d prefer to opt for an organic look, a wooden plinth can be an exceptional choice. Also available in different shares and styles, there’s more than enough variety of wooden pedestals to complement the rest of your home.

Solid Plinths vs Framed Plinths

Plinths come in different styles regardless of material.

While most are solid blocks of stone or carved wood, framed or multi-legged plinths are particularly popular for small and tight spaces where interior designers want to maximise the feeling of space where possible.

Make sure to consider not just the placement of your pedestal but also the size of the room into which you’re placing it.

Modern Plinth Ideas To Elevate Your Space

Classic Marble

A simple, classic marble plinth is guaranteed to elevate any space. Without risking any overwhelming sense of opulence and luxury, marble pedestals bring a much needed infusion of sophistication into a room.

White, Modern, And Simplistic

If you want to keep your decor minimalist and as modern as can be, don’t go past a plain white, unadorned plinth. It’ll add a sense of lightness to the room without any unnecessary clutter.

Limestone Plinth

Limestone or travertine plinths are excellent choices for people wanting an earthy tone. These wonderfully varied natural stones make for art pieces in and of themselves as plinths.

Greek Column

A classic Greek-style pedestal column oozes sophistication and class. If you’ve got a bust or statue to display, we recommend going down the Greek route.

Metal Frame Pedestal

Industrial-design enthusiasts simply have to go for the simple metal pedestal. Modern art and sculptures simply shine on an understanded metal plinth.

Three-Legged Wooden Plinth

Almost stool-like in aesthetic, there’s nothing cheap about a chic wooden sculpture plinth. They’re especially good for supporting plants and other organic decorations.

Sleek Black Column

A bold, black plinth makes for an elegantly sleek addition to your home. Perhaps counter-intuitively, a sleek black pedestal will do wonders in elevating the entirety of any chosen room.

Rounded Bamboo Frame

If you want to take the wooden plinth idea one step further, go for a rounded bamboo framed plinth. Instantly iconic in its design and endlessly versatile in its ability to complement a variety of other styles, there’s simply so much you can do with this simple plinth.

Multi-sided Marble Column

Love the idea of a marble plinth but want to add a little bit of something extra? Multi-sided (think hexagonal prisms) marble columns add visual depth to any space. Decorated with something on top or left bare, these stunning plinths add classical symmetry without risking monotony to your home.

Contact Euro Marble Today To Learn More

If you’d like to chat about more plinth-related ideas to elevate your space or you have a question about what sorts of natural stone and marble slabs we have available for you, make sure to contact our team today. We’re always ready to help you bring your dream design to life!

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