The Wood Corbel - Installing Wooden Corbels and Shelf Brackets

You purchased an early 1900 Victorian home and you need to match some of the decorative items on the house. One of the pieces you need is a wood corbel. Where can you find a replacement that will exactly match the rest of the decorative brackets on the house?

You were lucky enough to find a vacant lot in an old established neighborhood that you want to live in. You are building a brand-new house in the same style as the rest of the homes on the street. You need to find some decorative touches to match the decor of the other homes. Where can you find these items?

Restoring the old.

A wood corbel is in style today. You can find many manufacturers of these decorative brackets. They advertise on the Internet and in specialty magazines like the Architect Digest. These manufacturers offer a variety of services, styles and materials. Some of them sell wooden hand carved brackets. Some offer machine turned wood pieces. Some use plastic and plaster and form the decorative accents into a variety of identical products. These special architectural features are sold at estate sales, swap meets, home improvement stores and surplus building material stores. With careful shopping you may find a bracket that will work. If not you can always have one handmade to match with existing ones on the home. If you have the unit handmade, they can even match the wood. They may be able to work from a photo and exact measurements or may require the bracket to be matched.

Your new home will be wonderful as soon as you put up the corbels and brackets to match the neighborhood. You have been shopping on the Internet and have found exactly what you want. They almost match your neighbors on both sides.  Now the house will look like it belongs and the neighbors will welcome you.  The manufacturer is shipping the products to you in time for the siding installers to complete your late 1890's look. These wonderful decorative items have been around since medieval times when they were used to support roofs and balconies. You just want to add the right gingerbread to the house to blend in. 

You did not stop with just these architectural features on the exterior. You continued inside where the fireplace mantel is supported by these wonderful accepts. You put wooden shelf brackets around the dining room just like they had in the 1800's. You even found old board that was aged to go on top. The kitchen cabinet looks like they were constructed from planks and have rustic pulls. All in all, you are very pleased with the results of the home you are creating. It is beginning to look like it has been here for over 100 years.

The many styles of the wood corbel make them easy to use in any setting. With the choices of size, design and materials, these are perfect to highlight whatever you want, inside or outside your home.