I’m building myself a new barn and I’m planning cornice returns on the gable ends. I’m wondering what the rule of thumb is for the length of the return vs. the width of the building or whatever it may be based on. This building is 36′ x 52′ w/ 24″ overhangs all around. 10/12 roof. Gable ends are the 36′.
Any help is appreciated!
Thanks!
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Replies
These come to us from the Greek Revival styule so unless you are incorporating that in the whole, the rules won't mean much, and they are often ignored...
But the idea is that this all springs from the old Greek Temple setup, where you had columns with a beam ( entablature) spanning them. The beam became decorated in various ways thru history.
So in our houses now, The cornerboard represents the column. Tiny narrow cornerboards are inappropriate for the pure-minded. Most Greek Rev has a small roof overhang, so larger overhangs, while advantageopus from the practical POV are disproportionate overall for this.
Anyway - When you look at the gable end of the house, the roof OH and this return represents the capital on a column. Th edimensionof the return a=back onto the wall is equal to the OH of the roof, so it balances on the cornerpost (cornerboard trim) If you have an 8"OH, and a ten inch cornerboard, the return proceeds eight inches further back, for a 28" total return
I have seen something with no cornerboards that looks decent. That is that a large frieze along the front returns around the end say about 10-12" to appear as a projecting beam end, then the return above it is sized to balance over that emulated end.
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That is what I meant on the frieze return, but I would extend further back over it. Here are a few shots demonstrating the basicsIn the muddy rudder shots, see where the rules were done away with and still looks good. The return is perfectly balanced over the corner with no cornerboard and just a hint of a freize return.In palladian the return is with a wide overhang and does seem a bit heavy, but still balances.Zerby house is one I saved from a member here. It is a classic Greek style showing what I was explaining at the first.Cornice returns is another showing the balanced approach with false beam end simulated by freize and no cornerbd in shingle style
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I try and balance them visually. I typically use a 1/3 "rule".
If your roof/soffet extends 24" (2 feet) beyond sidewall horizontally, I would likely run the cornice back about one foot. 1/3 of the overall 3 feet being the cornice return.
Am I making sense?
J. D. Reynolds
Home Improvements
That would actually be unbalanced, being overweighted to the outside overhang.but when you have such a large overhang, it is hard to deal with. The return can end up too large to make it balance.But IMO, The minimum return normal would be equal to the OH from the very outside corner. See photos IO attached above
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