Decorating your home’s exterior doesn’t have to be a massive undertaking. In fact, when you’re trying to elevate your home’s curb appeal, less is more. That’s why simple yet sophisticated accents like decorative gable trusses add eye-catching appeal with minimal effort and expense.
Because gable accents aren’t essential to your home’s structural integrity, they offer a lot of flexibility to how you can add to your exterior design no matter the structure or age of your home. Before we discuss the intricacies of gable accents and how they’re used, let’s take a moment to familiarize ourselves with the terminology surrounding this architectural element.
What Is a Gable?
A gable is the triangular portion of the roof, located in the plane between two intersecting roof pitches. This area affords design opportunities, including gable accessories, wood cladding and siding. It’s also a place that a homeowner can easily update at any point if the original builder or designer neglected to take it into account.
What is a Gable Truss?
You might also hear the term “gable truss,” which has a slightly different meaning than a decorative gable truss. A gable truss is a structural component of a roof that sometimes doubles as a design element on the interior or exterior of a home. It is a common aesthetic in the continental european “half-timbered” structures.
Generally, trusses are rigid, wooden structures with multiple pieces that configure into one component to support a greater load, most often bridges and roofs. When used in roofing, they typically are found as the “end-caps” of the roof, and the space formed within them perpendicularly is the gable.
Most modern homes contain trusses, but they aren’t always used as a visible element. Some homes, such as timber-framed homes, use roof trusses that provide the support structure of the roof and overall building, and often double as an interior aesthetic. Instead of attics, these homes are open on the inside with the great beams forming the visible trusses, allowing larger room volume and taller ceilings.
Hearkening back to the half-timbered home exteriors, many of today’s gable accents are designed to mimic the look of this old-world gable truss style but are applied to the exterior as an aesthetic accent. Wherever they’re applied, architects throughout generations have created an appealing and unique style through the use of these varied geometric patterns.
The Difference Between a Gable Truss and Decorative Gable Truss
As we mentioned above, gable trusses are a structural component that supports the weight of a roof. Roof trusses come in many different styles and types, including the king post truss, queen post truss, fink truss, attic truss, scissor truss and gable truss.
In contrast, decorative gable trusses are a modern design element that adds flair and intrigue to a home’s exterior design. They aren’t integral to the structural integrity of a home. Instead, they serve an aesthetic purpose that accentuates a specific architectural style.
Decorative gable trusses are sometimes designed to mimic a similar shape of interior roof trusses. Both elements follow the same angular shape of the roof’s pitch, but the primary differences between them is their function and where they are placed on the home.
3 Decorative Gable Ideas to Elevate a Home Exterior
There are many different ways to add value to your home’s exterior. You can install elegant window trim, custom doors, sleek framing and premium-style siding. However, one of the simplest and most affordable ways to add a touch of style to your exterior design is to install a decorative gable accent.
If you’re unfamiliar with how gable accents can add instant charm to a home’s facade, here are three decorative gable accent ideas inspired by gable trusses.
1. Victorian-Inspired Gable Decoration
This gable accent has intricate beauty and adds a touch of ornate elegance that ties together the architectural components of the home. The matching white trim and white gable accent maintain continuity across the entire exterior design.
2. Craftsman-Style Gable Accents
This Craftsman-style home uses a similar but broad-pitched gable accent, which creates a balanced focal point above the front door. Wrapped porch columns and white brackets also contribute to a cohesive craftsman look.
3. Gingerbread Decorative Gable Truss
Defined as ornately decorative, gingerbread gable accents are in a class all their own. They are intricately designed with scrollwork and add a high level of detail attributed to this architectural style. This example is just a tiny glimpse of the many options available to accentuate the style of your gables by choosing this as a design element.
Elevate Your Home Exterior with Beautiful Gable Accents
If you’re ready to elevate the look of your home, an expert fabricator can help you get started with your project. Here at PVC Millwork, we specialize in creating decorative gable decorations built to last a lifetime. They are also tailor-fit to complement any home to ensure they match the home’s style effortlessly.
All of our products are made of superior-quality PVC, offering homeowners many benefits compared to other material alternatives. These benefits include:
- Increased durability
- UV- and moisture resistance
- Insect resistance
- Flame retardance
- No required painting or staining
- Low maintenance
- Affordable visual impact
- Unlimited customization
If you’re interested in finding the ideal gable accents for your home, take a look at our extensive in-stock collections. If you can’t find that perfect one, the good news is that we do tons of custom work as well. If you have an inspirational photo found somewhere outside our site, we’d love to take a look and try to recreate it!
Feel free to contact us with any questions or if you want more information regarding our custom fabrication.
