DIY Driveway Entrance Columns With Stone Veneer
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Today I am sharing our DIY driveway entrance columns featuring Airstone veneer. Driveway pillars add significant charm and curb appeal to any home and commonly feature solar powered lights or attached wrought iron gates. I am going to show you how we built 2 stone driveway columns in a weekend making this a great home improvement project!
These eye-catching stone pillars for a driveway entrance offer a welcoming feel when people arrive and will add visual interest to any property. Read on for our step-by-step guide on how to create stunning driveway entrance supports that won’t break the bank!
FAQs about Driveway Columns
DIY Driveway Entrance Pillars
What is a driveway pillar?
A driveway pillar is a column usually at the beginning of a driveway entrance that may or may not have a fence or gate attached. The columns create a visual start point for a driveway. The pillars also add curb appeal and visual interest to a yard. Driveway entrance columns typically are made from stone or brick driveway entrance pillars are also popular.
Here is our front yard and driveway before we built the stone columns.
It was a family affair making these columns and working with Airstone as my dad, son, Jim and I worked together to get the project done. It was fun!
Driveway Entrance Stone Columns
We decided to add two columns set off the driveway about a foot (so the plow has space to clear the driveway) to enhance our entrance. This project took one weekend. A day to construct the columns and a day to add the Airstone product.
How tall should a driveway column be?
The size of your columns is personal preference but typically driveway columns are between 3 and 4 feet high.
Our DIY columns are 42 x 28 x 28.
The Airstone Veneer color we used was called (Spring Creek buy here) which is a variety of neutral gray and light brown undertones.
Stone Column Project Supplies Needed:
4 boxes Airstone Primary Wall Stone – Spring Creek color blend (buy here)
4 boxes Airstone Corner/Finished End Stone – Spring Creek color blend (buy here)
Pressure treated 2×4’s (for the frame)
3″ exterior screws (for the frame)
Durock Cement board (for the walls)
Durock screws (to fasten the cement board to the frame)
6 large tubes (28 ounces) Loctite PL Premium Construction Adhesive (to fasten the Airstone Veneer to cement board walls)
12 bags of Quikrete (optional cement base)
3″ granite 30 x 30 stone cap (for the top of column)
4″ Diamond blade grinder (to cut the stones)
Once the columns were framed, we screwed the cement board to the frame to create the walls and placed the finished column on the cement base.
The 30×30 cement base was a last minute decision. We originally intended to place the columns directly on top of the lawn. I think the cement base adds a custom look and gives the columns stability (screw the column to the dried cement).
The stone is very easy to apply and cut. The directions are self explanatory and once we got organized with the flat and corner pieces, the process moved quickly.
The columns are fairly large so it took two of us about 3 hours to complete each column.
How to cut Airstone flat stones and corners
Apply Stone Tip:
- Lay out your flat stones and corners separately so you can see what you have to work with. You can create any kind of design you want but we found it easiest to create a random pattern.
- We used Loctite PL Premium Construction Adhesive to adhere the stone.
You can either apply the adhesive directly to the stone or run long strips along the cement board.
Driveway Entrance Ideas
The stone cap (top piece of column) is a 3″ thick granite 30 x 30 piece that we purchased from a local Landscaping supply store.
Here are the finished Airstone Spring Creek driveway entrance columns sporting pretty Christmas wreaths.
Here is the driveway during the Fall before the columns.
The Spring Creek stone features a variety of neutral colors and coordinates perfectly with the natural gray retaining wall making these diy driveway pillars blend right in!
Our house number is difficult to see from the driveway so in the Spring we will purchase an address plaque for the center of one of the columns and may add lights for driveway columns. We are also going to add a couple flower beds (see diy planter bowls on top of columns) with smaller scaled shrubs as well in the Spring which will complete the look.
Meet Jessica
What started as a hobby, Jessica’s blog now has millions of people visit yearly and while many of the projects and posts look and sound perfect, life hasn’t always been easy. Read Jessica’s story and how overcoming death, divorce and dementia was one of her biggest life lessons to date.
Great looking entrance columns. Good lookin’ family !
very pretty
Very nicely done! They add a lot of curb appeal and complement the retaining wall and the house.
Thank you Marie!
I’m wondering how the wreaths are attached to the column. Looks nice.
we used crafting wire and wrapped around the entire column and attached to the wreath in the front.
Is this strong enough to support a gate?
Ours is definitely strong enough because we created a cement foundation/slab for the column to sit on. It will depend on how you construct your base if it’s strong enough.
Can you give me an example of how much you spent on building them with this method my fabricator is wanting $500 each. So I was thinking of doing it myself.
We built them ourselves (the wood frame underneath and then applied the stones ourselves). I would price out the materials to build the wood frame, cost of cement board and stone. Then factor in the labor (it took us an entire weekend (about 16 hours) to do. $500 each (if that includes materials) doesn’t seem like a lot.
Did you only use one cement board that allowed for both columns walls?
We had 3 cement board pieces b/c of the excess but you could probably get away with 2 if you wanted to “piece” together smaller pieces.
How wide and tall are these columns?
Our DIY columns are 42 x 28 x 28.