Being a siding contractor in Madison, and throughout Dane county, we are often the first to notice new trends when it comes to exterior home design and renovation.
One recent trend — using mixed materials on the outside of a home — is still going strong, so we wanted to share a handful of ways you could consider mixing materials on your own home, if this is something you have interest in.
Some of the overall benefits of using mixed materials include:
- The ability to highlight different areas of the exterior of your home
- The addition of dimension and character
- Tons of curb appeal and enjoyment
- You can mix-and-match many materials including: wood, metal, stone, fiber cement, & brick for a beautifully varied aesthetic
- Working with a good design team (like the one at Legacy Exteriors) can help determine where to use more expensive materials, as well as where to use more durable materials — to ensure longevity, as well as remain budget conscious
Let’s dive into six different ways that you can incorporate mixed materials into the exterior aesthetic of your home …
1. A TRADITIONAL APPROACH
Want to utilize mixed materials for more pop, texture or color, but don’t want to redesign the entire exterior of your home? Then a traditional approach might be the right choice. A traditional approach is attained by implementing a small amount of mixed materials, while leaving most of the existing exterior intact. For instance, if you have vinyl siding that’s in good shape, you can add some highlights — like brick or stone trim around doorways, columns or the base of your home. These accents have a way of creating extra dimension and texture that lifts the aesthetic of the entire exterior of your home.
2. CREATE AN INDUSTRIAL AESTHETIC
An industrial aesthetic is something some homeowners get excited about. Mixed materials are a great way to create an industrial look on a home, specifically the combination of materials like wood, steel and brick in tandem. This type of mixing complements the look of a more contemporary design aesthetic, giving your home a beautiful modern look. Like any design, this contemporary design can be more understated, or more overt depending on what you’re looking for. A good example of well known industrial homes can be found in the designs of Frank Lloyd Wright and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Of course, with these designers, the actual structure of the homes they built also had a modern, minimalist feel — but that’s not a necessity for your home to be updated with a modern exterior look.
3. TERRIFIC TEXTURE
Textures, whether subtle or pronounced, can add a lot of aesthetic appeal to the exterior of your home. Brick, stone and LP Smartside are three excellent ways to add varying degrees of texture to your home. Mixing and matching some of these creates a diversity of texture that can be both beautiful and interesting. Texture can be added on a large scale, which is especially beneficial if you are planning on replacing the siding on your entire home, or can be incorporated in a more traditional way (as explained above) as accents in just the right places.
4. WONDERFUL WOOD
For homes that have an industrial or contemporary external aesthetic, wood accents are a great way to add warmth to the exterior design. This is traditionally implemented around doors and windows. It’s important to consider that wood can be painted, although it looks fantastic stained, which brings out the beauty of the natural look of wood. Keep in mind that wood requires more maintenance than LP Smartside or other composite materials, so it’s important to talk with your siding contractor about other options if maintenance isn’t your thing.
5. MIXED MATERIALS & MIXED AESTHETIC
This type of design gets a little more complicated, as mixing traditional and rustic styles can look great together, or like a jumbled mess if your siding contractor doesn’t have a good design sense. This is why you’ll want to work with a siding contractor that has at least one dedicated designer on their team — so you can get the very best combination of mixed materials and mixed aesthetic for a cohesive look that adds curb appeal and improves your home’s worth. One example of this mixed aesthetic is the look of traditional brick combined with a rustic look (IE: a cabin). Another example is to combine brick, rustic stone, stucco and timber. If it’s well designed, you’ll be amazed at how your home exterior looks!
6. COMPLEMENTARY COLOR COMBINATIONS
Ok, so we’ve talked a lot about texture, and materials, and there’s one more facet of design we’d like to touch upon — and that’s color.
One of the major ways you can cohesively bring together mixed materials is with color. In many cases, choosing the color of your siding first is a key element, as it covers most of your home. Next up, start looking at the color of the mixed materials you’re incorporating. For instance, choosing stone, brick or LP Smartside trim that’s a few shades lighter or darker than the siding can create a nice combo. Adding more contrast between light and dark is something that some homeowners prefer, as well. Adding this additional contrast to already complementary colors creates a very dramatic aesthetic.
The process of choosing and designing mixed materials can be really fun — especially if you are working with a siding contractor in the Madison WI area who is willing to take the time to understand exactly what you’re looking for.
If you’re ready to chat about updating the exterior of your home with mixed materials, or simply have questions, feel free to get in touch with us anytime. We’d be happy to speak with you!
