Your home’s exterior influences the house’s curb appeal, structural integrity, and environmental protection. Choosing the right exterior for your house can transform your home in many ways. One of the most popular exterior designs that offers aesthetic and functional benefits is siding. Explore some different types of siding styles and patterns here to enhance your home’s exterior.
Traditional Horizontal Slats
Simple Clapboards
Clapboards are the simplest and most common siding design. This style consists of long, narrow planks installed horizontally and overlapping on one edge. Clapboards create an aesthetic tiered effect that adds close-up textural detail while also looking smooth and simple from a distance.
Dutch Lap
Dutch lap is another common siding style. Unlike clapboards, dutch laps look layered without the need to overlap slats. Dutch lap siding panels feature a concaved surface and notched bottoms, allowing the slats to easily connect to one another without leaving gaps. This more modern take on traditional siding offers lots of weather-resistance, as its sloped design doesn’t let water or snow accumulate, preventing water damage and mold growth.
Cottage Shingles
Classic
Consisting of more pieces and layers, shingle siding gives a house additional textural detail. Shingles provide a cottage-like aesthetic and harkens back to 19th-century American architectural designs. Classic shingles consist of multiple squares of wood or vinyl layered in an offset, horizontal layout.
Shakes
Shakes add a lot of characteristic charm to a home’s design. Their ribbed surfaces break up the look of neat, straight lines with shadowing, and they add abundant textures. The textured surface and shadows of shakes also exude a worn look, giving a home even more cozy features.
Scalloped
Scallop siding offers curved edges and a unique appearance. It’s a popular aesthetic of Queen Anne and colonial New England architecture. Scalloped shingles encapsulate multiple whimsical concepts, from dragon and mermaid scales to dollhouses and Candyland. Opting for scallops will give your home a light, airy, softened appearance.
Textured Siding
Stucco
Stucco is a cement-based mix that’s rich in texture. Many pieces of Spanish architecture include stucco on their indoor and outdoor walls for its unique aesthetic appeal. Stucco also offers a lot of practical qualities, such as high durability, water-shedding, and fire resistance.
Log Siding
Mimicking the shape and look of logs, log siding lets you easily incorporate nature into your home’s design, curating a down-to-earth exterior aesthetic. Wood, especially reclaimed lumber, overflows with textured characteristics, from grain lines to knots. Choosing barnwood over vinyl for siding offers many benefits that will transform your house visually and functionally. Maximizing wood siding’s natural textures, log siding gives you a log-cabin aesthetic that’s cozy and appealing.
You can transform and modernize your home with various exterior upgrades—one of them being different types of siding styles and patterns. Switch up your home’s exterior with some siding and enjoy a functional and aesthetic upgrade.