Mixing Siding With Other Materials For Unique Aesthetics

We talk a lot about siding, the various options, the various textures, the various colors, and so on, but people often forget that siding isn’t the only thing that can make up our home’s exterior.

Mixing siding with other materials will open up a whole range of options to you, allowing you to customize your home’s exterior aesthetics to surpass that of homes with purely siding.

This may be a new concept to many people, and to be fair, it’s not an easy one to wrap your head around.

It’s definitely easier to just go with purely siding, and you would still be able to get a stunning, beautiful home. But if you want to have a home exterior that’s uniquely yours, combining siding with other materials will allow you to customize your home even further and bring out your unique personality and style.

It’s not going to be easy, so you may want to consider hiring experienced siding contractors like Dallas Siding Pros to help you find the right material to mix with your siding and install them for you.

It will come at a higher price though, so if you’re on a budget, you will want to carry out the project on your own instead.

Again, mixing materials with siding isn’t easy to do or visualize, so here are some suggestions for you to use as a starting point.

1. Stone

Combining stone with siding is an excellent way to bring a little rustic, countryside charm into your home and add more depth and layers to your aesthetics.

Rather than just having regular vinyl or fiber cement siding like so many other American homes, adding just a little stone to your home, on the walls, at the bottom, or even at the top will distinguish your home from others’.

By adding a little rustic element to your plain average-looking home, it’ll feel more sophisticated. It’s kind of like a modern man dressed in modern clothes throughout but wearing a rustic, old-fashioned watch to add to his character and depth.

The exact amount of stone to use can vary. Some homes have just a little at the bottom while others can have as much as 50% of their exterior covered by stone.

For stone, the best siding options to pair with it are vinyl, fiber cement, stucco, and wood.

2. Brick

Bricks bring a timeless aesthetic. By combining brick with siding panels, you get a semi-modern home that at the same time has a sort of timeless appeal to it.

Bricks are usually best used with siding for either the bottom or to take up an entire wall. If used such that your siding takes up the bottom and brick is on top, it tends to look rather out-of-place.

Bricks also give off down-to-earth vibes as they can be used even in budget homes and despite their timeless look, they’re rather plain.

As such, another great way to use them with siding is for them to anchor your aesthetics by taking up the bottom around your exterior, so you’d have bricks surrounding the bottom half or so of your exterior and your siding on top.

3. Metal

When you’re combining metal with siding, you’re doing the opposite of what stone does. Rather than adding rustic, countryside charm, you’re adding a little ultra-modern element.

For regular homes, this will help give your exterior a little modern flair, sort of like adding a smart lock to a regular home.

Obviously, it won’t turn your home into a contemporary, modern one. However, this touch of modernity will subtly remind viewers of the contemporary vibe, making your overall aesthetics more modern.

It’s important to note though, that when incorporating metal, you don’t want it to overwhelm your current aesthetics.

A touch of modernity will elevate your aesthetics, but too much and your home will end up being neither here nor there, ruining the overall aesthetics. Visitors will be left wondering whether you’re trying to achieve the classic or modern look and just won’t be able to quite tell what you’re trying to do.

As such, you want to incorporate metal sparingly. Some great areas to use metal for are:

• Window frames
• Doors
• Railings
• Light fixtures

4. Living Walls

While not exactly a material, using plants for part of your walls is a great way to incorporate nature into your exterior while supporting the environment.

For those not sure what living walls are, they’re basically walls full of plants. These plants are held up by planters, modular panels, or some other system.

Living walls bring nature into your aesthetics, giving your exterior more life.

Living walls also bring a somewhat modern vibe, as living walls are not only a relatively modern feature, but the idea of environmental friendliness is also a modern concept that’s slowly gaining popularity.

The use of living walls in your home not only brings life to your exterior, but also shows that you keep up with the times.

Given their relative neutrality, as green plants can be placed just about anywhere and still seem to fit in, you can have a living wall no matter what siding type or color you have.

Living walls can fit right in even in ultra-modern homes or in traditional homes. Either way, plants are timeless.

Living walls also have the added effect of purifying air and keeping your home cool, giving you cleaner air to breathe and reducing your spending on cooling devices.

Final Tips

As you’re going about looking at different materials and trying to decide on the right one to pair with your siding, here are some final tips before we end off.

Whichever material you decide on, remember to consider how loud or muted it is visually.

More muted materials like brick can be used over larger areas and still not overwhelm your aesthetic. On the other hand, louder materials like metal can easily overwhelm your aesthetics if not controlled.

Finally, you can also combine more than one material with your siding as long as they can come together cohesively. For example, stone and brick usually work well together.

With that, good luck!