From the Outside In
Well thought-out cladding and roofing choices will set the tone for the design style of your home.
As the saying goes, you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover - but when it comes to the architectural aesthetic of your home, the exterior cladding and roofing are a pretty clear indicator of the design style that lies beyond the front door. When chosen carefully, these materials can provide insight and visual clues about the look and feel of the house in its entirety, as well as ensuring cohesion between the interior and exterior of the home.
Harmonious Design
If your interiors use a lot of natural materials, such as timber floorboards and stone bench tops, using similar materials externally can help make a home feel cohesive. This doesn’t mean the entire home needs to be clad in wood or stone, though. Set against a predominantly steel-clad house, contrasting sections of timber or schist, for example, can make a statement and provide a sense of what to expect inside, without being too costly or appearing heavy. In the case of timbers such as cedar, this also means less maintenance. Restaining a small section of wall is not nearly as difficult as an entire house!
Pops of Colour
While many homeowners go for neutrals as a safe bet, there are ways to inject colour into your home without risking a neighbourhood feud. With a backdrop of soft grey or deep black cladding, a bright primary coloured door can look amazing and give the home a lift, while also providing a clue as to the personality of the homeowner. This colour can then be brought into the interiors and perhaps used for a kitchen splashback or accent colour in the living room.
Being Bold
If you truly can’t get excited about a neutral palette, choose a colour that works with the architecture style of the house. For example, COLORSTEEL® Pioneer Red with a corrugated profile can look amazing on a modern, barn-like home, bringing about ideas of classic rural structures. Some styles of bungalow and villa also look great in soft blues or greens. Looking to the landscape or streetscape is another surefire way to ensure you choose a colour that won’t stick out to the point of seeming offensive. A warm green, like COLORSTEEL® Mist Green, will feel right at home in a bush-clad site, and a deep blue will look lovely close to the sea.
Roofing Tones
When it comes to roofing, a contemporary look can be achieved through choosing to use the same colour as the cladding, easy to do if you’re using COLORSTEEL®. This blurs the boundaries between the roof and the walls, giving the impression of the home as an architectural object. For a more classic look, choose a tone that fits well and is at least a shade or two darker than the cladding. A light roof on a darkly coloured house can have the effect of making it appear bottom heavy. The roofing colour might be the same tone as your window frames, providing that sense of cohesion across your colour palette.
Profile Paints a Picture
If you’re using COLORSTEEL® for your cladding or roofing, the profile you choose can make an impact on the look and feel of the home. COLORSTEEL® comes in corrugated, tray or trapezoid profiles and is usually used vertically to ensure water runs off the metal. Your interior design style as well as the architecture of the home may factor into your choice of profile. If you’re building more of a classic kiwi home or something with rural finesse, you might like to choose corrugated metal, while a tray profile gives a sleek aesthetic that is often used for highly contemporary houses. A trapezoidal profile falls somewhere in between, hinting to a modern touch that will often be echoed indoors.
Check Your Zone
Some areas have zoning regulations around what colours and finishes can be used externally on a home, usually to preserve the natural landscape or streetscape of the area but also sometimes for safety reasons, such as to prevent glare if your home is close to a flight path. Make sure you know these before making your choice.
Design in Colour?
Make your design dreams a reality. Order your free COLORSTEEL® samples and see your selections come to life from your screen, straight into your home. Inspiringly Easy.