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How to Mix-and-Match Fiber Cement Panel Sizes for a Modern Look

Custom home building provides a blank canvas for homeowners and their builders to make their mark. Picking the right exterior siding options is a chance to display your design aesthetic — and you don’t want your modern home to fall into the trap of looking like a cookie-cutter copy of every other new build in the area. 

Using fiber cement siding panels makes it easy to take a home from “bland” to “breathtaking” and offers flexible options to bring a high-end design vision to life. From texture mixing to playing with panel sizes, fiber cement siding provides multiple ways to stand out. 

Highlight Daring Details

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This modern Missouri home highlights how varying fiber cement board panel sizes can emphasize design details. The use of the wider planks of Cedar VintageWood panels pays homage to traditional home design while adding warmth that contrasts with the bold statement windows. 

The transition to narrower horizontal reveals on the adjoining panels highlights the offset design of the house, drawing attention to its striking silhouette and creating a bridge to the smooth white panels that complete this modern design. Despite the use of three panel sizes and multiple textures, each detail of the house stands out without overwhelming the overall design.

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Add Inspired Touches

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Charleston may be known for its old-fashioned charm, but as this home shows, that doesn’t mean you have to give up your modern taste. By incorporating a nod to the past, you can help blend a modern home into its surroundings. 

The majority of this home’s exterior is finished in a mix of Nichiha’s ArchitecturalBlock and EmpireBlock, giving it a modern industrial look. The smooth, wide-format panels create the impression of unbroken color and clean modern lines. 

Capping the house with more traditional wood finish paneling adds warmth and texture, while simultaneously maintaining the overall modern feel thanks to its vertical lines. The outcome is a home that both stands out from and complements its waterfront neighbors. 

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Create Contrasts

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When exploring how to combine different fiber cement panel sizes, don’t shy away from creating striking contrasts. As you can see in this home, the combination of industrial grey, bold black and warm wood panels creates a cohesive look that complements its setting while retaining its modern flair. The larger panels add a sense of spaciousness while the narrower wood panels bring in a touch of natural comfort.  

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The back of this home doesn’t disappoint either. By positioning vertical wood panels closely with horizontal block panels, their distinctive designs work together to expertly highlight beautiful spaces within. Moreover, the design adds a sense of height to the lower level, keeping the home feeling spacious and airy.

Break Up Broad Expanses

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A larger home means a bigger canvas to work with — but you also run the risk of ending up with broad expanses of siding that leave the eye wondering where to look.

Take this Georgia home for example. It has been designed to combat boredom, playing with boxy geometric shapes as well as mixing and matching color and panel sizes to create a dramatic finish that captures the eye. Note the playful staggering of modern wall panels, which breaks up the clean straight lines of the house, once again adding a point of visual interest. 

While a larger home can lead to plenty of maintenance, homeowners who choose fiber cement exterior siding can keep this off their list of weekend chores. Fiber cement is one of the lowest maintenance materials on the market, requiring only minor annual upkeep with easily available household materials. 

Make Your Mark 

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Scouring lookbooks, Pinterest, and Houzz is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to gathering inspiration and designing a dream home. In addition to this, make sure to spend time reflecting on what really speaks to you and the specific effect you’re hoping to create. 

Perhaps think about your local area, the surrounding environment, or your style influences in order to create a more personalized design. We recommend working with your architect and contractors to draw up a design that matches your ambition. 

And while renovating or building a custom home is not a cheap undertaking, choosing to use fiber cement can help you achieve the high-end look you dream of ... without breaking your budget. Compared to premium-priced traditional materials such as wood, fiber cement is an affordable and sustainable material — one that is much less prone to damage due to weather or pests. 

Find Your Modern Mood

From minimalistic to colorful, let our Modern Homes Look Book be the first stop on your journey. Spark your creativity with our stunning examples of modern done right. 

Inspired?

Dreaming of a sleek modern home? Discover more options for your design with Nichiha’s range of residential exterior siding lines.  

Categories: Design
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