Dreaming Of Home — Stone And Cedar Shake Exteriors
I may not have a definite design plan for my condo living room yet, but when it comes to the house that we hope to buy this year, I have plans galore. I daydream about it all the time. I’ve even dreamed about it at night on a few occasions. And on some days, it consumes my mind.
Yesterday was one of those days.
I’ve decided to start posting some of my ideas and dreams, not only so that I can share them with you, but also so that I can just get my ideas down “on paper” for later reference. I’ll call these posts “Dreaming Of Home”.
So what was I dreaming of yesterday? The exterior of the house! Here’s what the house looks like right now…
The front porch area, and everything to the right of that, is vinyl siding. Everything to the left of the front porch is Austin stone, which is a pretty white-ish limestone.
The house is a diamond in the rough right now, but I have such dreams for it! And even though it might be a while after we move in (perhaps even a few years) before we can save up enough money to tackle the exterior, that won’t stop me from making plans right now. 🙂
Truth be told, I dream about the exterior probably more than I do the interior. That’s strange for me, seeing that decorating interiors is what I’m all about. But I think just the fact that I’ll actually finally have control over the exterior of my home has me feeling all giddy, especially after living in a condo for almost seven years, and having no control over the exterior of my current home.
But I find myself dreaming of Austin stone, cedar shake siding, and large front porches. My mind wanders off into questions of how much it would cost to have a new roof built, with more gables and steeper pitch. My mind just won’t stop.
So my dream, if I could do anything I want to it, would be to first, remove the vinyl siding. Then I would want to remove the Austin stone from the top portions of the house, and only keep it on the bottom portion. Then fill in the top areas with cedar shake siding. I found this gorgeous example yesterday from TR Building & Remodeling in New Canaan, Connecticut.
Isn’t that beautiful?! Of course, that’s a different kind of stone than what is on our future house. But I think the contrast between a white-ish Austin stone and the cedar shake siding would be stunning! (As an interesting side note…that isn’t a house in the picture. It’s a pretty impressive man cave and sports car showcase. Rich people and their toys! 😉 )
There’s just something about cedar shake siding that I absolutely love. Perhaps I love it so much because it’s not very common in this area. And I think it has such a timeless look.
I also really like this lighter color on this house from Joseph B. Lanza Design & Building in Massachusetts, but the darker color is more “me”, I think.
I don’t think a light color like that would lend enough contrast with the Austin stone to give it that “wow” factor that the top picture has.
Here’s a gorgeous front porch with cedar shakes. This house is by JG Development in Wisconsin. Oh, how I wish this was mine!
Cedar shakes also look fantastic with siding, as on this house by Emerick Architects in Oregon…
So many possibilities!! And I love them all!
But then, I always seem to have this picture tucked away in the back of my mind, which was featured a while back in At Home Arkansas (the link to the article doesn’t work anymore…sorry!!)…
And that seems very “me” as well. So really, who knows what I’ll end up with. Right now, I dream of cedar shake siding. But by the time we actually have the money saved up to work on the exterior, I might be leaning once again to something bright and fresh like the picture above…or I could be on to something else altogether different.
So what do you think about cedar shake siding? Is it common in your area? Do you have it on your home?
Addicted 2 Decorating is where I share my DIY and decorating journey as I remodel and decorate the 1948 fixer upper that my husband, Matt, and I bought in 2013. Matt has M.S. and is unable to do physical work, so I do the majority of the work on the house by myself. You can learn more about me here.
I love cedar shake siding! We have some of those homes on the water and they always catch my eyes. These are beautiful.
I definitely love the look- I’m not really sure what is my area- now I’ll have something new to obsess about. lol I love the look of the traditional Craftsman (2nd pic up from bottom) and I know I love all the built-ins and wood detail but I also know how small and boxed those are, but I do love the exterior of them. We’ve house hunted new and existing homes just enough to keep our excitement over moving and our butts in gear on the list of things to do. We hope to be on the market ourselves by the end of April (crossing fingers!) and a new home by Christmas (one can dream right?)
Okay, I’ve been salivating over your posts since I “found” your website in the last month or so, and today, I *have* to comment. First, I *love* your spirit of creativity, your vision, and your choice of colors. It’s clear that you (almost) find your joy more in the process than in the end result. Such an inspiration!
I grew up in the northeast, in a 200+ yr. old red colonial w/shake siding, and spent summers on the water, so I completely understand your love of shake siding. I’ve lived all over the country for nearly the last 20 years, so now I appreciate/love it more, since it’s not as common everywhere else.
My favorite type is a gray wash w/white trim, like my grandmother’s, and so much of what you’d see at Cape Cod. But there would also be brilliant hued hydrangea bushes and Adirondack chairs too, also favorites of mine!
My mother told me that originally, houses on the water had shakes on the sides that were facing the water, because it weathered well in the salty air. Hence, the deliberate weathered look….that works w/the weather. Typical of the New England motto, “Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without.”
I’m originally from Vancouver Island, where cedar shakes are eeeeeeverywhere. I even had my wedding photos taken in my parents backyard with their cedar shake sided shed in the background.
Around here in Ontario, you almost never see them.
Oh man, our neighbor has cedar shake and it’s gorgeous. But what I really really really love is that last cedar shake example you show up there with the painted siding. I adore that!!
I love Austin limestone. When I lived in Austin I had a red brick house but I always wished it was the limestone. It would be beautiful with stained or sealed cedar shakes.
We put cedar shake siding on a house in Virginia. We have come to regret it because the sun has just beaten it to death. It should be maintained so it doesn’t dry out. Our shakes shrunk, (is that a word???). Anyway, it’s gorgeous, but it isn’t maintenance free.
I LOVE your little home! Particularly that tree. It feels like it could be just down the street from where my grandparents lived for so many years (on Castlewood Drive in south Austin).
Anyway, back to your question I’m glad you are doing your research upfront. Three things to look into – home insurance, spiders (shudder!), and maintenance. I’m not certain about when it is applied as a siding, but I know that as a roofing material it would have raised our homeowner’s insurance. My friend in Wichita, Kansas DID have it as a roofing material and she had an infestation of brown recluse spiders. According to her exterminator the brown recluse LOVES the cedar shingles (again, this might just be on a roof, or just up north, I don’t know). The last thing to look at is how often does it need to be resealed or restained to look like that first picture. I agree that the high contrast would look awesome, but I’m wondering how long it would stay that beautiful red-brown color. You might look into wood alternatives as well. I know that Hardiboard makes some lovely fiber cement siding that looks like wood, but lasts like cement, it is possible that they make shakes as well.
Good luck, I’m a little envious of the chance to make your home yours!
There are no cedar shake siding homes in our little town but we’ve seen many of them in travels through Wisconsin, popular in lake areas. They always remind me of New England and I love the look. That mancave was amazing with the stone and I think your new home would look great with a darker color shake on it. Isn’t it great to dream and plan ahead? We’ve lived here for 10+ years and it still needs a lot of work. Part of the fun is the dreaming and planning for when the actual remodel ($$$) time comes. I also often dream about a home on a lakefront with a wall of windows to watch the lake, wildlife etc. It’s good to know that others do this also.
Love the look of cedar shakes, we have installed “fishscale” type in our gables on our 100 year old Victorian Farmhouse in Texas, they look great!
LOVE IT! The house I grew up in had cedar shake 🙂
I love cedar shake siding. I don’t see it much in my area but when I do, it always looks so attractive. I also like fishtail siding. Anything that gives a little more character to the architecture is great, including stone. I really like it when a home has stone and it is taken into the garden as hard scape for a wall or border. The continuation of the look and texture is awesome! From looking at the wonderful, creative things you’ve done in your condo, I can only imagine that whatever style home you purchase, it will be one of a kind and outstanding! Looking forward to reading how this adventure continues! Hugs, Leena
Oh the dreams…gorgeous. I love cedar shake siding and would love it on my home. There are a few in our area, and a few with stone, the roundish natural stone you see in ‘fencing’ of old. Now that is beautiful. 🙂
Kristi, we have some sort of cedar shake siding on the top floor of our cabin with wood on the bottom. We had it stained last year dark, almost black! The weather is hard on our homes here so the dark color is perfect now. With the home {cabin} stained top and bottom the same color the shingles are more of a textural difference.
I don’t read your blog everyday alas. I am so happy you got your dream house and are now on to dreaming more. I was routing for you. You are an inspiration.
CHEERS
They are all really, really pretty and have nothing to do with the huge grey blocks that I was used to when living in Athens.
I love, absolutely love cedar shake siding. I’ve always dreamed of having it on a house, but never got the opportunity. I’ve never seen it where I live now..Ireland. Mostly the houses here are stone, so you don’t see many wooden sidings.
I think it’ll look awesome on your new house!!
The cute little home is a Tumbleweed Tiny home. Her blog is originally from here http://littlehouselr.blogspot.com/2012/01/whats-happening-on-lee-avenue.html
I love that little house too. She did list the colors she used on one of the comment pages incase you are interested.