Partners

Bring your dream facade to life with James Hardie and Style Sourcebook

The façade of a home is often overlooked, however, it’s one of the most important elements for creating instant street appeal. Visualising and creating a design for your façade is just as important as designing your interior, and the two should complement each other to marry the exterior and interior spaces. The key to a well-designed home is knowing the style you like and the elements that achieve the look. For most people, it’s a challenge on where to begin!

Collating a mood board can help define and refine your vision for your home exterior. Mood boards should include images that showcase colours you like and textures and materials you want to use. Take into consideration each aspect of your façade including exterior walls, roof, front door, fence and accompanying furniture.

James Hardie has recently partnered with Style Sourcebook, a sophisticated mood board tool to connect renovators and new home builders to endless design possibilities, and has invited key design influencers to create mood boards with a focus on Modern Looks. Here you’ll see inspiring interpretations of modern design and how you can mix and match materials to create your own unique style.

Box Modern

This look emphasises the arrangement of different shaped boxes to create a contemporary home. “The box shape is a modern design element used in architecture to create clean lines and strip back design to its purest form,” says Maria Cerne, Interior Designer at Studio Black Interiors.

Box_Modern_-_Studio_Black Box Modern mood board designed by Studio Black Interiors.

The key elements in creating a box modern facade are to use the clean lines of vertical, horizontal, or even panel cladding to distinguish each box shape. James Hardie products, Axon™ Cladding and Hardie™ Fine Texture Cladding are ideal in this application. Paired with a palette of dark and light colours in tones of black, white and grey, creates a home that has a sophisticated and high-end feel.

Mid Century Modern

Taking inspiration from the 1930s to the 1970s, a main principle of this look is ‘form follows function’, meaning the purpose often comes before the design.

Mid_Century_Modern_-_Oleander_and_Finch Mid-Century Modern mood board by Oleander and Finch.

“There are a few sure ways to achieve a mid-century façade. Try a pop of bold colour on the front door and sticking to clean lines and geometric shapes just as you would with mid-century interiors. The earthy hues, Linea™ Weatherboards, timbers, stone and texture cladding used in this colour palette reflect the handcrafted organic nature of Mid-Century Modern design. Landscaping should be minimal. Think plants indigenous to your area, and a focus on marrying the interior with the exterior,” says Oleander and Finch, Interior Designer.

Mixed Cladding

This look is all about mixing, matching and layering different materials and styles of cladding to create an interesting and unique look with design variation.

“To achieve a coastal luxe mixed cladding look, I recommend using a blend of Linea™ Weatherboards, Matrix™ Cladding and Axon™ Cladding by James Hardie in whisper white. The softness of whisper white, offset by texture of stone and timber, plus a feature doorway complements James Hardie’s range and completes the final look,” says Ashley Madison, Creative Founder of AM Interior Studio.

AM_Interior_Design_Mixed_cladding Mixed Cladding mood board by AM Interior Studio.

Mixing Linea™ Weatherboards with its deep shadow lines with a vertical joint cladding such as Matrix Cladding™, Hardie™ Fine Texture Cladding or Stria™ Cladding will provide instant street appeal. To create a contemporary aesthetic, carefully place windows at the same height, and to complete your modern look, choose a monochrome colour palette but finish the last 10% of your colour palette with timber tones or an unexpected pop of colour.

Modern Coastal

Reflective of Australia’s beach shack history, the Modern Coastal look is a combination of crisp white weatherboards and contemporary clean lines with a luxury outdoor living vibe.

“When creating a Modern Coastal façade, start with the main exterior element – weatherboards as it covers the entirety of the home. It is important to mix textures such as weatherboards with timber, bricks, natural stone and tiles,” says Court + Riss, Co-Founders of Bone+Blanc Interior Design Studio.

Modern_Coastal_-_Bone___Blanc Modern Coastal mood board by Bone+Blanc Interior Design Studio

Key elements to create the Modern Coastal look include crisp white Linea™ Weatherboards, Stria™ Cladding and Axent™ Trim by James Hardie, a roof style that provides a simple designer look (flat, gable or skillion) and large, impressive windows placed carefully in the façade. Embrace the relaxed coastal styling with wide stacking doors, deck chairs, outdoor umbrellas, neutral and natural textures and lots of outdoor plants.

Scandi Barn

The popularity of modern farmhouses and barn-style homes in Australia have increased. The Scandi Barn look encourages simplicity, minimalism with a touch of Scandinavian influence.

The Scandi Barn look is characterised by its steeply pitched gable roof of 35 to 45 degrees, with corrugated steel sheets preferred over tiles as the material of choice. Axon™ Cladding and Linea™ Weatherboard by James Hardie provide the perfect façade, and in choosing a bold colour palette, you can bring your dream home to life. Interiors showcase the pure barn shape with vaulted ceilings with its open floor plan with skylights, light timber floors and the use of neutral and natural materials.

Scandi_Barn_-_The_Stables Scandi Barn mood board by The Stables.