Stone Home Exteriors: Consider Slate for a Beautiful Home
Stone exteriors offer plenty of different options for your home ranging from traditional rustic to purely modern designs. You can mix and match different materials to find the perfect balance of beauty and personality.
At first, stone might seem like a viable option only thanks to its durability and easy maintenance. But stone offers both visual and structural benefits as well as a wide variety of design options.
Stone might appear to be the perfect material for simple, solid structures but it can actually create a very welcoming entrance for your home. Depending on the variety you use, your home exterior can transmit more or less warmth. From a design perspective, the characteristics of stone varieties make all the difference.
Tips for your exterior design
If you’re browsing and analyzing your options to find the perfect stone for your home, remember to consider your overall home structure first. In addition, you also have to think about what kind of home exterior you want.
- Somber
- Simple
- Elegant
- Modern
- Innovative
- High contrasts
- Mixed
Some designs call for a natural stone while others require specially treated stone to create a very compact texture; in other words, a minimally porous home exterior, free of spaces in between pieces or cracks. The more compact the stone material, the more durable it will be.
Types of stone finishes
- Polished
- Honed
- Flamed
- Rustic
The effort that goes into working and treating stone make designs that use them very successful. They ensure a quality home exterior.
You can also base your decision on the price. Treated stones (cutting, slabbing and sizing) and those that are finished are sometimes considerably more expensive than more rustic options.
Slate for home exteriors
Slate is a very popular material for home exteriors, especially for the walls. These days, it’s also considered to be a very sustainable material as well, making it a favorite for eco-friendly architecture.
Slate exteriors offer a nice homogeneous appearance and can also be very versatile in designs that mix materials such as wood, cement, iron, steel and more.
White designs
On city outskirts or in rural areas in countries like Belgium, Germany, England, Scotland, Ireland, and others, homes are beautifully bright and enchanting with their white-painted exteriors.
For the most part, rustic stone composes these homes and have an embossed texture and might have dark slate details for stronger contrast.
Light, modern design
Light stone exteriors are very common in modern designs. They have a clean look with straight lines, compact blocks, square or rectangular windows free of bars and details.
Another great idea is using different materials on the same building. For example, you can set the front face of your home in stone while using cement for the sides.
Designs that spotlight a special element
Instead of using stone for their entire house, some people use it to highlight a certain element such as their front door. You can use stone that has a similar or identical color as the element you want to showcase to create coherency.
Mysterious design
Stone home exteriors are perfect for protecting homes from nosy onlookers. Even if you don’t have a wall around your home, having a solid material for your exteriors can give privacy and can also create blind spots.
A mysterious, safe-house design almost brings us back to forts of the past. This kind of home exterior won’t only work for ranch-style homes, but it can also provide privacy for multi-floor homes as well.