Ask your architect first. He/she owes you a detailed explanation of the architecture of the house, why these materials work well together and which variations are best. That explanation should include examples that you can see in photos or in the field. Every individual aspect of the exterior design should be part of an overall design approach or concept rather than a collection of materials that you and/or your contractor like.

It really isn't possible to help you choose materials without knowing anything about the deign of the house or its environment. Do you have elevation drawings of the house, etc?

Thanks for the responses!

Mightyanvil, I know what you're saying about asking our architect, and I will definitely do that, but I have to say that I've realized over the past 8 months working with him that he and I don't always have the same taste, especially on the details...maybe it's my east coast aesthetic vs. his west coast aesthetic. My "eye" still tells me that clapboard should be smooth like the New England farmhouses I remember growing up around, but maybe it's different for Prairie/Craftsman style?

Also, he has not specified every single detail (such as colors). He's pretty much just spec'd materials and left individual color choices to us.

Yes, I do have elevations, but since our architect is "old school" they are hand drawn and are not on my computer. Maybe I can reduce and scan them. I'll see about that.

Ronnatilie, your house looks great. Thanks so much for the photo, which helps a lot!! Our house is similar in style with hip roofs and a mix of exterior siding. Our windows are white (we went with Andersen wood and vinyl clad so the exterior of the window, unfortunately, can't be painted), and I think this window color choice limits us in exterior siding colors. I don't care for the look of brownish earth tone colors in siding, up against a white window, so I'm thinking that we're going to stick to a dark charcoal grey on the stucco, some sort of lighter grey on the Hardiplank, and a stone with greys and other colors in it. I'd love to find a good photo of that combination or similar, but I'm having a hard time finding one.

Thanks again for the help. Please keep it coming!

Susan

Ours are Anderson as well. They have a handful of colors available for the exterior cladding. These are "terratone." We were able to get the hardipanel to match.

We weren't earth tone people either. You can't tell because of the rather uncommon North Carolina snow there, but the soil and rockers are a kind of mix between silver and clay color so we started with stone to match.

We got sample chips of the anderson from the builder and the stone yard built up a sample (4x4) piece of wall and after we selected a stucco color from chips they made some larger one foot square samples of the colors so we could see them together. You can see that if you look at www.ronnatalie.com and clikc on the house page. Gave us a big help.

Ronnatalie,

It's funny because we agonized about going with the Andersen terratone color vs. the white, and finally decided that the white would be more versatile even though we loved the terratone. Now, we're stuck trying to make the white work with the more earth tones of stucco and stone! Thanks again. I'll look at your website.

Susan

We fell in love w/the Prairie/Craftsman style while building. I hate that I can't access a photo from other angles of the house - there is quite a bit of "almondish" siding on the exterior of the second floor (wherever there isn't roofing.) We used native stone on the first floor, then switched to the same siding that you see on the front gables and the Mst Bath bump-out on the second floor gables on each end.

I'm familiar w/both the stucco and the Hardiplank cedar shake looks you're talking about, and I think all of those materials stay true to the style of your home.

BTW, and this is just a matter of personal style: in our area, the trend has become big McMansion/Tudor styles, with three and even four different materials on the exterior. IMO, there is a point at which too many colors/textures/etc. makes a house look as if the builder just threw as many trendy things at it as possible!

Of course, as you know, there are traditional exterior materials that give the look of a Craftsman home. Whatever you decide to use, it will be perfect if YOU love it.

Here is a link that might be useful: our home exterior w/rock and siding