glnnj - Certainteed's stained fiber-cement products come in 6 shades: mahogany, cedar, redwood, maple, slate (which is the silver grey of deeply weathered wood) and emerald (which is a deep green). Go to the page I linked to in my post above and pick any of of the stain-finished products by clicking on its name (in blue). This will lead you to a new page with a small picture of that product on the right hand side. The small picture will have will have six tiny "color squares" beside it. Click on a square and the small picture will change to that color. Click on "view larger image" to see it in a larger size. Bear in mind that the colors you see on a computer are determined by the settings on your computer so the best you can get is a general idea of the colors. You'll want to see sample in real life to get a better idea of how the colors look. That said however, I found that Certainteed was extremely helpful. I could not find a distributor in my area and contacted Certainteed directly. I was wanting their pre-painted product and they sent me a sample board with sample of every color at no charge. Also, even tho there was no distributor in my local area, Certainteed indicated they could and would deliver any product I wanted to me. They don't restrict certain products/colors to certain areas of the country. Nichiha also comes in six standard stain colors and 2 special order stain colors. Standard colors are mahogany, maple, macadamia, charcoal gray, caramel, and emerald wheat. Special Order colors are redwood and weathered grey. Below is a link to the Nichiha site. There are two tiny triangle on the bottom left and right sides of the big picture on this page. Click on them to move thru a slide show of houses built using various nichiha siding - some painted and some stained. Hope this helps. Here is a link that might be useful: nichiha

I have seen plenty of mosaic artists do mosaics on plywood (exterior grade or marine), frame them prettily with wood moldings like a painting, and hang them using something like keyhole fittings, steel cleats, or flush-mount brackets. You could also screw them in place using heavy-duty wall anchors (I like the EZ-Ancor metal screw-in anchors sold at Home Depot) where the frame pieces would go, and glue on the frame pieces afterward. This approach has been suggested in many places for portability such as if you're renting; it was discussed on Apartment Therapy and I've seen it in several magazines and on an episode of Home To Go. There are plenty of mosaic artists doing works on plywood backings and having no problems with cracking - go see the folks over on the Stained Glass and Mosaic forum here on THS. It can be done and don't let the naysayers get you down.

With regard to the heat, very little of the cement board should really be exposed to any meaningful heat (only the part immediately bordering the firebox opening on the sides and a larger piece directly above the opening). In any event you will have to figure out how you are going to trim the edges that abut the opening. You could install the cement board so that it ends a few of inches away from the opening and fill in the rest with a high temperature mortar mix - typically made from a regular mortar mix with some "fire clay" mixed in. You can get this clay from most building supply stores and it will have directions on it for the optimal mix. You probably want to use this same mix to install the tile along the firebox edges in any event, as regular thinset or mortar tends to crumble after a while from the large temperature swings next to the firebox opening.

I have Hardie ColorPlus on my house and have had it for 10 years on one of my sheds. It looks great and is easy to istall if you are or hire a craftsman carpenter. All the installation requirements are on Hardies website. Make sure you read them so that you can make sure your installer is following the recommended procedures. It is very low maintenance. As with everything there is always something and with this product it is the caulking. You must recaulk before you ever have to repaint. I am at 7000 feet elevation and have more days than any other place in the US where the temperature is above and below freezing on the same day thus a good place to judge the performance of this product. Absolutely no delamination or fading of color in 10 years despite this harsh environment.