Help needed with trim and gables on front of home!

last year

last modified: last year

My husband and I purchased a foreclosure that the foreclosure company had put some lipstick on, prior to putting it on the market. They painted the whole exterior, but just caulked over rot, holes, etc. When bought, we initially thought just some of the siding needed to be repaired, but over the course of the first yr it became apparent that full replacement was needed. We had the windows replaced with white vinyl right away, but have been slowly having the whole home resided, one side at a time (easier on finances), using Alside steel siding (my husband's choice of material). All but the front has been resided at this point. We chose a steel siding color (Teakwood) that was VERY close the color the bank chose to paint the house, so it hasn't been as obvious that we have been doing it one side at a time. If you look at the picture that includes the garage door (still painted the color the foreclosure company used), you can see the steel siding color with the paint color on the door. Our trim is being wrapped in an off white color called Antique Parchment.

We need to proceed with the front, but I'd like opinions on the gables and trim in the front. There is so much going on in the front, that it is overwhelming to me to decide what to with all the trim and gables, especially since it can't just be painted over if I don't like it! I feel the pressure of needing to get it right the first time....instead a repainting things a few times like I usually do on the inside of our house!

Right now we know we want the sunbursts in the two gables cut out, and the gables recessed like the far left gable. My husband thinks we should then follow the same trim/accent placement that's already on the home, but use the new off-white color, everywhere the lighter greige color is currently. He would do the darker (teakwood) clapboard siding up to the gables and then off white clapboard (the same color as the trim) in all the gables like in the far left. I'm not sure about this suggestion because I haven't seen two colors of horizontal clapboard right against each other like that, on any other home. I always see some type of other material if the gables are accented. I'm also concerned that with how contrasting the new off-white trim color is with the siding color, that it might be too much/too busy to have the gables in the off-white. The steel does not come in scallops, or shingles, etc., so those type of accents aren't an option. There is a 12" board and batten, however. The board and batten is available in either the trim or siding color. My inclination was to keep it simple and just use the one color of clapboard over the whole house (without any gable accents) and do the trim, facia and and vertical outside corners in the off-white. The outside corners were supposed to be off-white on the back as well, but the installer didn't realize and we left it go for the back, since many of the homes in our area don't have the trim painted in the back, anyway. My husband thinks the house might look boring in all horizontal clapboard without anything different in the gables. Thoughts on what you would do with the gables? I don't want a boring house, but I don't know what would look appropriate in our case, either. If you tried to accent the gables, would you treat them all the same, including the very small window gables?

As far as trim goes would you do the inside corners in the trim color as well (like they currently are in the greige color) or only the outside corners and have the installer cover over the inside corners with siding?

Lastly, it has been suggested to us that we could put stone veneer somewhere on the front. Many of our neighbors have stone, but the only place that might make sense on our home is the back wall under the porch. If someone else has a suggestion as to where it might be appropriate, I would take it! Thoughts on how stone would look on this house? Not necessary?