The bulk of the exterior will be finished before most of the interior of the house, so we need to finalize the design for that fairly early. Yuval also likes to submit a basic siding scheme with permitting documents, even though it is not required.
We were inspired by a picture of another house by Whitney Architecture. We like the simplicity of plain lap siding for most of the house, with large panels to emphasize features such as the stair tower. The other houses at Bellevue 41st have used more elements than this in their siding schemes. Our house will have a lot of exposure to view, so we wanted something simpler to keep it from being too busy. This picture also suggests a light grey/dark grey color scheme that is cohesive but provides nice contrast between the different sections. The funny thing is, in person this house is a nice cream/chocolate brown color; but we prefer the grey that we saw in the picture.
Another picture inspired a plan for the windows. We like the contrast of the dark window trim against the light siding. To prevent it from being too stark, we’ll use a dark grey instead of straight black.
Markus designed a great siding scheme from those initial inspirations. It uses lap siding for most of the house, but uses a smaller width on the upper floor for variety. The stair tower and the garage use panels, along with a little bit around the living room windows. The section next to the front door is designed as wood slats, to warm up the entry a bit. We’ve also discussed using wood on a section of the upper floor over the garage, to mesh with the green roof garden up there. Other than the wood, we are planning on a light grey for the lap siding, and dark grey for the panels.
We still have to finalize colors and woods, but we like the current design, and are happy to have a piece that is nearly perfect from the start.
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