Wood siding

Wood siding enhances any home no matter what style of property it’s installed on. For many people, the look and feel of real wood is truly what makes a house a home. For that reason, in addition to improved durability with technological advancements like modified wood siding, it’s very common to find homes clad in natural wood siding. These 47 wood siding ideas are meant to help you get a better understanding of what may be possible for your own home.

1. Riveting Installation

Architect: Page & Turnbull Photo by: Rob Hansen

This property mixes rustic with modern through the exposed nails along the face of the natural wood siding. The result complements the sleek, contemporary feel of the building, while lending more interest and dimension to the siding.

2. Playful Directions

Architect: M3 Arkitekter & MNAL

This kindergarten takes a more playful approach to its façade by installing the wood siding in different directions. Proving the simple doesn’t have to be boring.

3. Siding Accents

Architect: Lund Hagem Arkitekter

There’s no rule that states you have to use the same material for the entire exterior of your property; so why not mix it up?. This hotel uses real wood siding as an accent against the glass, metal and concrete, which helps to break up the façade, creating a warmer, more approachable building.

4. Weathered to Perfection

Too many homes are meticulously painted and decorated in a way that doesn’t complement their surroundings and make maintenance and upkeep a burden. For rustic appeal, however, sometimes a weathered exterior is the better choice. This home has been allowed to age naturally, which lets it blend in with its environment and doesn’t require maintenance.

5. Depth Through Nature

Architect: Pitman Tozer Photo by: Nick Kane

One of the best things about natural wood siding is the natural color variation and multi-tonal color palette. Even though this home is uniformly clad in wood siding, there is still variety and depth in the different hues.

6. Rustic Cabin Siding

Architect and Photo by: Bliss

Rustic modern homes are extremely popular just about everywhere. They combine the sleek lines of contemporary buildings with the rustic appeal of timber siding. This cabin makes great use of real wood siding, left in its natural state to complement the style.

7. Thin Planks

Architect: Børve & Borchsenius

You may not be aware, but natural wood siding comes in a range of different widths. This school used a thinner plank both to add more depth and interest to its exterior walls.

8. Bold Colors

Architect: TYIN Tegnestue Photo by: Pasi Aalto

One of the nicest features of wood siding is that it provides an elegant, neutral color palette that can complement virtually any color scheme. These children’s shelters for example, introduce bold, vibrant colors that really pop when set against the natural wood siding.

9. The Look of Board and Batten

Architecture: TYIN Tegnestue Photo by: Pasi Aalto

When you want something a little different than traditional lap siding, consider the beauty of board and batten. This rustic boat house extends the same board and batten siding right up onto the roof to create a seamless exterior that stands out from its surroundings.

10. Wood Wrapping

Architect: Halvorsen & Reine

Natural wood siding can be used for more than just the walls of a home or building. This hotel wrapped entire sections in timber siding, using it on all exterior surfaces of the particular segments. Mixing this contemporary installation style throughout the exterior of the building, along with other contrasting building materials, creates a striking and modern facade.

11. Unifying Levels

Architect: Bliss

Homes with multiple levels can often struggle to find the right balance between diversification and unification. This property used modified wood cladding to bring together the different levels and components of the home, while mixing in other materials, like stone and concrete, to create areas of transition from one level to the next.

12. Beauty from Within

Architect: TreStykker

Although wood siding is often installed to create a solid façade, it doesn’t have to be. This building spaced the natural wood planks far enough apart so that light would flood out beyond the translucent glass shell at night. The result being a stunningly beautiful landmark for this seaside city.

13. Multi-Dimensional

Architect: Sprunt

Can’t decide which siding application is best for your building? Consider blending two like this school did. Vertical battens installed over shiplap siding give this exterior a lot of dimension and depth.

14. Elevated Siding

Architect and Photo by: Bliss

Adding the illusion of height to a one-story home can be a challenge. If you fall in this category, try starting your wood cladding a few feet off the ground, adding a contrasting material along the base. The result is a heightened appearance for the entire façade.

15. Irregular Edges

Architect: Massiv Lust

For unconventional projects, like this bath house, consider creating an unconventional exterior to match. The ends of the wood boards aren’t cut match, creating a more organic appearance the matches both the curvature of the structure as well as the environment it’s built in.

16. Wood Screening

Architect: DGLa: architect, Coris Construction: developer

The exterior of this building has an industrial, modern feel achieved by combining wood siding with metal rails. In a very unique installation, we can see that instead of a solid surface, the cladding was used to create an elaborate screening display.

17. Contemporary Angles

Architect: Millimetre

For buildings like this beach shelter, emphasizing the angles and lines helps to create style from simplicity. Using the same natural wood siding flowing in different directions over the interior and exterior helps finish the flow of the creative design.

18. Inspired by Nature

Architect: Lincoln Miles Photo by: Julian Winslow

The owner of this stunning residence wanted to their home to highlight the beauty of nature. With large picture windows they were given an uninterrupted view of their property’s grounds. And their respect for nature was further demonstrated by the use of sustainable, modified wood cladding that helped to ground the airy design.

19. Blending boundaries

Architect: Alliance and MAPT

The oversized roof blends the barrier between roofing and walls. Entirely clad in modified wood siding the flow of this restaurant is seamless around the entire building.

20. Depth of Design

Architect: Kontur arkitektur + konstruksjon Photo by: Kontur, Lasse Haldrup Juul

This home was given a big splash of dimension during its remodel with a varied use of wood cladding. The cladding on the main part of the house is run vertically, while on the front portion it changes to a horizontal installation, further emphasizing the space.

21. Sleek Style

Architect & Photo by: LOGG Arkitekter

What is typically a more rustic product, wood, becomes sleek in its appearance in this modern home’s design. Using simple shapes, straight lines and beautiful wood cladding to achieve a polished, contemporary look.

22. Integral Possibilities

Architect: LINK Arkitektur Photo by: Hundven-Clements Photography

This remodeled farmhouse uses natural wood siding to cover both its walls and its roof. The clean lines of the wood moving up and over the home create a frame for the open, glass-front design that completes its transitional style.

23. Slanted Style

Architect and Photo by: Alliance Arkitekter

This mountain cabin is brought to life through the unique movement it appears to have with its sloping construction. To facilitate this design, while allowing it to keep its natural appearance, timber wood siding was used, atop the stone base, following the different planes and angles of the cabin.

24. Organic Mod

Architect: Henning Larsen Architects & SGB Photo by: Jørn Hindklev, Byggeindustrien

Many contemporary buildings utilize harsh materials such as concrete or metal to achieve their modern look, however not this property. These student housing buildings used real wood siding in a vertical installation to add character to the mod design. The result helps the buildings fit in with their more organic surrounding.

25. Sculptural Style

Architect: KREOD

One of the best things about real wood siding is its ability to be used in so many different ways. This building utilizes wood in a unique way to provide a sculptural and dimensional covering that lets the light through in a way that emphasizes the shapes it creates.

26. Heightened Appeal

Architect: Fernau & Hartman Photo by: Richard Barnes Photography

Creating grandeur through larger than life heights is made easy with vertically installed wood siding. This home is a prime example of what can be achieved when mixing wood with modern design.

27. Simplicity of Design

Architect Jarmund/Vigsnæs Photo by: Svein Arne Brygfjeld / Jan Inge Larsen

Many homes use siding in a variety of ways to emphasize the architecture. Most of these methods though involve using decorative elements and changes of color as well. This tourist cabin achieves the same goals, but with only one type of wood siding and color throughout.

28. In the Round

Architect: Simone Kreutzer, Tommy Wesslund Photo by: Anders Bergön

Covering a circular home may seem challenging with traditional lap siding, but the same wood material can be used with ease, if installed in a vertical application. This round house features natural wood siding installed vertically on both layers to help it achieve fluid movement around its unique shape.

29. Dimensional Style

Architecture: HRI architects Photo by: Markus Photography

While tightly fitted or overlapping siding is what’s normally expected on an exterior, sometimes leaving some space can help you achieve more interesting results. This home is clad with wood siding that has been left slightly open, giving it more depth and dimension than it would have otherwise.

30. Irregular Shape

Architecture: Pir II Photo by: Angell foto AS / Sindre Karlsen and Pir II

When choosing the right materials for a building with an irregular shape, it’s smart to choose something that will provide balance and stability. The wood siding used on this unique building draws clean lines that help ground the topsy-turvy design.

31. Tree House of Dreams

Architect & Photo by: Blue Forest

There’s something about a tree house that sets the imagination free, no matter what age you are. This park features numerous tree houses, all designed of the same sustainable wood siding, making them appear as though they’ve grown there naturally.

32. Cage of Curves

Architect: Blue Forest Luxury Treehouses Photo by: Blue Forest / Quiet Mark

This quiet treehouse is not only clad in natural wood siding, it’s surrounded by a protective cage built of the same wood as well. This gives substance and a sculptural feel to the home, turning it into a work of art.

33. Artistically Enhanced

Architect: TYIN Tegnestue & Rintala Eggertsson Architects Photo by: Andrew Devine

A house’s exterior should not only reflect its surroundings, but its occupants as well. This artist’s retreat does just that, combining the clean lines of sustainable wood siding with a mixture of overlapping diamonds made from the same material. The result being a very natural and artistic design.

34. Sustainable Future

Architect: Arkitema Architects Photo by: Niels Nygaard

This sustainable school needed to be clad in something that would reflect its goals. Modified wood siding achieved just that, creating a building that is as organic looking as it is sustainable in practice.

35. Open to the Air

Architect: GoBoat Photo by: GBoat

Positioned right on the water, this marina opens right up to the views that sit just outside. Natural wood siding creates the illusion that the building is opening from within, almost as though it wants to embrace the outdoors.

36. Creating Height

Architect: Q-haus Photo by: Maris Tomba

This one-story, circular building gains both the illusion of height, as well as dimension through its natural wood siding. A board and batten application adds depth to various parts, while the vertical board placement draws the eye upward.

37. Energetic Placement

Wanting to make a statement that was as powerful as the energy it produces, this power plant uses sustainable wood siding installed at a series of angles. The idea was to have the design tell the story of its location, surrounded by forests and mountains.

38. In and Out Design

Architect: Selin Maner Photo by: Julien Aksoy

In nice weather, this beach club extends, pulling outward from a wood-sided hull to give access to a glass enclosed patio. The vertically placed siding extends up and over the roof as well, creating a unique building experience.

39. Mixing Materials

Architect: Laurence Associates Photo by: BRANDTRAIN

Sometimes wood siding works best when it’s paired with another natural material, like fieldstone. This building uses a combination of wood siding and fieldstone, creating contrast and attitude.

40. Dynamic Design

Architect: Malmström Edström Photo by: Urban Lidström

The vertical installation of this chapel’s wood siding, draws the eye upward in a elegant and graceful manner. The layered boards uniquely spaced over the facade adds novel definition with a uniform, tailored look.

41. Uniform Inconsistency

Architect & Photo by: MDH Arkitekter

Some designs, like this student housing development, play with inconsistency. The windows of these buildings seem haphazardly placed, being out of line with one another, yet the vertical wood siding somehow adds uniformity to the chaos.

42. Open and Shut Design

Architect: Cubo Photo by: Henning Davidsen

The sliding doors of this artist’s home are covered in the same wood siding as the rest of the exterior. When closed, the building seems solid and complete, however when opened, large picture windows are exposed letting in light and leaving the look of the exterior walls uninterrupted.

43. Rainscreen Siding

Architect: Kuhn Architect Photo by: Greg Hadley Photography

Wood siding can serve more function than just looking nice. This home needed a siding that could also act as a rainscreen, which they found in this beautiful modified wood siding. Completing the renovation of a historic home with style, charm and purpose.

44. Standing Out

Architect: JD Architects Photo by: Oliver Perrott

This row of houses sets itself apart from those on either side by contrasting the brick homes with a series done in natural wood siding. The wood siding creates a softer feel, while shining a spotlight on the beautiful success of this bold renovation.

45. Playful Panels

Architect: LINK Arkitektur Photo by: Jiri Havran

Natural wood siding is beautiful, but not always the most exciting material in color. This Waldorf school solves that with inset colorful panels surrounding the windows.

46. Clad from Above

Photo by: Ketil Ring

This summer cabin is ideally placed near an ocean with plenty of beautiful views. It complements its surroundings by being clad in the same wood siding on both the walls and the roof. The roof continues to weather gracefully, as modified wood does, to a lovely silvery gray.

47. Tightly Shiplapped

Shiplap wood siding is incredibly popular for rustic-style homes. This building features a very narrow plank, which helps to add more dimension and interest to the exterior.

Natural wood siding comes in a range of styles, widths, finishes and installations. Get creative with your home or building to cover it in style with wood siding.