Can You Accent Your Home With Siding?

How Shake Accents, Trim, and Color Combinations Turn a Flat Facade Into a Custom Look

Most homeowners think of siding as something that protects the house, not the design aspect that helps it stand out. But the same material that keeps water and wind out of your walls can also be the difference between a home that blends into the block and one that people slow down to look at.

Gable ends dressed in a shake; a front porch wrapped in board-and-batten; or a lower level in a darker tone than the rest of the house. These aren’t add-ons tacked onto a finished project. They’re integral siding choices, made before a remodel begins, that turn a flat exterior into something with actual depth.

What Does It Mean to Accent Your Home With Types of Siding?

An accent is any place where the siding changes in texture, pattern, or color to draw the eye and break up a wall that would otherwise read as one flat surface. Architects have used this trick for decades on higher-end builds: shake siding in the gables, a stone or brick wainscot at the base, a complementary color around the entry. Savvy homeowners know they can bring the same layered look to a straightforward siding replacement.

The most common siding accents fall into these categories:

• Shake accents on gables, dormers, or accent walls.
• Board-and-batten styling for a vertical, farmhouse-leaning look.
• Color blocking, where a second tone wraps a specific, contrasting section of the home.
• Trim details like shutters that frame windows and rooflines.

None of these require tearing into the structure of the house. They’re decisions made during the design consultation phase of a remodel, before a single panel goes up.

Shake Siding Accents Add Texture Without the Upkeep

Shake siding is the most requested accent for a reason. It reads as real cedar but doesn’t require the maintenance that comes with actual wood. Continental Siding’s polymer shake siding is molded from more than 100 unique casts of real cedar shingles, with less than three repeats per 1-square box, so a gable finished with shake accents looks like natural wood, not prefabricated.

Homeowners typically use shake siding in the gables above a garage, on a second-story accent wall, or across an entire front-facing section of the house, with the rest of the section in flat or lap siding. The contrast in texture heightens your home’s beauty more than a contrast in color alone, which is why it’s an effective, low-maintenance way to make visitors do a double take.

Visit the specialists at one of our locations to see shake samples in person and receive your FREE no-obligation price quote.

Color Blocking Ideas to Bring to a Siding Company for Seamless Polymer Siding or Vinyl Siding

Texture is one differentiator. Color is the other, and it’s usually the simpler one to implement. Color blocking means pairing two complementary tones: a lighter main color with a darker base, trim, or gable accent, instead of using one shade across your home’s entire facade.

Our vinyl siding and seamless polymer siding lines give homeowners a range of siding colors to work with when planning a two-tone exterior, from warm neutrals to blues that hold up against Midwest sun, without the fading that cheaper vinyl panels are prone to. A darker lower level paired with a lighter upper story is one of the most requested combinations in Kansas City, Columbia, Springfield, Wichita, and Oklahoma City right now. That combination makes single-story homes read as taller.

Homeowners weighing types of siding for an accent project don’t have to choose between seamless polymer siding and vinyl for the whole house. Many mix the two, using seamless polymer siding for the primary siding area and a contrasting vinyl shake or panel color for the accent zones.

Bringing It All Together

Accents aren’t limited to siding. Window shutters frame the standout features of your home like windows, entry doors, and roof edges, enhancing the color-blocked or shake-accented facade with an elegant finishing touch.

Why Continental Siding Is the Right Siding Company for Accent Work

Mixing textures and colors on one exterior is only a good investment if the installation is seamless. Special care must be taken, especially where the different materials meet. Custom shutters can detract from your home’s beauty if they’re installed incorrectly, and wobbly dentril trim makes a home’s facade look worse, not better, if it doesn’t follow the straight planes of the siding. That’s where our patented Perma-Strate Wall System® comes in. Continental Siding manufactures its own seamless polymer siding and installs it with a method built to eliminate the visible seams and gaps, ensuring absolute alignment on both new siding panels and custom accents.

Because Continental Siding designs, manufactures, and installs its own products, homeowners can visit a qualified technician from a siding company that controls every part of the process at one of our locations. And instead of coordinating separate vendors for each piece, one company handles the process from start to finish. That matters more on an accent project than a single-material job, since color and texture need to line up exactly across every seam.

Homeowners in Independence, Wichita, Columbia, Springfield, Oklahoma City, Tulsa, and surrounding areas can start with a free design consultation to see shake siding, trim, and color samples side-by-side before committing to a layout. Call (800) 533-3880 or visit a local showroom to talk through accent options and get a free, no-pressure quote as you explore siding accents.