We feel that the façade sets the tone for the house. It’s the first thing you see when you arrive back from work. It’s the first thing your visitors see when they walk up the path to your home. It’s the first thing your neighbours see when they look across the street. The façade is on show for the world to see and can reflect not only the interior design but the personality of the owners.
In our build process we were offered an overall choice of façade at the same time as we were choosing our layout. However, the materials and colours which made up the façade were chosen later at selections. We found there was never a great deal of focus on the façade at any time throughout our build process, however in hindsight we never considered anything bespoke in our façade design as we were tightly managing the costs of our build. We wanted our exterior design to be pleasant but we were unlikely to have invested more costs here and hence didn’t explore other more architectural options.
We knew that we wanted the following features:
- Take advantage of the sea views with a balcony whilst avoiding glass to promote privacy and easy maintenance
- Understated design incorporating natural colours which complemented the interior theme
- Avoidance of large slabs of material or colour – especially avoiding large walls of rendered weatherboard as we had seen a lot of poor finishes around the local area
- Choice of materials which would weather well with in coastal conditions.
Metricon presented a range of 15 predetermined facades to choose from that were specifically associated with the Winchester Design. Different house designs had slightly different facades and the designs usually differed in the following:
- Ground Floor External Material
- 1st Floor External Material
- Balcony/No Balcony
- Portico Size
- Roof Style and Eaves
- Front Window and Opening size and locations
We ended up choosing the Peninsula façade as part of our initial layout selection as it looked pleasant and incorporated our required features.
We didn’t do as much up front work on the façade. This meant choosing the right material and colours for the façade was one of our biggest challenges. We found it difficult to find other examples of house exteriors which we liked, so we were left to deliberate these at the selections meeting. It turned out that having the material and colour samples in front of us was invaluable for this process. Our budget restrictions were also a blessing as it meant that it narrowed the range of finishes to choose from. Our selections consultant was also extremely helpful in rationalising our decision making process.
We were set on our roof material and colour first, choosing a Colorbond roof with the Monument finish. From here we moved to the bricks, and were able to choose a earthy tan colour brick. Choosing a brick from photos is harder than it looks, and having tactile samples to touch and hold against other colours and materials made this a quick choice. From there we settled on the upstairs cladding material choosing the Axon Sycon thin vertical weatherboard pattern which was standard with the façade, before choosing a cream paint finish. We knew we wanted any metal finishes such as window frames and brick capping to complement the roof colour and chose a black colour. We then elected to tile our balcony piers with a dark feature tiles and continued the theme with the supporting posts using a similar colour. The only two remaining components was the balcony panel and the garage door. Both were relatively large rectangular shapes so we chose to complement the two by choosing the same colour Surfmist. We opted for a wide panel lift garage door with a Decowood finish which is effectively a stamped wood pattern. Finally the front door we chose to remove the side lights for security reasons and chose a door with thin vertical window slits to still allow light through. We opted to stain this in the darkest brown/black colour to complement the other elements.
Another important note for anyone building is to check if eaves are included in the build. Thankfully we noticed the lack of eaves on the side and rear of the house on our initial plans and had this rectified early. We felt the house would look unfinished without them. The eaves also have the practical benefit of providing the building some protection from both the rain and sun.
The summary of our material and colour selections for the Peninsula façade on the Winchester design include:
- Hip/Valley Roof Design – Colorbond Roof – Monument
- Ground Floor Brick – Austral Dawber with Rolled Mortar Joints
- Cladding – James Hardie: Sycon – Axon – Calf Skin
- Balcony – Render – Surfmist
- Downpipes – 75mm Round PVC – Monument
- Gutter Profile – Quad – D – Monument
- Window Frames + Flyscreens – Black
- Front Garage Door – Panel Lift – Slimline Decowood – Colorbond – Surfmist
- Front Door and Frame – Infinity 5VG Merbau – Clear Glass – Ebony Stain
- Brick Flashing – Black
- Wooden Balcony Piers – Glenbrook
- Piers – Feature Tile – Charcoal
- Lighting – Up/Down – Brushed Stainless Steel
