Everything You Need to Know About Barnwood Siding

Barnwood siding gives homeowners a way to bring the aged texture, rustic charm, and weathered character of old barns to a home’s exterior. With its color variations, visible wood grain, and worn natural patina, barnwood siding creates a look that feels warm, historic, and full of personality.

However, not every material that looks like barnwood performs the same way. Real reclaimed barnwood siding can be beautiful, but it also comes with challenges with sourcing, durability, and maintenance. Faux options, including steel siding with a barnwood-style finish, can offer a similar rustic look with more predictable performance for exterior applications.

Below, we’ll break down what barnwood siding is, how reclaimed and faux options compare, where it works best, and why steel is often the better choice for homeowners who want long-lasting rustic style.

What Is Barnwood Siding?

Barnwood siding is exterior siding designed to capture the look of aged wood from old barns, sheds, cabins, and agricultural buildings. Some barnwood siding is made from actual reclaimed boards, while other options are made from new lumber or modern materials designed to mimic the appearance of weathered wood.

The main appeal of barnwood is character. Barnwood-style siding is not supposed to look perfectly smooth, polished, or uniform. It’s a style that comes from old barns and agricultural structures across North America, often built from practical, durable wood and left exposed to the elements for decades, and meant to look like it has stood the test of time because, over time, the wood developed the weathering, patina, and imperfect texture that homeowners now try to recreate in rustic exterior design.

Why Homeowners Love the Look of Barnwood Siding

The barnwood look is beloved by many for its natural texture and variation. Common shades include gray, brown, silver, and other weather-colored tones, often blended within the same pieces of lumber. Visible wood grain, knots, nail holes, and a rough-sawn texture are often desirable for added character.

Real barnwood planks often have an irregular patina created by years of sun, wind, rain, and seasonal temperature changes. Faux barnwood siding recreates that same appearance through printed, embossed, or finished surfaces that imitate natural wood without relying on salvaged boards.

Barnwood siding can come in several styles depending on the exact look you want. 

• Shiplap siding: This is a popular choice for homeowners who want a rustic look paired with the traditional clean, horizontal lines of lap siding
• Tongue-and-groove siding: The combination of the rustic look of barnwood and a smoother finish makes this one perfect for a rustic-modern aesthetic.
• Board-and-batten siding: This one’s another go-to option, especially among homeowners building barndominiums or modern farmhouse-style homes.

In general, people choose horizontal siding styles for a more traditional look, similar to lap siding, and vertical siding styles to recreate the barn look or add height to the exterior design.

Reclaimed Barnwood Siding Versus Faux Barnwood Siding

There are two main ways to get the barnwood look: Using real reclaimed material or choosing a faux barnwood option made from a modern material like steel. Both can create a rustic exterior, but they differ significantly in sourcing, consistency, durability, and upkeep.

What Is Reclaimed Barnwood Siding?

Reclaimed barnwood siding is made from salvaged boards taken from old barns, sheds, fences, or similar structures. It’s popular because it features a character that’s hard to replicate exactly. Real reclaimed barnwood siding has a depth and irregularity that many love for accent areas or specialty projects.

Advantages to reclaimed barnwood siding include:

• Uniqueness: Every board has its own history with nail holes, saw marks, grain patterns, and a patina that all tell a story.
• Reuse: Reclaimed lumber appeals to people who prefer reusing materials over sourcing new ones.

Reclaimed barnwood is not without its drawbacks, however. Here are some of the biggest:

• Inconsistency: Reclaimed wood is notoriously inconsistent, with boards varying in width, thickness, condition, and color.
• Pre-processing: Because reclaimed wood is so inconsistent, it generally requires extensive processing before installation, which can drive up costs. This includes sorting, cleaning, milling, kiln-drying, pest removal, and other measures to ensure it’s safe and stable as a siding material.
• Durability: Wood is prone to rot, pest damage, cracking, warping, and other problems, and reclaimed wood that has already spent a lifetime being exposed to the elements can be even more vulnerable despite any pre-processing.
• Maintenance: Real wood requires more maintenance than any other material. Stains, sealants, and other finishes need to be reapplied every few years to keep deterioration and moisture damage to a minimum, and you’ll need to be on the lookout for moisture damage, rot, pest damage, and other issues.

With these advantages and disadvantages in mind, homeowners who opt for reclaimed barnwood often use it sparingly. Rather than siding the whole home with reclaimed wood, they may instead save it for smaller, protected decorative areas like porches, entryways, or even interior projects.

What Is Faux Barnwood Siding?

Faux barnwood siding is made from newer materials designed to recreate the look of aged wood. This includes fresh lumber milled to look like reclaimed barnwood, vinyl, fiber cement, or steel. High-quality faux options can include realistic wood grain, weathered color options, and more consistent specifications, making larger projects easier to plan.

Advantages can vary depending on the specific material, but here are some of the reasons why people choose faux barnwood over reclaimed:

• Durability: Most faux barnwood siding options improve on durability in at least a couple of ways. For example, unlike wood, vinyl siding is impervious to moisture and won’t attract pests. Steel siding builds on those advantages, adding impact and fire resistance, among other benefits.
• Consistency: No matter which material you choose, faux barnwood siding will come in consistent sizes, shapes, and colors, making it easy to handle and install.
• Cost: Faux barnwood siding is generally much more cost-effective because it doesn’t require processing to make it suitable for reuse as siding and is typically much easier to source and install.
• Lower Maintenance: Whether you choose vinyl, fiber cement, or steel, you’ll have lower maintenance than you will with real wood. Fiber cement requires regular painting and finishing to keep it durable against the elements, but it’s less prone to moisture damage and rot. Both vinyl and steel require very little maintenance, though vinyl has a shorter lifespan that requires more frequent replacement.

So, what are the disadvantages of faux barnwood siding? For the most part, it comes down to authenticity. The faux options available will lack the authentic history of reclaimed barnwood, and some of them can be difficult to get the exact look you want. For example, vinyl siding, while it may come in profiles designed to mimic shiplap or board-and-batten siding, isn’t typically available in colors that accurately replicate weathered wood tones. Similarly, fiber cement siding can offer realistic wood-grain textures. Still, since it needs to be painted, you’ll be limited to solid paint colors rather than wood shades and their natural variation.

TruLog steel siding stands out not only for its improved durability and lower maintenance than other options, but also for its availability in highly realistic wood-look shades that give you the reclaimed look without the drawbacks. Whereas you may be tempted to use reclaimed wood in limited, protected areas, TruLog steel is both durable and cost-effective, making it easy to use for a full barnwood-style exterior.

Get the Barnwood Siding Look With TruLog Steel Siding

Reclaimed barnwood siding can offer rustic charm, aged texture, and a lot of character to your home’s exterior — but it comes with large enough drawbacks that most homeowners end up using it sparingly for smaller accent areas like porches and entryways. For full exterior applications, faux barnwood siding is generally the better option, and TruLog steel siding stands out as one of the best. It offers a realistic look that most other materials can’t replicate, plus unparalleled durability and longevity.

Want to learn more? Start with our Visualizer to preview how your home will look once your siding project is complete. You can also contact us for additional information about any of our siding products.