Rustic design trends go up and down every few years as homeowners continue to discover different elements of various styles such as the farmhouse style, cottage style, or Tuscan, rustic design as a whole which have retained steady popularity for many years.
This includes not only the interior design of the home, but also the exterior. Metal siding has long been used on rustic buildings to create an exterior cladding. Homeowners wanting to capture a truer, more authentic rustic appearance for their home may want to consider installing rustic metal siding.
Metal siding offers a lot of benefits including styles that can easily complement a wide range of rustic designs.
The Growing Trend of Rustic Siding
There is not any single rustic design; it’s considered a catch-all term for a variety of styles including French Country, Farmhouse, Tuscan, Cottage, and Chateau. The rustic style, in general, rarely goes out of fashion; while one specific style may lag, another is usually quick to take its place.
Cladding your home in a rustic style siding can help it maintain a long-term appeal, regardless of what the interior style embodies. This appeal is combined with a growing trend by younger homeowners to want to invest in more natural and natural-looking materials such as rustic or antiqued wood and natural stone.
Using a rustic siding ties in very well with this trend as well, so you’re reaching a wider range of potential homebuyers.
Original Rustic Metal Siding
Metal siding isn’t new; it’s been used in rustic and rural areas for decades. Metal is tough, durable, and isn’t subject to the same types of issues as wood siding, so it was once very common to use either corrugated metal sheeting or flat metal panels to clad the exterior of a rustic home or barn. The metal may be left bare, or it may be painted to match other structures, such as the linseed red barns.
As materials changed and grew stronger, metal siding changed, too. Standing seam panels became available, which made the siding more watertight, and different types of metal also became available. Zinc and tin were the most common materials for metal siding, but now you can find aluminum, steel, and a variety of other much tougher and more durable metals. Many of them are still available in some traditional rustic styles, so you can capture the original spirit of the design, but with a better, more durable siding and an up-to-date look.
The Benefits of Metal Siding
In addition to its history, using a metal siding on your rustic-style home has a lot of benefits. Today’s metal siding is incredibly tough and durable. When you consider that many rustic homes are built in rural areas, having a siding that can withstand the elements, including moisture, sun, rain, and snow, which can also withstand issues such as fungus, insect activity, and potential forest fires, can do a lot to protect your home.
With metal siding, you’re less likely to worry about your home’s exterior. It won’t be affected by the same types of issues that often plague wood siding and log homes. So, you’ll save long term on things like repairs.
Metal siding is also incredibly low-maintenance. The color lasts for years without peeling, chipping, or fading, so you’re also going to save on maintenance fees over the lifespan of the siding. Metal siding comes in a range of attractive colors and finishes, including those that can mimic the appearance of wood. This means that your home will have the rustic appearance you want, without any of the drawbacks of wood or the high maintenance and repair costs.
Metal siding is made using recycled material and is fully recyclable. This makes it a more environmentally-friendly material than siding made of vinyl and other plastics.
Siding Options for a Rustic Look
If you want a truly rustic look for your home, there are several options available. Most of the traditional methods used to get a rustic look, utilize either wood or log siding. Using these materials means subjecting your home exterior to years of maintenance and ongoing repairs. This can detract from the curb appeal and appearance of your home, as well as adding to the total costs.
Metal siding has several options to help you create a rustic look. The first is metal log-look siding.
Log-look siding gives your home the appearance of a log cabin, but without the inherent issues such as settling, rotting, pressure washing, and continued maintenance. It can be installed over any existing home to give it a more rustic appearance. Log-look siding is available in a range of natural looking wood finishes, and can be combined with other materials such as field stone or natural wood to give you a custom look. You can also use it as an accent with other rustic metal siding styles, such as cladding an outbuilding in log-look siding while the rest is done in board-and-batten.
Log-look rustic metal siding has an added benefit of energy savings as well. The siding is backed by insulation, which helps create a tighter building envelope, reducing energy transfer through the walls of the home.
Another attractive style of rustic metal siding is board and batten siding, which resembles the appearance of a board and batten wood home.
Board and batten is one of the oldest siding styles in the U.S., and was frequently used on rustic and rural homes for decades. Traditionally, it was made of milled pieces of wood installed vertically with a thin strip of wood, or batten, installed over the seams. This is still a popular style today, but true wood board and batten siding is difficult and labor intensive to both install, and maintain.
Metal board and batten siding is designed to install faster and easier, so you can save on labor costs. It’s also effortless to maintain, because it doesn’t require scraping and repainting around each of the battens every few years. Like log-look metal siding, it also comes in a wide range of natural wood shades, with an authentic-looking wood grain that will complement any rural setting.
Design Ideas Using Rustic Metal Siding
You can use rustic metal siding on a wide range of different architectural styles and home sizes. You can also combine the siding with other materials to customize the look of your home. Take a look at these 4 design ideas to see how rustic metal siding can transform a property:
1. Metal-Clad Cabin
This rustic cabin is completely clad in metal siding and a metal roof. This helps add a layer of protection for the entire property from issues such as wildfires, and helps keep the maintenance down. The simple cabin design is complemented by the log-look siding, while the colors of the home play up the surroundings.
2. Wood Accents
Rustic metal siding can be so authentic looking that you can easily incorporate natural wood in your design as well. This home is clad in steel log-look siding, but still uses real wood posts to hold up the roof overhangs. It helps enhance the rustic appearance of the building, but doesn’t clash with the style.
3. Rustic Porch
Many Country-style, Farmhouse-style, and other rustic home designs call for a large front porch as a key part of the design. This works well with the rustic steel siding, which is able to complement the wood porch roof, as well as the furniture. It also helps cut down on the amount of maintenance that the home requires.
4. Steel and Brick
This property combines steel board and batten siding with a brick skirt on the lower level. The two materials complement one another well, and help give this home a more transitional appearance from a rustic property to a more traditional home.
Consider Rustic Metal Siding
Rustic metal siding can give many different styles of homes a more rural appearance. It can also provide those homes better durability and lower maintenance costs as well. Consider cladding your home in rustic metal siding to make the most of your home’s longevity and curb appeal.
