When we first saw this house online, the exterior looked like something we could live with. Well, I thought, you can never go wrong with a black and white modern exterior. Our last one was a cream-colored colonial, and I was so ready for a change!
Here’s a photo from the listing, so you know what I’m talking about.
In reality, no, it wasn’t a black and white house. It’s tan cedar siding from the sixties with brownish-grey brick. While the grey brick doesn’t do much for the home, it isn’t the real issue either. The tan paint made the cedar siding look worse than it really is. The soffit and fascia were rotting in places, and the paint was peeling off.
And here’s one to top it all – a woodpecker made a home in the front elevation. This is no ordinary woodpecker hole in the wall. Not only does it have an elaborate front entryway, but there’s also a doorway that leads to the side!
Like most homebuyers, all our home improvement projects were centered around the common living areas when we first moved in. We got the entryway, living, dining, and family rooms functioning. Is it done enough for a Insta reveal? Certainly not (which is why this site isn’t about the final reveal). But we can use these areas the way we expect to and even entertain family and friends (let’s pretend we weren’t amid a pandemic for a second here).
That’s when we noticed that the home’s exterior just didn’t match up to what you see when you walk in. With winter approaching here in the midwest, the rotting fascia and soffit were a growing structural concern. And that’s how our plans to improve the home’s exterior began.
Dream up your ideal curb appeal
We started with an ideal scenario – if we weren’t limited by time or money (I know, haha), what would we want our home’s modern exterior to look like. Ours is a modern home from the mid-sixties. Over time, it’s been through several changes that resulted in a strange mix of styles. I already had a Pinterest board of modern exterior designs we were drawn to. If you saw them, you’d quickly realize that there were some common elements across them – wood tones, dark charcoal color, and black trim. And I knew I had to incorporate these elements into my plans.
Grab your art supplies to design your modern exterior
To envision the design, I started with some software tools. However, I quickly realized that it took me too long to make changes this way. So, I resorted to an old school technique. I printed copies of the front of our home and borrowed my daughter’s art and craft supplies. Though this method doesn’t compare with getting a professional 3D plan, it took less than an hour to put together. I think I tried way more options using this technique than I would’ve had the patience to do on my laptop.
So, here are my top three design options, arranged in order of our preference –
Option 1 
Option 2 
Option 3
Reimagine it within your budget
Once we talked with our contractor, we realized ‘option 1’ with the wood composite soffit would be significantly more expensive than ‘option 2’ with black aluminum soffit. Since we could always bring in elements of wood through the garage doors and fence, we decided ‘option 1’ was out. The only difference between options 2 and 3 is the color of the brick and cedar siding. For some reason, brick painted white and cedar siding painted dark charcoal, just felt right. So, ‘option 2’ it was.
Since we have so many ongoing DIY projects inside our home, we knew we had to take a phased approach to remodel the exterior. Phase 1 was going to address structural issues and improve curb-appeal. We were already building the curb-appeal by landscaping the front yard (to be posted soon). So the scope for Phase 1 was to replace the soffit, fascia, and front elevation.
The gutters and downspouts were tan and had to at least be repainted to match the fascia. It turned out they were damaged and needed to be replaced, so we tackled that as part of this first phase.
Lighting the modern exterior
We also decided to add a few soffit lights to the front and back of the house. The contractor also installed three soffit lights on one of our home’s sides since they had to run the wire through there anyway. I’m glad they did since that side is more visible, and we walk to the backyard through there.
Less is more with soffit lights – you don’t want your home to look like a spaceship that’s ready to take off! You don’t want too many of them, you don’t want them too bright, and you certainly don’t want them to emit a cold bluish-white color. Our soffit lights are warm white LEDs (3000 Kelvin) and equivalent to 65W. Now, 65W is quite bright, and I would’ve picked 40W equivalent if I was buying them. Fortunately, the lighting guys included a dimmer, and we now use them on the lowest setting.
We had the option to add a light to the front porch roof. I decided not to since the porch roof is relatively low, and we already have a light on the side of our front door. Now, when I look at our home from the street, I wonder if we perhaps needed one to emphasize the entry. Oh well…!
Make it modern and textural
Once we decided to use aluminum soffit with clean sharp lines to add that modern element, there wasn’t much else we needed to weigh in on.
However, our contractor wasn’t too sure about that. He suggested using smooth cement instead. He’s done this a million times and I haven’t, so I felt I needed to reassess. The smooth cement, I felt would feel too flat, especially in the front where the front elevation was the same texture. So we stuck to our original plan. There were just two dark color options for aluminum soffit – black and bronze. We went with black – no more brown or tan tones in our modern exterior except for the wood!
Keep some of the original character
The front elevation from the sixties was quite the challenge – both from a design and a construction perspective. To modernize it, we wanted straight lines and a smooth surface. Based on my Pinterest board, I pictured Aluminum Composite Panels on the front. Our contractor reminded us that getting custom panels during the pandemic would throw a wrench in our timeline. He was determined, though, to find us the right option. After several conversations and emails back and forth, we ended up using smooth cement Hardie panels. I was drawn to the Aluminum Composite Panels because of how sleek they look. The smooth Hardie panel does the same and at a much lower cost. Sold!
Just when I thought we were done with it, the supplier dropped off wood-textured instead of smooth panels, which gave me heart palpitations. Anyway, they switched it to get the order right the very next day. I picked Sherwin Williams Tricorn Black for the panels and trims (future phase). I have a few whites and dark greys shortlisted for the brick and siding. Maybe I’ll test them out and post on Insta soon to get your opinions.
Now, you’re probably wondering why we went through all this trouble with the front elevation – perhaps we should’ve gotten rid of it completely. I did consider that, more than once. However, I was concerned that removing it would expose the front porch and we would lose even the little impact it was making. Also, I didn’t want to take too much away from the original design of the house.
On a separate note, you’ll notice we left the mid-modern metal column in the porch as is. We’re going to refinish and paint it Tricorn Black and see how it looks.
Quick updates you can DIY for your modern exterior
By removing all the non-functional warping shutters, we came closer to the overall look we were going for.
We switched all of the exterior lights last year – it’s the easiest way to update any home’s curb appeal. The up-down lights next to the garage are so much more useful now that they shine light onto beautiful new soffits.
The motion sensor security lights on the sides of the house weren’t wired right and were partially broken. They got an upgrade too.
The new mailbox in the porch from Etsy ties in with the rest of the matte black metal.
So that’s that.
Phase 1 of our modern exterior update is complete, and I couldn’t be more excited about how it turned out. Our neighbors tell us it’s a vast improvement. To passersby, who haven’t seen our Pinterest inspiration, it’s an attractive home to peek into. As for us, we can’t wait for the second phase to be complete. Because we know what we intend it to look like eventually.
I still need to add a couple of planters to the porch and switch the ones on either side of the garage.
And what’s this second phase? New paint colors on the brick and cedar siding, a wooden fence with black metal gates to the side yards, and a modern wood garage door.
I hope you enjoyed our very first experience updating the exterior of a home. Is your home in need of a facelift? Perhaps there’s an alternative that can be done sooner and within your budget. Tell us more in the comments below, we love hearing from you.
