Creative Faux Panels

Mark Griff added craftsman style to his Tennessee lake house with our Wellington Dry Stack column wraps.

BEFORE: Marks lake house was built out of generic building materials - the antithesis of the craftsman aesthetic

“My wife and I wanted to modify our very basic lake house so it had a craftsman-style cottage appearance,” customer Mark wrote to us, enclosing pictures of the home remodeling project he’d undertaken with our faux stacked stone. “Your Wellington Dry Stack column wraps really helped us move in that direction.”

You can’t fault Mark’s taste. America is rich with architectural styles, but few are as striking – or popular – as American Craftsman style. Pioneered during the late 19^th century, it was a style of home building that celebrated originality, simplicity of form and the use of local, natural materials – a far cry from the “McMansions” of today.

Mark used our Wellington Dry Stack column wraps around his bare front porch columns – recreating the hand-made look by combining molding with our artificial stacked stone. They pay perfect tribute to the craftsman style, and are a marked improvement over the plain wooden beams that held his porch roof up previously.

Some modification was required: Mark had to cut the column caps to fit his 4” x 4” interior posts, and fit the white molding on top. However, our faux column wraps are made from durable molded polyurethane and are easy enough to cut with a regular wood saw.

AFTER: Faux stone column wraps and molding helped create the illusion of stacked stone columns

In fact, the modifications are what helps the columns blend so seamlessly with the other craftsman-style updates Mark has been working in – and it’s only fitting that adding the “craftsman” look involves some modest craftsmanship of its own.

And the end result is spectacular. Mark finished his email to us by boasting: “My neighbor and my sister were so impressed with what I’d done that they’re placing orders for Faux Panels too, for use on their own homes.”

We’d love to see pictures of what they do with them!

Kathie Ward faced the classic dilemma for antique homes – how to keep true to the character of her gorgeous 100-year-old Kentucky house, while also renovating it to meet modern requirements. The answer? Our Royal Rock Face Fake Rock Panels.

Modern materials made renovation more affordable, but didn't match the character of the 100-year-old house

“Our house is over 100 years old,” Kathie wrote, enclosing before and after photos of the incredible transformation her property had undergone, “but recently it needed a foundation renovation.”

The beautiful wrap-around porch – a design staple of Kentucky houses from that era – needed some support work to keep it stable. Kathie’s challenge was to complete the work to modern standards; but not spoil the classical look of her charming antique home.

At first glance, it looked like she was left with two unsatisfactory options:

The first was to do the work that needed to be done, and just settle for a modern look and modern materials that appeared completely out-of-place on the front of her historic house.

Royal Rock Face Faux Rock Panels gave the appearance of large rock foundations, as would have been common over a century ago.

The second was to go “all out” and complete the foundation renovation to the standards of a century ago. The problem there was one of time and cost. Rebuilding foundations with large rocks and mortar would cost thousands of dollars, and take weeks or more.

Fortunately, Kathie looked a little deeper into her options – and the idea of faux panels cropped up.

“Your product was exactly what I was looking for,” Kathie explained. Choosing fake rock panels allowed her to use affordable, modern renovation techniques to rebuild the foundation of her home, but still give them a timeless appearance by covering the modern materials with the rock paneling.

Once installed, the fake rock panels perfectly disguised the modern renovation work, and maintained the character of the historic home.

Molded from real rock in tough, waterproof polyurethane, they perfectly resemble the rock walls and stonework that would have been common over a century ago. Another plus point is that they’re totally waterproof and weatherproof – important as Hickman County bore the brunt of flooding and storms last year.

Now that the Rock Face Panels are installed, Kathie is thrilled:

“We really love the results! Thank you so much!”

Check out the pictures for yourself. Our fake rock panels already look like they’ve been there for decades – and they’ll stay looking that good for many years to come.

Patti Widrick from Watertown NY wanted a stone fireplace design – but didn’t want all the complications that went with it. Faux stone panels with a Class A fire rating offered the perfect alternative.

Adding real stone to this attractive fireplace would have been expensive and inconvenient.

“My husband and I wanted our fireplace to be in stone,” she wrote to us, supplying pictures of their recent remodeling project, “but when I started to think about how we were going to do it, I realized we needed an alternative to real stone.”

“My husband had just finished adding real stacked stone to the outside of a home, and I’d seen how much work it was – all the dust, the time consuming process of getting all the stones to fit just right and the mortar clean up using muriatic acid. We weren’t ready to put up with all of that inside our house.”

“Faux stone panels seemed like the perfect solution for our fireplace. It was more affordable than real stone in price, and a lot less time consuming to install – plus no clean up!”

But Patti admits, she had concerns about using artificial stone paneling.

“We were fearful, even after receiving samples, that the product would not look like real stone once it was installed – trust me when I say that we’re very particular about our home.”

But Patti’s fears were unfounded. “Once installed, the simulated stone panels look very realistic.”

Faux stone panels captured the look and feel of authentic stone, without the expensive and difficult installation

Patti’s fireplace design was transformed using our Norwich Dakota Stone Wall Panels – which were an excellent choice for a fireplace as they can be ordered Class A Fire Rated for a small additional cost.

“The faux stone panels were very easy to work with,” Patti wrote. “We did have a minor issue with some of the trim stones coming scuffed up – but worked with a FauxPanels.com customer service representative and were quickly able to resolve the problem.”

To give the stone veneer panels an even more realistic appearance, Patti writes: “we used sanded chalk between the trim stones to give it the real mortared in look.” You can see from the “after” picture how good this looks.

“Our project turned out really well,” Patti wrote, “we’re very pleased with the faux stone panels. With the combination of oak and stone, it’s given our fireplace a much more sophisticated appearance.”

From the “before” and “after” photos Patti supplied, we’d have to agree with her.

When Manfred bought his weekend home in upstate New York, it looked very different to how it is today. That’s due to Manfred’s dedication and hard work – and his strategic use of products like our Oxford Stacked Stone Veneer Siding in Light Gray.

Manfred's pretty upstate home deserved a little love

There were many things Manfred did to transform his pretty two-story – from adding stylish new siding to fixing up the slightly rickety looking deck. One of the major home improvements on his list, however, was “to remodel the ugly side walls of my crawl space.”

This wasn’t just to make the house look prettier. In upstate New York, which is teeming with animals like squirrels, raccoons, possums and skunks, keeping your crawl space covered is essential to prevent any uninvited house guests settling in while you’re away.

“Faux stone paneling struck me as ideal for this purpose,” he wrote to us, including pictures of his home before and after installation, “and ordering with the help of customer service was easy.”

As to was installation, according to what Manfred told us.

“Installation with screws and glue was idiot-proof,” he wrote, “and the panels can easily be cut by table saw.” Slightly more complicated was actually working out how many he’d need in the first place. “The interlocked panels require some thinking to ensure they are cut on the correct end, and to avoid too many left overs.”

Adding Oxford Stacked Stone Veneer siding was both a stylish and practical decision

That was a challenge Manfred clearly rose to, however – and the results speak for themselves. The photos he sent to us demonstrate what a fantastic difference the Oxford Stacked Stone Panels make; giving his home the impression of solidity and stability that can only be accomplished with stonework.

Manfred shares our opinion of his handwork. “Now I have a pretty, new siding, which looks perfect.” He’s also quick to add some of the more practical advantages to using stone veneer panels.  “They provide good thermal isolation for my home, and keep unwanted animals out of the crawl space.”

There are other reasons why the use of faux stone paneling made us in Manfred’s case. He admits that there were challenges to any home improvement project he had planned: “As the house is a weekend home, delivery of any building supplies needs to be scheduled precisely.”

That’s something much more accomplishable with a few stacks of faux paneling than truckloads of real stacked stone, bags of concrete and sacks of sand. It’s also considerably more affordable.

But perhaps most importantly, using faux panels allowed Manfred to add the beauty and style of stacked stone to his home in a matter of days; rather than the weeks it would have taken to stack real stone around his crawl space. Given that he only has a few days each month to enjoy his stunning upstate home, that’s an economy it seems very sensible to make.

We love receiving photos of how customers have used our rock veneer paneling to transform their homes. Over the years, we’ve seen many transformations that were out of this world – but few that were out of a fairy tale!

Trimming the doors with Wellington River Rock Grey Panels makes for a timeless, magical aesthetic.

Yet that’s the first thing we thought when Faux Panel customer John Lang sent in pictures of his master bedroom design – and how he’d used our Wellington River Rock Panels to create a sleeping space Rapunzel would be proud of.

“My project for my master bedroom has come out looking so much better that I had ever imagined it to look,” wrote John. His photos revealed exactly what he meant – a fairy-tale fantasy brought vividly to life.

What John did that was so unique was to trim our Wellington River Rock veneer panels and use them to border doors, corners and walls – almost as if they were the bare stonework peeking out from beneath a layer of plaster. It’s a subtle touch that makes the entire bedroom design work vividly; and ensures the rock veneer still looks authentic despite being installed in a modern house.

“With your product and a little outside the box thinking, you can achieve great new ideas and wonderful looks,” John wrote. “Your product is as awesome as awesome can get.”

While we think our rock veneer paneling played a significant role in John’s amazing bedroom design, it’s important to recognize the variety of other tricks he employed to bring his fairy tale design so vividly to life.

The room was completed with details like this bed - fit for King Arthur himself!

The bed, for example, rests on columns that wouldn’t look out of place in King Arthur’s Court – while strategic use of mirrors also adds a magical feel to the design.

We’re always excited to receive photos from satisfied customers, but John’s amazing efforts were especially noteworthy. His fairy tale master bedroom is a great example of the flexibility of our veneer panels – and gives us all a little extra inspiration about how to incorporate rock veneer paneling into our own home renovation projects.

If you’ve ever stayed in a really classy hotel, or watched one-too-many episodes of MTV’s Cribs, you’ll know what a ‘wet room’ is.

Our Regency Stacked Stone Earth Panels are perfect for creating the wet room look

The ultimate bathroom indulgence, wet rooms are sealed, over-sized shower cabinets with multiple showerheads designed to massage your body with powerful jets of steaming water.

The most distinctive feature of the modern wet room tends to be the heavy tile or granite wall and flooring – cut to order and carefully built on weight-supporting structures. This means, if you asked a designer to pick a single adjective describing the wet room look, most would settle on ‘expensive.’

Sure, the stone or tiling is perfect to deliver that ‘five-star’ look most designers are aiming for – but it’s way outside the budget of the average home improvement.

Or is it?

Because for home improvement enthusiasts, there’s another way to get that hotel-style wet room look without breaking your budget – with our manufactured stone veneer panels.

Built from tough, waterproof, high-density polyurethane, our faux panels are perfect for wet room and bathroom designs – and are significantly cheaper and lighter than real stone, brick or tile.

Even if you don't go for a wet room, manufactured stone panels are still ideal for any bathroom project

A manufactured stone veneer panel shines (not literally) by reproducing the exact look and texture of real stone or brick. This is because they’re actually molded from real stone, and then meticulously detailed and colored until most people can’t tell them apart from the real thing.

That makes creating a wet room practical and affordable even on a modest home improvement budget – and there’s an enormous choice of veneer panels to pick from: Stone or rock, brickwork patterns or even the ‘natural’ look of bamboo, wood or bare rock (perfect for a grotto that wouldn’t look out of place in the Playboy mansion.)

Manufactured stone panels are easy to install – and unlike granite or brick, can quickly be mounted on existing bathroom walls with glue and screws. You can even cut them to size with a regular wood saw, rather than specialist tile or stonecutters. This gives homeowners incredible freedom to create the bathroom of their dreams. They’re also completely waterproof – perfect for use in a shower or bathroom.

Check out our installation guides for instructions on how to mount our faux panels, and our gallery for inspirational pictures of manufactured stone being used inside – and outside – customer’s homes.

With faux panels, a classic hotel-style wet room is within the reach of any homeowner – and will certainly be a design feature you’ll want to show off.

One of our customers reveals her stunning rustic bathroom, and the innovative technique she used to get the ‘uncovered stonework’ look that suits the room so perfectly.

Sue transformed her bathroom with our Oxford panels, plus joint compound and sand

Visit old farmhouses in England or Ireland and you’ll often see the most amazing interior walls – where stacked stone had been covered up for decades by wattle or filler, and is then loving chipped away to uncover the natural beauty of bare stone. It’s a timeless trick that really shows off the history and heritage of an old home.

Here in the United States, even our oldest and most historic houses are generally made from wood – meaning the ‘uncovered’ stone look is very rare even in buildings that date back a century or more.

Fortunately, an enterprising fan of Faux Panels pioneered a way to get that authentic renovated stonework look using nothing more than joint compound, sand and our Oxford stone veneer wall panels.

“We added a mixture of joint compound and sand,” customer Sue explained, in an email accompanying the photos she sent in, “and applied them over some areas of the panels to make it appear like the stone had been ‘uncovered’ during a renovation.”

It was simple trick – but by pairing the panels with rustic, bare wood cabinets and faux wood window headers, the results are remarkable.

“We used barn siding and also tinted several of the rocks to vary the colors more,” Sue explained. Wrought iron accessories and finishing touches like an antique milking stool really also show off Sue’s innovative decorating technique.

Cleverly considered accessories and matching fittings completed the look

The finished renovation results in a bathroom that looks like it belongs in some centuries-old French farmhouse, or ancient Irish cottage. Hard to believe it was all brought vividly to life with a few simple tools, our stone veneer panels and a very creative imagination.

The trick to making the ‘uncovered’ stone look work is to use the joint compound and sand mixture in the corners and edges of the panels – especially around windows, joints and doors. In authentic old houses, these are the spots that decorators normally leave the filler in place – to add stability to what might be less than solid stonework.

The real secret, though, is ‘less is more.’ The key to the uncovered stone look is a subtle application of joint compound and sand – never being the focus of the transformation; just a frame to add depth.

This is because the way to make the technique ‘pop’ is to showcase it with matching furniture accessories and trim – that’s what makes Sue’s bathroom so impressive and should be your aim if you try a similar project.

Down in Texas, they don’t do things in half measures – and that includes kitchen remodeling.

Cathy's kitchen design underwent an incredible transformation

If you need proof, just look at the incredible results Cathy got when she decided to add a little ‘wow’ to the kitchen design of her Grayson County home. She certainly went further than just a lick of paint:

“Faux stone was definitely the way to go,” she wrote to us, showing us the ‘before’ and ‘after’ pictures.

Before, Cathy’s kitchen was pleasant enough – but the wooden cabinets didn’t seem to gel with the plain white walls, and the carpet was completely out of place.

To create a more harmonious kitchen design, Cathy’s family selected to use a beautiful ensemble of cherry wood cabinets, marble counter tops, gleaming stainless steel appliances and rugged stone tiles – and made something even greater than the sum of those parts with the strategic use of our Norwich Kentucky Dry Stack Panels in Desert Sand.

The results, as you can see from the picture, were spectacular.

BEFORE: Plain walls and counters made for a lifeless kitchen

“It’s a great product,” Cathy writes, “and we’re thrilled with our new kitchen.” The faux stone added what she calls “the Wow factor!”

“We had a brick layer at our house and he came in to see the remodel,” she tells us, “and it took even him a few minutes to figure out that it wasn’t real stack stone!”

Where Cathy’s kitchen remodeling project really shines is in the way she’s got all the intricate corners of the walls and counters matched perfectly; so the faux stone panels blend together perfectly, just like real stacked stone would.

It looks impressive – and it is – but the beauty of faux interior paneling is that this sort of detail you can match in your own home, with only the most basic tools. Check out our how-to-guides for step-by-step instructions on how to install, cut, mitre and caulk Norwich Kentucky Dry Stack Panels yourself.

AFTER: Faux stone is the perfect addition to new counters and appliances

But while installation is easy, it takes real talent and vision to envision and then create a kitchen as harmonious and balanced as Cathy’s.

What’s so impressive about her remodel isn’t just the clever use of Norwich Kentucky Dry Stack Panels, but the way in which the faux stone works so beautifully with every other aspect of the remodel – the kitchen cabinets, the counter tops and the stone tiling.

That’s what makes emails and photos like Cathy’s so exciting to receive. We’ve seen countless pictures of home and kitchen remodeling using just about every variety of panel we produce. Every one of them is impressive – but we’ve yet to see two that are alike!

It’s no secret that our wall coverings and siding look great – often better than the real thing. That’s certainly what we hear from our customers, like Jared; who wrote “no one knows they’re not the real thing!” Dean, another customer, boasted: “Most people don’t realize that it is NOT real stone until they are either told or investigate with touch.”

But what’s the secret to our faux panels and siding? How do we get them looking so breathtakingly realistic?

Oxford panels are molded directly from real brick, stone and wood

The first step is to find real brick, stone, wood and timber to copy from. We start with truly beautiful examples of the material we want to copy, and then use state-of-the-art techniques to capture every intricate detail and texture perfectly: persevering them forever in very durable, high-density polymer.

Our techniques allow for an unprecedented level of detailing; right down to pits and chinks in each individual brick and stone. Our customers aren’t exaggerating when they say it’s almost impossible to tell them apart from the ‘real thing’ by looks alone.

Following molding, we color them in a variety of natural-looking shades that are practically impervious to color degradation. This allows you to keep exactly the same color and texture no matter how many square feet you intend to cover – something that’s not always possible or practical when using real stone or wood.

It’s this painstaking production process that results in the incredible realism of our wall panels – practically indistinguishable from the ‘real thing.’ What does set them apart, however, is their practicality.

Norwich panels are carefully colored to resemble authentic stone or wood

Ease of installation and affordability mean you can bring the classic elegance of stone, brick or wood to parts of your home you could never do with ‘real’ wood or stone. In addition, our panels are completely impervious to the elements – something that real wood paneling, and even some brick or stone, isn’t.

This gives you immense flexibility in where to install them – from the exterior of your home to a shower, bathroom or basement. To added piece of mind, our Oxford and Norwich lines can be purchased in Fire Rated (other lines can be Class A fire rated as well, depending on the volume you’re purchasing.)

So it’s worth remembering that our faux panels don’t just look ‘as good as the real thing.’ In many ways, they’re actually superior.

Many homeowners have free reign when it comes to personalizing their homes and properties – but others face a challenge when it comes to making their living space feel uniquely ‘theirs.’

Renaissance Faires inspired Josiah's interior design

Take 25-year-old Josiah, for example.

Monday to Friday, if you met him on the subway, you wouldn’t give this I.T. specialist a second glance. But, during the summer months, he’s away wielding a sword at Renaissance Faires across the country.

“I’ve always loved Renaissance Faires,” he told us, “ever since I was a teenager. There’s the romance, the heroism – and all the girls in corsets.” His love of the Renaissance lifestyle has stretched to several hand-made costumes, a collection of swords and axes and even a half-suit of armor that cost more than is first car.

But when Josiah got the opportunity to move from the suburbs of Long Island to New York City, it seemed like he’d finally have to follow the advice his parents had been giving him since he hit 21 – and “grow up.”

“Something told me swords and surplices wouldn’t exactly ‘fit in’ in Queens,” he explained, which is where he ended up finding a modest studio apartment to rent.

But in the end, Josiah was able to bring a little bit of his rebel, Renaissance lifestyle to the big city – thanks to stone veneer panels.

Carlton panels recreate the Middle Ages look perfectly

“My apartment’s on the top floor of a three family home,” he explained,” and the owner actually lives downstairs. When I moved in, he told me to ‘decorate it however I wanted.’”

“He was probably only expecting me to splash on a coat of paint or something; but when he saw the removal truck roll up with my suit of armor, he was the one who suggested what I eventually ended up doing.”

In order to add a little period charm to his apartment design, Josiah’s landlord suggested he use stone veneer panels – and even offered to help them install them.

“Because you could install them with screws and glue, he didn’t mind me putting up panels on one wall of my apartment,” Josiah explained. “At least, not after I’d signed a two-year lease!”

In the end, Josiah picked out Carlton Cobblestone Faux Panels to cover the wall at the head of his bed: “I liked those the best because they really looked like they could have come from a medieval castle.”

At 45” wide, it didn’t take many panels to cover the wall – and it was very affordable. “With installation and everything, I worked it out to be about $12 a square foot,” Josiah told us, “which wasn’t bad, since my apartment is tiny!”

Paired with a rich, royal-red bedspread, plus wall displays for his swords and axes (and that famous half suit of armor) the result looks straight out of the Middle Ages; and Josiah loves it.

“The only sticking point is with my Mom,” he jokes. “She says I’ll never be able to bring a girl home with the place looking like this.”

Although so far, he’s the first to admit that hasn’t been a situation he’s yet needed to deal with!