Creative Faux Panels

Wainscoting and siding expert Brad Krohn recently sent us photos of a great new storefront design project he’d completed in Milton, Wisconsin – using our artificial stone panels to give a new business an incredible new look.

Ugly brick, flaking paint and crumbling plaster made this storefront anything but beautiful.

As you can see from the “before” picture, the storefront Brad was asked to transform had seen better days.

Bare brick walls, flaking paint and crumbling plaster meant that customers were more likely to cross the street than walk inside.

But Brad managed to completely transform the structure by using a combination of traditional exterior siding and our Carlton Fieldstone Wall artificial stone panels – creating a stunning dual-finish effect that makes the vintage building look brand new.

And the best part? Brad’s approach saved both time and money.

Traditional exterior siding was given a twist by using artificial stone panels as a contrasting texture.

Our faux panels are molded from durable high-density polyurethane; and attached straight onto the wall with just a layer of drainage mat in between.

This meant they took just hours to install – as opposed to the days or weeks it would have taken to mount real stone to the building.

Even better, because they’re molded directly from real stone and intricately colored to match, the result was practically indistinguishable from using authentic fieldstone.

The finished result was smart, modern and appealing.

Plus, because our panels cost a fraction of what real stone does (not to mention saving on material and labor costs) the entire project wrapped up well under budget; giving the new store owners an incredible finished store for a very affordable price.

Brad was justifiably proud of his hard work – and we’re excited to be able to share it with you here.

If you have your own faux panels project you think people would be interested in seeing, please be sure to send it to us at info@fauxpanels.com. We’d love to post it!

Since colonial days, Americans have put a premium on stone or brick homes over the more traditional wood and frame buildings; but the cost of construction with stone is not always one homeowners can afford. One Faux Panel customer, Gary Stelman, used stacked stone veneer panels to get the best of both worlds for his Pennsylvania home.

America has always been an expanding nation – which is why American homes are traditionally made of affordable, readily available materials like wood. It’s made masonry, stone and brick homes something of a premium; something customer Gary Stelman, from Horsham, Pa., was well aware of.

But when it came to changing the look of his beautiful masonry home, adding a real stone façade threatened to be costly, impractical and time consuming. This is why Gary decided to go another route; with our Wellington Dry Stack Earth color Faux Panels.

Molded from durable polyurethane foam, these panels perfectly mimicked the appearance and texture of real dry stack walling; but at the fraction of a price. Even better, they attached straight to the sides of Gary’s existing home; with just a layer of drainage mat between the wall and the panels to meet building code.

That meant Gary was able to transform his home in just days; and as you can see from the before and after pictures, the results were impressive.

Some of the tricks that gave Gary such incredible results included staggering each row of panels, so the repetition of pattern was hidden and the panels blended together seamlessly. Colored caulk was also used to hide where screws attached the panels; and seam the interlocking panels together.

We regularly receive pictures of our faux panels in action, but Gary’s project was particularly impressive because he transformed the entire exterior of his home. Have you managed to get results that rival his? If so, please send pictures to info@fauxpanels.com. We’d love to see them!

BEFORE: A stucco exterior gave Gary's home a dated look.

BEFORE: Because it was made of masonry already, a stone exterior would add little value; not enough to justify the cost.

BEFORE: The contrasting rooflines offered Gary some potential for creating a unique look with faux panels.

AFTER: Gary kept part of the house in original stucco, to beautifully highlight the new stacked stone veneer exterior.

AFTER: Covering the entire house in stacked stone veneer cost a fraction of using real stone, or a real brick facade.

AFTER: Half the cost of building in stone or brick is labor. Using faux panels gave Gary the opportunity to reface his home in just days.

When Daniel Bruce built his brand new home last August, he wanted to add a final detail to the foundation design. Little did he know how affordable and quick that could be, thanks to our artificial stone panels.

In just a few hours, Daniel transformed the front of his home with artificial stone panels

“We constructed our house last August,” customer Daniel wrote to us, including before and after pictures of his project. “We had a poured wall foundation that left approximately two feet exposed in the front of the house.”

Although fine as it was, Daniel had a definite look in mind that he wanted to achieve with his new home.

“We wanted a stone look to be added to the top of the foundation,” he wrote, “but didn’t want to have to pay someone to come in and do this!”

The solution was to be found on FauxPanels.com. Daniel ordered our Cambridge Dry Stack Stone Paneling and set to work adding the final detail to complete his house front. Even he was surprised how easy it was.

“After purchasing the panels, it took us only a few hours to install them – in all, 24 panels! And this included having to trim the panels to meet our dimensions.”

Like all of our faux panels, our Cambridge Dry Stack can be glued or nailed straight to a concrete foundation – and you can cut it to size with a regular wood saw. Compare that to the hours of painstaking labor – and thousands of dollars in materials – if using authentic stacked stone.

“They were very easy to install,” Daniel admits, “and they look fantastic! The only details we had to add were purchasing the dark gray caulking to cover up the seams and finishing touches.”

As you can see from the pictures, the results were as impressive as they were speedy. In less than a day, Daniel’s home went from bare concrete to beautiful stone; for a fraction of the price of using the real thing.

Daniel signed off: “We couldn’t be more pleased with the cost, the work time, and the overall look to our new home!”

In Gillette, Wyoming, one FauxPanels.com customer wanted to make her home stand out from the crowd. Here’s how she did it with fake stone exterior siding.

Sherry Samuels, from Wyoming, loves the secluded street she lives on – with its quiet neighbors and cute little ranch homes. But while the lifestyle is great, the rows of identical houses don’t make for much variety.

Ledgestone exterior siding added a beautiful new dimension to Sherry's home.

Which is why Sherry decided to make her home stand out from the crowd; with our Carlton Ledgestone Faux Panels. She used them to replace the same-old, cookie-cutter exterior siding that every other house on her block used; and the results look incredible.

“The front of the house looks so terrific,” Sherry enthusiastically told us, sending in pictures of her home, and the neighbor’s houses for comparison. “I have gotten so many compliments!”

As we discussed before, pre-fab and modular homes make a great match for fake stone panels and the same design aspects that make those properties are shared with the ranches in Sherry’s neighborhood.

For instance, Sherry trimmed the panels to line the siding and wainscoting around the base of her porch – easy enough to accomplish as the Carlton panels are molded from durable polyurethane that can easily be cut to size with a standard wood saw.

Neighboring houses show what a contrast the new panels make.

The front of the home also features Ledgestone panels – which Sherry trimmed to size to suit the front door and large window. As a final detail, she attached contrasting window panels that finish the look and help give the seamless impression of real stonework siding.

“I’ve enclosed pictures of other houses in my street. These are my neighbors and the houses shown look just as mine did before I installed the panels.”

As a before and after, the pictures show what a dramatic improvement adding the panels made to Sherry’s house; and they whetted her appetite for further projects.

“Next spring we may finish and do the front gable,” she writes. Hopefully she’ll send us pictures!

Millions of Americans were hit hard by Hurricane Irene last weekend; with some suffering devastating damage to their homes and properties.

Stone veneer panels are great for installing in a finished basement; even one prone to flooding.

Fortunately, many of us on the east coast escaped with relatively minor damage; losing shingles, water in the basement and other inconveniences that remind us of just how lucky we were.

While repairing roofing and cleaning out a flooded basement is a pain, many turn the inconvenience into an opportunity; turning simple repair and maintenance work into an excuse to start, or finish, a home remodeling project they’ve been putting off for a while.

Our faux panels, exterior siding and other faux stone, brick and wood products are great tools for making the most of these remodeling projects, as they’re affordable, easy to install and 100% waterproof; which is especially relevant as many of us are being forced to reevaluate just how vulnerable our homes are to water.

Even better, if a post-flood home design project is on the “to-do” list, this Labor Day you can instantly save 5% when you order faux panels online by using a special Labor Day sale coupon FauxPanels.com has created.

Labor Day sale coupon

It’s easy to use. Just shop for what you want online, at fauxpanels.com, and then enter the Labor Day sale code at checkout – SMP11.

This savings code is valid throughout September 5, 2011 – and must be used at the time of purchase and cannot be combined with any other savings or sale offer.

Let us know what you buy – and how you use them! And if you send in before and after photos to info@fauxpanels.com, we might even ask to use them on our blog!

Tested to extremes - the same panel at 72° F, -45° F and a baking 135° F

When we say that our stone veneer panels are weatherproof, those aren’t just empty words. Each panel in our range is molded from tough, durable polyurethane and treated to be impervious to humidity, water and insect damage.

But don’t just take our word for it. Here are some of the grueling tests out stone veneer siding and panels go through before we market them as weatherproof:

• Freeze-Thaw: In North America, temperatures can go from one extreme to the other in a very short timespan; and so can our panels. We test them for hours, with a brutal cycle of conditions that mimic those found in nature: 155 degrees Fahrenheit in a convection oven, 12 degrees blow freezing in a cold box and over fifteen hours at 100% humidity and 100 degrees Fahrenheit. After three ‘cycles’ of these temperature extremes, our siding panels hadn’t checked or cracked.
• Salt Spray: As anybody who drives during winter will know, salt spray can be viciously corrosive. We expose our panels over 100 hours of salt spray to mimic months of exposure to the ocean breeze and corrosive elements. Our panels passed – without any imperfections or blisters.
• Humidity Test: Whether you live in the sweltering everglades, or plan to install stone veneer in your bathroom or kitchen, our panels are expected to stand up to heat and moisture. In fact, we test them at 100% humidity and 100 degrees Fahrenheit for other 100 hours to see if the panels blister or the color shifts. They didn’t.
• Immersion Test: Our panels are perfect for water features; and we test them extensively to make sure they’re up to the job. This involves over a day immersed in water, following by scoring to confirm that the panels remained impervious to water and that they didn’t blister or warp.
• Weathering: Our customers tell us: “Your panels look like the real thing.” In order to keep that look, we test our stone veneer siding and panels under an Ultra Violet light for almost 750 hours – proving that they’ll stand up to decades of sunlight.

These brutal testing standards ensure one thing and one thing only – that customers can be confident the stone veneer panels they install will look as good as the day they bought them for many years to come.

To see the specific details of our testing, for every panel in our range, you can visit our specifications page.

In one of our recent blog posts, The Many Faces of Stone Veneer, we talked about a few of the many ways stone veneer can be used inside and out to enhance the look and value of your home or place of business. Since stone veneer can be applied in so many different ways, we couldn’t fit it all into one post – so read on for even more ideas.

Modular Homes

In the past, adding the look of stone or brick masonry to modular homes wasn’t really a possibility. The real stuff’s weight, complicated installation and difficult transportability limited the modular home’s design reach. Luckily, the invention of polyurethane stone and brick paneling allowed modular homeowners to get the look and feel of traditional construction without all of the expense and hassle. Now you can spiff up the exterior with a foundation covering, exterior siding or an entrance column, or warm up the interior with brick or stone in the kitchen, family room, around the fireplace and more.

Wine Cellars

If you’ve made the investment of adding a wine cellar to your home, you want to make sure that it’s walls mirror the sophistication and taste of the wine it houses. Luckily, stone veneer panels offer a simple, easy to install solution to help
create an inspired interior design. An added benefit is the panels’ imperviousness to moisture, a particularly important factor for a room that is often located in the basement level of a home.

Business Signs

In most cases, the first thing your clients or customers lay eyes upon when visiting your place of business is your sign. First impressions are key, so you want to make sure that your business sign invites confidence with a professional and attractive look. Many of our customers have found great success by using stone veneer panels to surround or accent their outdoor signs – a project that can be done quickly and with little expense to complete your sign on time and under budget.

To see even more ways stone veneer has been used in these applications, visit the Modular Home, Wine Cellar and Business Sign photo galleries.

We always enjoy receiving photos of our customer’s projects using faux panels, but we especially love getting “before and after” images – it really drives home what our panels can do to transform the look of a home.

Before

A great recent example of this comes out of Calgary Canada, where Thea and Rick Connery revitalized the exterior of their cozy cabin with Multi-Color Wellington River Rock Panels. As you can see in the “before” photo above, the bottom section of the home’s clapboard siding was beginning to rot, evidenced by the ripples and buckling. After a quick and easy installation of the faux rock panels with gray trim, the home’s exterior is brought to its full potential – looking amazing against the rich red color of the wood.

After

After

Not Just a Pretty Face

Another bonus to this story is that the original rotting of the wood was caused by a combination of rainwater up-splash from the deck and snow accumulation. The River Rock faux panels are made from a closed cell polyurethane, so by replacing the wood clapboards this rotting problem will never happen again. Even after years of Canadian winters!

So see more of what you can do with faux stone and other types of exterior siding and panels, browse through our photo gallery.

We all know that the housing market has taken quite a beating that last few years. Google “housing market” and it’s a lot of gloom and doom. If you’re looking to sell your home, it’s a good idea to ramp up its curb appeal without spending a fortune.

Studies have shown that pouring large amounts of money into lavish remodeling projects doesn’t always guarantee that you’ll make that money back upon sale of your home. In most cases, you actually lose out. Making smart choices equals a bigger return on investment.

Curb appeal is one of the most important factors for a potential buyer. Of course – it’s the first thing they see! In addition to some basic exterior improvements such as clearing yard debris, mowing the lawn, maybe planting some flowers – you also may want to consider replacing your home’s siding – especially if you’re home’s existing exterior is looking worn or outdated.

I wanted something that would look natural to our area in New York yet get rid of the horrible stucco and help our cookie cutter raised ranch stand out. – Sharon M.

A good example of a homeowner’s success siding her house with panels came from Sharon M.. She was kind enough to share photos of the final results she achieved using Regency Stacked Stone panels to update the look of her raised ranch in New York. Not bad for a stay-at-home mom with no carpentry experience. Actually – really, really good!

Using faux paneling for an exterior siding project may be a very good option for you. Not only are the materials less expensive than using real stone, brick or wood – most average homeowners find they complete the installation themselves in a very short time. Not having to hire a contractor – Bonus!!

Click here to read Sharon’s full testimonial and see other customer’s project results using faux paneling.

Entrance with Nailon Stone in Glacier White

There are two towns in the area where I live that are about six miles away from each other, yet virtually a universe apart when it comes to their building aesthetic. One of them is your classic New England village, with stately old whaling captain houses – lots of white wood and black shutters. The other is well…not. The majority of the town is covered in little summer cottages and restaurants that are every bright color you could imagine, usually in the pink and purple families. We’re not talking understated lavenders and roses here…

Exterior with Glacier White Nailon Stone

So shocking magenta or violet may not be your cup of tea, but the average white wood house isn’t really your bag either. You might want to consider the look of white brick or stone. White looks good with everything, no matter what your landscaping or surrounding areas look like, yet the texture can give your house that little something extra. And what a more perfect time to spiffy up your home’s exterior than spring?

Luckily faux panels are super-easy to clean, and if after awhile you feel like a change, they easily can be painted. You just might want to avoid that can of Pepto-Bismol pink.

Colonial White Nailon Brick