Creative Faux Panels

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!

When you cover a wall with fake stone panels, one of the classiest ways to treat electrical switches and outlets is to surround them with beveled stone frames. The frames are part of our Wellington line of dry stack fake stone wall panels, but you can use them with other panels as well. They come in seven colors, so you’re sure to find one that coordinates with just about any panel color.

Ah, but you say: “What about double and triple switches?”

I’m so happy you asked. The answer’s in the picture:

You see the trick right away. But let’s spell it out and fill in the details. First, for a double switch.

• You’ll need two frames for a double switch. And you’ll need a tube of matching textured caulk to form the “grout line” between the two frame pieces.
• Cut each of the two frames into a C shape, keeping the legs of the C as long as possible without cutting into the miters at the corners.



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Dry fit the two pieces together and lay your switch plate on top to check for size. You’ll want just enough space between the legs of the Cs to form a nice-looking grout line. If the legs are too long, carefully trim off a bit.
• You can assemble the two pieces in place on the wall, or on a work surface ahead of time. If you assemble them on a work surface, lay down a sheet of wax paper to work on. Apply a little grout to the ends of the legs, and position the pieces together so they’re square, even and properly spaced. Then carefully wipe the caulk to form a neat grout line. Leave the assembly undisturbed while the caulk firms up, and then handle it gently when you glue it to the wall the next day.

For a triple switch, you follow the same procedure, but you need to add straight pieces between the legs of the Cs to make the frame wider. So you end up with two grout lines top and bottom.

The good news is that you can cut these two extra straight pieces from the leftover bits of the two frames you’ve already cut. You don’t need to buy and cut up a third frame.