Bring your dream home to life — instantly.
Thinking about re-siding your home but don’t know where to start? Here are three easy steps to get you started on your re-side journey, including a quick guide to using the Hardie™ Designer, an AI design tool powered by Hover®.
Getting any project started is generally agreed to be the hardest part. When it comes to an exterior re-siding project, it’s easy to get caught up in an endless deluge of options and questions and decisions only to find you haven’t made any progress at all. Do you want lap or shingle, gray trim or brown trim, should you do an accent on the gable or not?
Luckily, at this stage in the process, you don’t have to have every detail ironed out. In fact, at this phase of your re-siding project planning, you get to have the most fun, drawing inspiration from your life and playing with color and profiles until you find ones you love.
The question you should ask yourself at this point is, “What does my dream home look like?” Followed by, “And how do I bring that vision to life on my home?”
Make lists
Take time to create a ‘wants’ list and a ‘needs’ list — you might want board and batten style trim, but you need siding that can withstand brutal Midwestern winters or hot and humid Floridian temperatures. Luckily, Hardie® Trim Battens already fit the bill, but keeping the lists separate helps to keep you on track and grounded if you have to choose between two incompatible features. It also helps establish expectations between you and your contractor, and limit impulsive decisions.
You might find it helpful to keep a third, ‘don’t want’ list of features you absolutely do not want to include. If you’ve had a negative experience with vinyl trim cracking or hate keeping up the maintenance on your current home’s wood siding, it’s important to note that.
Gather inspiration
Between TV, movies, magazines, and image aggregators like Pinterest, there’s no shortage of inspirational home content to draw from. In addition to popular media, taking a walk around your neighborhood, or a neighborhood you admire, can spark ideas.
Did the brightly contrasting trim on an otherwise standard Colonial catch your eye? Or did you like the mix of textures on the house with both shingles and paneling? Take a picture to remind yourself later. You don’t have to be limited by only looking at houses, either. Art and nature might encourage you to play with color in a way you hadn’t considered!
Collect these pieces of inspiration in a folder or digital file or create a Pinterest board to keep your ideas all in one spot. That way you can continue adding to it or share it with your partner, friends, or contractor to get their input.
Bring your dream to life!
Regardless of where you are in the inspiration gathering process — maybe you just know you want your home to be blue or maybe you know every detail down to the trim around your eaves — the Hardie™ Designer, powered by Hover®, will let you design your dream home with a single photo and the click of a button.
Gone are the days of complicated design rendering software and vague approximations of 'after.' Now, you can generate photorealistic reproductions of your home in unlimited architectural styles and Hardie® product designs.
Simply upload one photo of the front of your home and be blown away by the endless design opportunities with Hardie® siding products. Hardie™ Designer, powered by Hover®, can show you what your house might look like in the Modern Farmhouse or Tudor styles, or you can customize the siding and trim choices yourself.
Feel confident using the visualizer knowing the products displayed are not generic exterior siding products but Hardie® siding products from the catalog, color-matched to the ColorPlus® Technology finishes.* Instead of wondering if Hardie® Plank in Evening Blue or Mountain Sage would better suit your house, try both in the visualizer!
Once sure you’ve found your dream color, request a free sample to see (and feel!) the difference.
After trying on the different siding profiles and trim options, it’s easy to collaborate on the design with your partner or your contractor. Simply hit ‘save this design’ and, once saved, you’ll have the option to share a link with anyone you’d like feedback from.
Not working with a contractor yet? No problem. Request a quote and James Hardie will pair you with three skilled local contractors.
Exterior siding projects can be daunting and expensive to take on. By seeing your design beforehand and trying on different products until you're happy, Hardie™ Designer, powered by Hover®, seeks to help you re-side with confidence.
If you still need some inspiration, download our Inspiration Brochure and receive an in-depth catalog of Hardie® siding and trim options, as well as different applications for different styles. Alternatively, peruse our Exterior Design focused blogs, filled with expert design and style guidance, and see what clicks for you!
*Some variation may occur due to differences in screens and display settings.
