Sharing all our tips & tricks for how to make vinyl siding look BETTER & give your home more curb appeal with before & after pictures of our beautiful white farmhouse with red windows & doors & white PVC trim.
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White Farmhouse with Red Windows & Doors
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True confession… I am not a fan of vinyl siding.
We had also NEVER planned on redoing the previous siding due to the cost… also it was not our favorite.
When we realized our roofing was leaking…
we found out that part of the reason why was that the vinyl siding was put on incorrectly around all the windows & doors letting water get in…
Yikes!!!
So… over the course of the last 9 months we have embarked on the lovely (just kidding) & costly (not kidding) process of having our roof & siding replaced by roofing & siding contractors.
This exterior curb appeal project was really hard for the DIYers in us but redoing a roof or siding is not like redoing a bathroom that you can close off during the week & just work on over the weekends.
Farmhouse with Vinyl Siding Before
Our previous 3″ clapboard siding was tan with a faux wood grain & there was either no trim around the windows or giant red metal flashing.
Knowing that we were keeping our red windows left us with little options for vinyl siding color wise so we chose the ultimate farmhouse color… WHITE.
I LOVE white houses, have always dreamed of what our farmhouse would look like white & we even painted our last home white.
So a white farmhouse it was!
How to Make Vinyl Siding Look Better… It’s All About the Trim Baby
In my opinion, the one thing that makes vinyl siding look well… old, cheap & fake is the trim.
So all the J-channel & soffits that you would NEVER have on a vintage home or former farmhouse like ours.
That’s why the James Hardie cement siding looks so good because they use PVC trim too & it’s way MORE expensive siding than vinyl is.
Why we Chose Vinyl Siding Over James Hardie
Jason & I both really like the look of James Hardie siding however to add it to our white farmhouse would have cost us… $15,000 more!!!
However, it was not JUST the cost of the siding that had us decide to use vinyl siding.
One thing we also discovered is that you can not use foam board insulation with James Hardie.
With a 150+ year old farmhouse that is VERY drafty & expensive to heat it made zero sense to take out the foam board insulation that was already here.
White Farmhouse with Vinyl Siding with PVC Trim
Now, the PVC trim is more expensive but it makes a HUGE difference to our 5′ clapboard vinyl siding & helps make our white farmhouse with red windows look more authentic & adds a whole lot of character.
We used the 3″ PVC trim around all the red windows & doors as well as the top & bottom molding trim to hold the vinyl siding in.
We also added PVC bead board (like in our bathroom ceilings) under the roof overhangs like the front porch instead of using vinyl soffits.
The white siding & trim really make the red windows & doors pop!
I just LOVE the look of our new red front door on our white farmhouse.
White Farmhouse with White Board & Batten Vinyl Siding at the Front Porch
To help make our white farmhouse front porch & entrance stand out along with our new red front door we chose vertical board & batten vinyl siding.
The board & batten siding is a bit more than the normal horizontal vinyl siding but it really makes an impact for our white farmhouse’s front entrance.
Crossing our fingers, people will stop coming to the downstairs driveway door & use the front door of our white farmhouse instead.
White Siding with Red Garage Doors
We painted all the doors of our white farmhouse red including the garage doors.
We just love the pops of red to break up our all the white siding of farmhose.
White Farmhouse with Dark Bronze Gutters
To help break up all the white of our white farmhouse, we also chose dark bronze gutters for our home.
This dark bronze color is a similar color to the oil rubbed bronze of our new lights & ties in with our new dark grey roof.
We also hope the dark color of our gutters with not look as dirty over time as white gutters might.
In all honesty, I am not completely sold on the dark gutters & in a perfect budget free world would have chosen 1/2 round copper gutters.
But Jason really likes them so they are staying for now, ha!
White Farmhouse with Red Windows Reveal
Although the outside of our white farmhouse is not 100% done…
We still want to add a little more character with smaller trim around the windows & add PVC finials back on the front porch pergola…
I could not wait any longer to share our new white farmhouse with you guys!!!
If you are looking for tips on how to make your vinyl siding look better I hope our white farmhouse with red windows gives you lots of ideas!!!
Don’t hesitate to ask any questions you might have about the vinyl siding & PVC trim of our white farmhouse in the suburbs!
by Tara Lehman
Source Code for our White Farmhouse with Red Windows
- White Vinyl Siding – Certainteed Mainstreet 5″ woodgrain clapboard in Colonial White
- White Vinyl Board & Batten – Certainteed Board & Batten 8″ in Colonial White
- Red Windows – Marvin
- Farmhouse Front Door – Pella Special Order
- Red Paint on Doors – Sherwin Williams – Emerald Urethane Trim Enamel Rustic Red
- Gutters – Dark Bronze by Central Aluminum
- PVC & Azek Trim Around Windows & Doors
Don’t forget to pin our white farmhouse with red windows & my #1 tip for how to make vinyl siding look better & save it on Pinterest!
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