Two fibre cement claddings from James Hardie Australia have helped deliver a striking modern coastal look on a refurbished display home belonging to Worthington Homes.
Refreshing a dated facade and creating a more visually striking look through a modern revamp was the upgrade Liam Worthington of Worthington Homes had envisioned for one of their display homes. A unique eye-catching design was required to ensure the home stood out to potential home buyers in the display village.
Seeking a modern coastal look, with a Palm Springs vibe, Hardie Brushed Concrete Cladding and Hardie Fine Texture Cladding ticked the boxes for Worthington, delivering a welcoming, enticing facade. “We designed the facade around the fibre cement cladding range from James Hardie, in particular the new Hardie Brushed Concrete Cladding as there is nothing like it in terms of its distinctive embedded textured finish,” he said.
“Hardie Fine Texture Cladding was selected to complement the Hardie Brushed Concrete Cladding as it gave a clean rendered finish, and a fantastic straight-edge look to the roof line, delivering the sharp box edge we wanted.
“The render look of Hardie Fine Texture Cladding allowed our use of Hardie Brushed Concrete Cladding to feature, drawing visitor’s eyes to a welcoming entry way and giving them an opportunity to investigate and view the cladding up close.”
Hardie Brushed Concrete Cladding was used at the entry to the single-storey home, giving the house a new, inviting look. “Using Hardie Brushed Concrete Cladding at the home’s entry was a strategic choice,” said Worthington. “We wanted people to see the cladding and its embedded texture. It is an intriguing design feature that changes with the light depending on where you are observing it from.”
The embedded texture within the 8.5mm thick fibre cement panels is both a building and design feature delivering on a visually sophisticated, softly brushed concrete look without any specialist trades required. Conveniently, the fibre cement cladding is delivered pre-primed and ready to paint. Worthington’s decision to paint the Hardie Brushed Concrete Cladding crisp white to tie back with the cantilevered roof line added dimension and visual interest, making the home’s entrance even more inviting.
“Using Hardie Brushed Concrete Cladding at the home’s entry was a strategic choice,” he said. “We wanted people to see the cladding and its embedded texture. It is an intriguing design feature that changes with the light depending on where you are observing it from.”
Wanting to upgrade the home’s facade quickly and efficiently, Worthington appreciated using Hardie Brushed Concrete Cladding and the benefits of its embedded texture, which gave the house a modern look without the trouble of a traditional brick render. “If we were building from scratch we would use Hardie Brushed Concrete Cladding extensively to save time and reduce costs, especially when compared to brick render or other exterior materials,” he added.
Further reducing the upgrade costs was the efficiency of the cladding’s panel sizes. “Three-metre panels were ideal for minimising wastage and presented significant time and cost savings, especially reduced labour costs if you have trades familiar with the installation process,” said Worthington. Another installation advantage was the use of the Hardie 9mm Aluminium Base Trim, which helped his team ensure the required ground clearance at the home’s ground floor entry. “We made sure to align the cladding’s joints with the window openings and to be honest, you could barely notice them once the walls were painted,” said Worthington, who appreciated that the rendered brick joints and junctions with both types of Hardie fibre cement cladding were seamless.
Hardie Fine Texture Cladding, used on the upper section of the roof line, was chosen to complement Hardie Brushed Concrete Cladding on the facade. “Hardie Fine Texture Cladding was ideal for the roof line box edge and allowed us to achieve a lovely subtle touch, and the vertical shiplap joints kept the look consistent with the vertical lines on the front facade,” said Worthington.
Long-time customers of Bunnings Trade Centre Greystanes, Worthington Homes looks forward to further personalising their building projects by utilising other Hardie exterior cladding combinations in the near future. “With the cladding being so adaptable in creating a modern minimalist facade with interest, we would choose to use Hardie products for the majority of any future wall system. It’s very versatile and we would like to see how Hardie Brushed Concrete Cladding would work with Linea Weatherboard or Hardie Oblique Cladding to bring a unique design to a home.”
Hardie Brushed Concrete Cladding and Hardie Fine Texture Cladding are products from our Hardie Architectural Collection. With Hardie Architectural Collection, It’s Possible™ to make modern like never before, from the ground up.
Project details
Project: Worthington Homes’ Display Home
Builder: Worthington Homes
Distributor: Bunnings Trade Centre Greystanes
Products:
- Hardie Fine Texture Cladding
- Hardie Brushed Concrete Cladding
Photographer: Josh Hill Photography
