From game-changing Modern Farmhouse facades to emerging Japandi styles, using the best building products, here are the ten best home facades of 2024 that really stood out and wowed us.

Bakker Homes’ Modern Farmhouse

If you love the Modern Farmhouse look, you will simply adore this single-storey house facade by Bakker Homes. A melting pot of old meets new, this house design perfectly evokes the Modern Farmhouse style of architecture in all the right ways.

It blends traditional and contemporary elements and puts the spotlight on the charming farmhouse style with striking high gables and natural-look materials on the facade. Dark charcoal tones contrast with an off-white textural facade to set the street appeal for this stunner.

The finer details:

Products used: Hardie™ Oblique™ Cladding, Hardie™ Brushed Concrete Cladding and Hardie™ Fine Texture Cladding

A Japandi delight in the heart of Melbourne

James Hardie’s followers clearly love this Japandi oasis, featuring an ultra-modern single-storey house facade in the heart of Melbourne, designed by BuildHer Collective. How do we know? We posted the house three times on Instagram and it saw a combined engagement rate of 4.24%.

Natural light, indoor-outdoor living and embracing imperfections is what the Japandi look is all about, and this home has it in spades. To maximise natural light, the house wraps around an internal courtyard featuring Hardie™ Fine Texture Cladding, which works to diffuse light to give the home a fine matte finish.

The finer details:

Products used: Hardie™ Fine Texture Cladding and Linea™ Weatherboard

Higlett House by Loni Parker

Did someone say Mid-Century Modern stunner? Say hello to Higlett House. When we launched the Modern Homes Forecast in 2024 and shared this facade on Instagram, it reached more than 18,000 people with an engagement rate of 2.34%. Featured in Adore Magazine, all this dated home took was a Palm Springs-inspired update using a fresh white reclad of Linea™ Weatherboard to return it to its former glory.

The finer details:

Products used: Linea™ Weatherboard

Box Modern duplex from Kate Lawrence and EMK Architects

Is this one of the best contemporary double-storey house facades in Australia? Our Pinterest audience surely thinks so, with this warm and inviting Box Modern duplex receiving our top engagement rate of 9.7% in 2024. Kate Lawrence and EMK Architects used Hardie™ Fine Texture Cladding from the Hardie™ Architectural Collection to simplify the duplex build and achieve a beautiful, clean design with sleek lines, dimension and interest. Not only are Hardie™ Architectural Collection products Australian-made, but they also come with a 25-year warranty, making them the ideal building material.

The finer details:

Products used: Hardie™ Fine Texture Cladding

Modern Heritage transformation by @working.on.walter

Nothing says dramatic double-storey house facade upgrade like before and after pictures, and this stunning Victorian terrace transformation does exactly that. Based in Ascot Vale, Victoria, this Modern Heritage home was our fourth best-performing house on TikTok with an engagement rate of 3.72% and more than 27,000 impressions and views. Contrast is a key design style of the Modern Heritage look and the owner-builders, @working.on.walter, achieved this by using Axon™ Cladding for the entire extension to contrast with the heritage facade.

The finer details:

Products used: Axon™ Cladding

A Modern Barn by homeowners Nick and Hannah

This is what building goals are made of. Featuring Hardie™ Oblique™ Cladding from the Hardie™ Architectural Collection both inside and outside the home, this striking black Barn home features all the classic modern house facade hallmarks of the Barn style. Think clean lines, a pitched roof, and character-filled shadows that shift throughout the day thanks to the bold, contemporary aesthetic of the cladding.

The finer details:

Products used: Hardie™ Oblique™ Cladding

A Modern Coastal forever family home

We know how much our audience loves to experience the best beach house facades in Australia, which is why our Facebook Reel of Bec’s Modern Coastal family home was our second-best-performing house on Facebook in 2024 with an engagement rate of 4.63%.

This home perfectly exudes the Modern Coastal style where the indoors seamlessly transition to the outdoors. Linea™ Weatherboard was used on the exterior to perfectly create the coastal feel; the product’s durability means it will also withstand the home’s proximity to the beach, making the product choice ideal.

The finer details:

Products used: Linea™ Weatherboard

A custom-built duplex in Melbourne by Futureflip

“The block was located in a heritage conservation area to the historical nature of the suburb, so we needed to design and build something contemporary in style but still sympathetic to the heritage streetscape,” says Neil Hipwell, founding director of Futureflip, in our fifth top-performing TikTok video of 2024.

The result? Heritage charm combined with contrasting modern-day building materials to get the look. Neil’s team used the deep grooves of Linea™ Weatherboard to give the weatherboard look, while Axon™ Cladding was used on the first floor to give the texture the home needed.

The finer details:

Products used: Linea™ Weatherboard and Axon™ Cladding

A coastal home renovation by Three Birds Renovation Reno School graduate

If you love taking a voyeuristic walk-through of other stunning renovations, you’ll love this chic coastal home update by Fiona, a graduate of Three Birds Renovations’ popular Reno School. To achieve the warm, light-filled Modern Coastal look, Fiona opted to use Linea™ Weatherboards, which perfectly create the wow factor coastal chic street appeal her home deserves.

The finer details:

Products used: Linea™ Weatherboard

A showstopper Japandi home

Contemporary single-storey house facades don’t get better than this. Introducing the last house in our best facades of houses for the 2024 round-up: this cosy Japandi-style home, called 'Waikanae' on Aotearoa in New Zealand’s North Island.

A space full of calm, this build was created using Stria™ Cladding from the Hardie™ Architectural Collection. “Stria™ Cladding achieves the bold vertical lines we wanted to complement the linear design,” says the home’s architectural designer, Peter Davis.

The finer details:

Products used: Stria™ Cladding

Main image: Waikanae is a cosy Japandi-style home featuring Stria™ Cladding from the Hardie™ Architectural Collection

Architecture & Design Team

James Hardie Australia

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