Choosing your products

Choose the best products for your home design

Once you have nailed the style of your home, it’s time to select the right products to suit your chosen facade and interiors.

Building a home can be daunting at first, but once you’ve selected the look you want, it’s all about finding the products that can bring this to life. If you are building or renovating, it’s important to look at the whole package: the seen and unseen of your new house; how it looks and how it feels; and how it will last into the future.

Start by choosing the right exterior, which will also set the tone for your interior. Having the confidence in your style and decisions from the start will ensure your new home feels cohesive and reflects the way your family lives. It’s about creating a home from the roof down and from the outside in. Connect with your personal style, discover the home designs you favour, and choose the right colour palettes – then partner with CSR to create a home you love.

Here are some of the most popular home designs on the market – and how to create them with CSR products:

Barnhouse

Barnhouse is an elegant, urban take on country style with an updated aesthetic and clean vertical lines. While traditional in floorplan, they often feature a streamlined facade, reflecting a modern sensibility.

Barnhouse homes feature classic cladding, a symmetrical gable roofline and long, open spaces. Consider a cladding in a timber style, which has the look you want, combined with the hard-wearing attributes of fibre-cement.

The elegant styling of a Barnhouse-style of home suits the streamlined look of A-line ridge capping, which aligns the capping of the roof end-to-end in one clean, straight line, with no steps.

These styles of homes work well with a darker and dramatic material colour palette, such as Bold Blacks, which features statement charcoals and blacks that complement the bold vertical lines in the materials, which in turn accentuate the angular elements of the architecture.

Make the most of big picture windows and connection to outside spaces by continuing your chosen cladding through to outdoor spaces, such as al fresco areas, as well as for the exterior of sheds and garages. 

Coastal

Coastal home designs pay homage to Australia’s spectacular ocean beaches, featuring expansive windows, weatherboards, and open plan living to connect the inside and outdoor spaces.

More than 85 per cent of Australians live within 50 kilometres of the coast, making it an integral part of our lifestyle. The closer you get to the ocean, the more resilient your exterior facades need to be to withstand natural forces such as strong winds and salt air. Hard-wearing and low-maintenance materials such as fibre cement and terracotta roof tiles should be front of mind when choosing the exterior of your new home.

With a mixed material facade and varying rooflines, a Coastal home has a simple and laid-back style. This design uses lightweight materials and prioritises connection to the outside to encourage airflow and invite in nature and light.

The key to making this design a success is to include a mix of textures – from PGH Stone through to smoothly rendered CSR Hebel – united by a limited colour selection. A fresh, all-white material palette can provide a cohesive and modern appearance.

Modernist

An update on the Mid-Century Modern aesthetic, the Modernist home design draws on architectural styling of that period to create a light-filled and liveable family home, often featuring a mixed material façade and carefully placed windows.

Let natural materials shine on a Modernist home by using grounded and textured exterior cladding with a flat or pitched tiled roof. Bring the outside in by continuing your cladding choice through internal gardens and courtyards.

Modernist home designs complement a neutral palette, using soft textures that reference natural materials and reflects the trend towards rustic finished materials.

For a bolder and more streamlined look, some homeowners are opting for terracotta and red shades, particularly in roofing, echoing popular mid-century shades. 

Classic

Classic homes have a relaxed and welcoming feeling. With traditional gable rooflines and distinctive fibre cement cladding, this style of home is comfortable and familiar.

Referencing the popular Hamptons look of recent years, but updating it for the contemporary Australian climate, lifestyle and landscape, the Classic home design features linear cladding details, slate-like roof tiles and a muted colour scheme.

You can achieve the look of traditional exterior timber cladding by using fibre cement cladding in a weatherboard style. An engineered product with productivity and durability benefits, fibre cement can mimic traditional building materials such as weatherboards, while providing classic charm.

Contemporary

The key elements of a Contemporary design invoke a commitment to minimalism, allowing exteriors to flow seamlessly into the interiors using a pared-back palette and curvaceous shapes, reflected throughout the connecting spaces.

Thoroughly modern, yet timeless, a Contemporary style of home exudes elegance and is best complemented with a neutral colour palette, either soft and subdued, or dark and dramatic.

Simplify your architectural style by choosing minimalistic exterior materials like low-maintenance, pre-finished fibre cement or sleek modern brick. Enhance the design with strategically placed windows to embrace natural light.

Industrial

An Industrial home has a striking street appeal. Contrasting finishes and textural elements, make a bold and dynamic statement.

Industrial homes live up to their name, drawing inspiration from commercial buildings and warehouses. Strong, bold material choices are durable enough for the Australian climate, as well as ageing beautifully with the surrounding environment.

To achieve this look, you can play with textures and colours, contrasting cladding can have a strong visual impact. You can balance the look with recycled or rustic look brick walls, topped off with a warehouse-style roofline.

Interested in learning more?

By providing building solutions for a better future, CSR is more than just a product supplier; we are a partner in your build, helping to bring your home to life – and reflecting your style.

Download our new Trend Forecast and the CSR Style Guide to understand how a combination of the right home designs and material colour palettes can create a home that suits you and your lifestyle.