Design blogs are filled with countless ideas for interiors. What about ideas for your exterior? How are you planning to envelop your home? Where will your main view look out to, your patio be awash with the smell of, and what will you drive up to at the end of each day? These fifty home exteriors show what it means to have a modern-looking façade. Using combinations of timber, plaster, bamboo, glass and concrete, they shoot up straight in large vertical panels, slither into long horizontal levels, and criss-cross with the forest and palm trees in a myriad of natural settings. Pick your favourite from our top fifty exteriors for yourself.
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Combine varnished timber, plaster and mushroom tones into one snazzy exterior design. This street side home finishes off its frontage with a row of manicured garden hedges.
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Integrate greenery into your home. This white brick creation lets in the light through a series of brick inlets, while a creeping fern drapes over the living area and garage.
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Modern homes don’t have to be in the city. Set in a stunning forest glade, white cherry blossoms and weeping willow trees create softness, while a black-painted column holds a room with a view.
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We’ve all dreamed of a modern log cabin from time to time. This paned wooden exterior runs its grooves smooth on the roof and perpendicular in its body, as it opens up its windows to a forest of pine.
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Sexy and sophisticated, this array of disjointed levels knows how to glow when the sun begins to set. A tall column of beige brick meets slatted wood panels in a plaster frame, letting light into common areas and giving privacy in areas where we like to hide.
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Sculpt your exterior garden with a few placed rocks. This modern building, resplendent with a tall concrete column, slatted wall of blinds and vertical glass panes matches its grey to a rock entrance and stairway.
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Use your pool to mimic the shape of your exterior. This long-line horizontal abode protects from the elements with glass and metal coverings, while a luxurious strip of blue runs its length.
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Mix corrugated steel, plaster and concrete for the perfect blend of modern and homely. This two-storey residence on a flat plot of land lets in the sun with skylights up to the stars.
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Using a different material in one area can highlight a space. Enfolded in steel, concrete and glass, this stunning horizontal wooden panel marks a clear path to the front door.
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A beautiful balcony heightens your enjoyment of the outdoors. Large, open-framed windows make the most of this rural setting, while glass railings allow a comfy seat in an outdoor pod.
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Outdoor lookouts don’t have to be high. This white plaster dream seats a small party in a wooden enclave, providing the perfect view to watch trimmed hedges, birds and bees pass by.
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Three interlocking levels show versatility of colour in this two-storey mansion. Featuring large panes of glass and even wider viewing platforms, its open-plan form creates a rural oasis.
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Let the city in, or keep the city out. This innovative apartment open shutters at the main gate and central window façade, making them solid again to protect from noise and fumes.
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Tropical exteriors can work in urban districts. This two-level home uses a bevy of bamboo shutters, wooden pool decking, wild tussocks and palm trees to achieve the look.
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A great design for a home or office, this building offers an industrial twist on the home above. Instead of bamboo shutters, metal grating offers a glimpse of the outdoors between hanging fairy lights. Instead of palm trees, oak-lined boulevards make the space green.
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Surprise guests with an unconventional garden. Planting hordes of pussywillow afront decorated grey brick, a wooden corridor lit by hanging pendants draws the eye in.
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Zip away in your jet boat from the moment you wake. This contemporary abode uses concrete, slatted wood and glass to create a cascade of layers that stretch over a lake.
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Key elements of your exterior need not be standard. This house turns a traditional cathedral roof on its head, by slanting it diagonally across a concrete and wooden base.
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Grey and stone add a feeling of serenity to urban surroundings. Walk down the sanded wooden steps to a comfortable seating area nestled between the trees.
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Make the most of a view by building exterior protrusions. These five balconies offer a well-lit, design-cushioned view. Blue forget-me-nots offer a simple surprise on the way in.
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Succulents and shrubs offer an easy-to-maintain garden alternative. This brick and wooden home can enjoy their greenery on the ground floor, or look over them on a black iron balcony.
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Nature and technology merge in this beautiful autumn setting. Forming a series of blocks joined by a concrete-clad passage, a large glass lounge opens up the indoor-outdoor flow.
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Rooftop gardens bring nature to man-made constructions. This residence makes its stone layers shine with an array of palm trees, hanging flowers and vines dangling atop.
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Worried your white exterior looks a little too stark? Spice it up with double-roof layering, unconventional angles and a bunch of greenery growing from its edges.
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Belonging more to an art museum than a residential street, this towering masterpiece strikes a chord with a perforated yellow façade. Rows of rose hedges and an upper balcony offer differing views.
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Make your house the brightest on the street – and not just for Christmas. LED line lighting tracks the ceilings, walls and pot plants of this seriously innovative two-storey.
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Think black and white won’t sit well together? Think again in this Jenga-style structure that holds a black box on the top, and a white one underneath. Paths of pebbles draw the guest in.
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Match the shape of your garden to the shape of your exterior. Be there or be square, in this steel and wooden structure framed by box hedges and even a street number in a cube.
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Two looks can mesh together with the help of materials. Miami-esque plaster and glass joins with rustic stone and industrial concrete to produce the most unusual house on the street.
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A sloped site can work to your advantage. Wide window panels with warm wooden sides let a great view rest in an urban location.
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Climb over four roofs in your quest for great entertaining. A stone and wooden gate opens up to platforms paved in pebbles and lined with succulents.
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Have one feature you’d like to stand out? This large home favours the entrance and dining room, in L-shapes of heavy grey stone.
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Dare to be different in the way you let in light. This modern Islamic-style exterior makes darker rooms lighter, while shedding traditional mosaic light patterns on the carpet inside.
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Centralise light in the middle of your home. This exterior cradles large sheets of glass in columns of brick, while offering two balconies for sunset views.
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Design your home or office block with flow in mind. Two thick-set horizontal levels are met by a concrete panelled entrance, maximising movement across each level. Large glass panels let the outside in.
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Have some designer cars you’d like to show off? This residential home combines concrete and plaster columns with a wooden garage fronting the road.
Visualizer: Ioan Ralea-Toma & Vlad Andrei Popa
How do you make your apartment stand out from the rest? Use columned windows to draw them in, lead the way with chrome ball sculptures, and glow light through perforated window shades that light up at night.
Visualizer: Ioan Ralea-Toma & Vlad Andrei Popa
Another innovative apartment block, this concrete, plaster and wooden find uses its outside lights to full effect. As a plethora of moving slabs pave your way in, light deflects off a large vertical façade, entrance, and lush ferns in the garden.
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Make the most of a narrow house exterior, by flagging it with a mast. A navy painted panel cradles this striking triangular facade, a mixture of black and white bars that cunningly match the gate.
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Landscaping can play a large part in your exterior design. While concrete and plaster squares wind around living areas, three stone sculptures punctuate what could be an overwhelming design.
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Wide, open and inviting describes this classy modern space. Set on a row of manicured lawns and hedges, its central structure features a lit border ceiling and grandiose staircase to guide the way in.
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Make your home feel like a high-end resort. White and wood weave around a greenery-framed pool, while full-wall glass windows offer a look to the sea and indoor-outdoor flow.
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How do you maximise sunlight in your home? This brick and concrete structure uses wooden slats as Venetian blinds, opening up the space and catching rays while the sun goes down.
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Design your home to be out in the open. This wood and brick two-storey features a central space for sunbathing, and a deck out front to enjoy green space.
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Bend the rules with your exterior. This residence features sloping outdoor patios, an ascending roof and convex front elevation on a simple, flat patch of green.
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A mountainous location deserves a home with a view. White wooden rafters reach up to the sky afront a pool, wooden lounger deck and tinted rectangular windows.
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Make your home easy to access. Set amidst clear, flat land, trimmed hedges and spacious steps, this wooden exterior invites in visitors with a cavity in its centre.
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Ever imagined a chequered exterior? Neither had we. This two-storey mixed-material home employs the style with aplomb, finishing it off with a steel convex balcony and grass tuft-embedded patio.
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Easily described as a dream come true, this modern home afront a mock coral reef gets our eyes excited. As metal chain windows let in just the right amount of light, strong charcoal frames and a cascade of white steps lead up to urban paradise.
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This interesting façade is what sci-fi movies are made of. A clear dome atop two levels of slatted wood make this circular home reminiscent of UFOs.
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