A-frame Exterior Paint Colors

The A-frame finally got its fancy duds put on, and I am so excited to share how it all turned out! The exterior paint colors on an A-frame really set the tone of the house because of its simple shape. This time last year I was stressing about the color of the A-frame. Some days I wanted an all WHITE A-frame and the next minute I would change my mind and want to do everything BLACK. The only thing I was certain of is that I wanted a monochromatic house color. Meaning that I wanted the roof, the siding and the windows to all be the same color.

Well I finally decided that I wanted to go outside of my comfort zone and really switch things up from our White Farmhouse, and I decided the A would be BLACK! Man, am I obsessed with how it turned out … so without further procrastination, here is what you have been waiting for! AND the biggest shoutout to my brother @dalerocksshop for helping me get so much done on the Aframe!! I can’t wait to show you the other projects he will be helping out with as well in the Aframe.

The Cedar Siding

Now it may not look like there is a lot of siding to the A-frame, but I couldn’t believe how long it took to put it on. However, when you are dealing with 4″ wide planks, you don’t cover very much square footage with each board haha.

I spent days prepping the cedar tongue and groove boards before they ever went on the house. I used a stain from C2 paint – C2 guard in the color CARBON. This stain is next-level amazing. C2 did provide me with this product free of charge, but I had been a C2 fan long before they started giving me the product in exchange for promotion. I have been obsessed with C2 products since I painted my floors in the Farmhouse. This post covers all of the details of how I paint my floors (including the Aframe floors).

C2 Carbon Gaurd

Oh, let me count the reasons why I love this stain! 1. There is ZERO odour … like none! 2. It feels so amazing to the touch after it has soaked into the wood. 3. It soaks into the wood; it doesn’t sit on top of the wood. 4. The colour is PERFECTION!

Each and every plank I stained each side, including the tongue and the groove. We did this to help protect the planks from water and moisture and also to help minimize the warping and curling of the planks. Even after each board was cut to length, I would add the C2 guard to the fresh cut before it went on the house.

Cedar Trim

All of the trim around the windows and doors are cedar boards as well. I helped make the custom trim from rough-cut cedar boards. We had some major issues with the quality of the windows, so we made the custom trim to help hide some of the deficiencies of the windows. I stained the trim with the same C2 carbon guard. I love that the trim and the siding blend together rather than creating a contrast between the siding and trim.

The 4′ Overhang

The A-frame has a 4′ overhang on each end of the house. This is not a “true soffit,” so we were able to put the same 4″ wide cedar tongue and groove on this overhang.

Direction of the Cedar Siding

Deciding on the direction the siding would run was something that changed every single day as the house progressed. Originally I wanted the cedar planks to run vertical and then the overhang/ soffit planks to run horizontal. My Uncle and I spent 2 days adding blocking to the overhang so that we had the backing to attach the horizontal cedar planks to… in the end these blocks were never used … sorry Uncle R.

So what changed the plan? Living in the Pacific Northwest, we get more than 30mm of annual precipitation, which means you have to install a rain screen behind your siding. Never heard of a rain screen … I hadn’t before I moved here either. A rain screen is where 1″x4″ planks are installed on top of your house wrap but underneath your siding. These planks help provide an “air space” so that if water gets behind your siding, it doesn’t get trapped. The 1″x4″ planks need to be run diagonally or vertically so that the water can run down these planks.

So in order to run my cedar siding vertically, finding a good placement for the rain screen that wasn’t horizontal would be more difficult. You need to make the rain screen have proper spacing because that is what your siding attaches to, so you can’t just put the rain screen anywhere.

Anything is possible in homebuilding with money and time… both of which we didn’t have.

The next dilemma with having vertical siding. The angle where the planks would have intersected with the windows would have been a 62 degree cut. Most saws only cut to 45 degrees. Plus my windows were made very poorly so the angle would have slightly adjusted all of the time. This would have been very time-consuming.

So in the interest of cost savings and time-saving I decided to run the cedar siding on the same angle as the A and to form a triangle around the triangle windows. The siding runs horizontally in between the windows.

The exterior that was meant to be

With the siding running on the angle, it meant that we could run the planks on the overhang in the same direction, and it created one cohesive sight line. In the end, I think it was meant to be. I love how the siding and the overhang look together. Simple, clean lines, which is what I was striving for. Plus, I love how the centre point of the triangle runs all the way to the top.

So what do you think about the Exterior Color of the A-frame?

Do you think I made the right decision choosing a black exterior for the A or do you think it would have been fun to see a White A-frame?

Next up, I will be going over the metal roof details, I was planning on putting it in this blog post, but like usual, this post went longer than I thought 😉