Wooden products and finishes define the farmhouse style. They allow you to create a subtle theme and give your home a natural appeal. A great example is cedar wood, and there are several reasons why cedar wood has become a top option for homeowners.
- Naturally beautiful: Cedar is one of the most attractive wood options for exterior finishes, particularly the white and red cedar woods.
- Durable: It tolerates damp conditions and repels insects, making it a durable option for your project. Additionally, it doesn’t decay, warp, or swell.
- Environmental friendly: Cedar trees are grown specifically for construction projects, and being wood, it’s naturally biodegradable.
- Energy efficient: Cedarwood is a good insulator and lightweight, making it an excellent material for siding projects.
- Versatile solution: It comes in different hues, including white, red, yellow, and brown, and you can easily preserve the color with restraining or power washing.
With that in mind, it’s possible to add style, function, and design to your house using cedar products. This section will cover different cedar wood products you can use to complete your farmhouse home and incorporate wooden elements wherever you want.
Gables
Decorative wood gables are an exceptional addition to your roof pitches as they add architectural interest and detail to the house’s overall look. You can use them to build free-standing structures like pergolas and gazebos.
Gables are also ideal for completing your porches and entrances. With cedar wood gables, you get natural additions that add style and character to your project.
Brackets
Decorative architectural brackets are great for enhancing your curb appeal. You can add them to your eaves, gables, decks, garages, porches, and entrances. They are also super great for completing Italianate-style Victorian homes.
Vintage and traditional bracket styles will be ideal for completing your farmhouse style. Still, you can explore other styles or custom brackets depending on your desired look.
Corbels
Corbels come in various styles and sizes to suit every homeowner’s design. Plus, you can opt for custom corbels for your farmhouse home. For the best wooden corbels, consider going for western red cedar, as it is excellent at withstanding decay.
Decorative or structural wood corbels are ideal for sprucing up eves in Victorian and colonial homes. You can install them on decks, garden boxes, mantels, and porches for an elevated style.
Braces
Architectural wood braces offer a cost-effecting solution to transform your farmhouse home. They are ideal for indoor and outdoor installations and come in different shapes to suit your design requirements. Plus, you can get support braces for shelves and various other applications.
Window Boxes
Adding plants to your window sills gives your home a refreshing appeal. It’s easier to have a windowsill garden thanks to window boxes. With cedar window boxes, you get a long-lasting, rot-proof, and insect-proof solution for growing flowers or vegetables.
The boxes are usually reinforced on the inside with PVC core to hot water and soil while ensuring impermeability and preventing rot. Depending on your theme, you can stain, paint, or seal the box. Or, you can leave it unfinished to complete the farmhouse style.
Planters
Cedar planter boxes are great options for adding plants to your deck or patio. They come in square and rectangular shapes to give you flexible options for adding plants whenever you want.
With cedar planters, the exterior part is made of cedar wood, while the interior is made of solid PVC. The PVC construction helps prevent rot and water dripping, and the planters have a composite design to ensure outstanding durability.
Mantels
One of the best ways to complete your farmhouse home is by installing beam mantles. These decorative pieces are ideal for the fireplace and TV area. They also allow you to create a placement spot for flowers, art, wall clock, etc.
Mantels are available in standard lengths and profiles, but you can also get a custom size and length for your installations. Fully sized-cedar mantles come with or without floating brackets, depending on the design you want. You can also complete your mantels with corbels for a decorative touch.
Window Shutters
Shutters are helpful for various reasons, including controlling light, privacy, security, and weather protection. If you’re planning a farmhouse design, shutters offer you an opportunity to add wood finishes around your house.
You would want to go with unfinished cedar shutters to complement your style and offer a natural look. Still, if you want a different look for your farmhouse, you can stain, seal or paint your shutter. You can also pick from different styles, including 2-batten, 3-batten, and z-batten.
Rafter Tails
You can also create a custom look for your roofline with rafter tails, allowing for rustic-style additions. Rustic tails are usually exposed portions of the truss, making them excellent components for adding shape and style to the roof system.
With cedar wood rafter tails, you can pick from different heights, widths, and lengths to fit your needs. Plus, they can be customized to suit different home styles, including Victorian, Modern, and Craftsman.
Tips for Finishing Outdoor Cedar Wood Products
If you opt for unfinished cedar wood products, you can finish them in your preferred style to suit your farmhouse look. This section will cover several helpful tips for finishing your cedar products, whether new wood or weathered wood.
Preparation
You can complete the surface preparation using 50-60 grit sandpaper to ensure smooth-planed cedar wood. This helps to enhance the coating of your desired paint. However, if you want textured cedar, surface preparation isn’t necessary.
If you have weathered cedar wood products, preparing the surface is necessary before applying your desired finish. Wood surfaces exposed to the elements for more than two weeks usually have some level of degradation.
You can remove old finishes by wet sandblasting, sanding, chemicals, paint removers, and pressurized water spray. Sandblasting and pressurized water spray are quick and easy, but they risk causing surface damage if you’re not careful.
Sometimes, you’ll just need surface brushing to remove loose wood fibers, dust, and dirt before applying stains. In this case, a stiff, non-ferrous bristle brush is ideal for such tasks.
Finishing
There’s always the option for allowing your western red cedar wood products to weather to a beautiful silver gray. In this case, painting is unnecessary, making it a low-maintenance solution for completing your farmhouse style and getting your desired rustic look.
Otherwise, if you prefer applying a finish, there are different finishes you can consider, such as bleaching oils, natural stains, semi-transparent stains, and 100% acrylic solid stains. If you want the perfect rustic look for your farmhouse, it’s advisable to use more than one paint or distress the painted or whitewashed surface using sandpaper.
Alternatively, transparent and semi-transparent stains will be perfect for your farmhouse style. Cedar’s ability to hold stains or paints reduces when exposed to the elements. So, remember to apply the finish immediately after installing your cedar wood products.
Creating Your Desired Farmhouse
The farmhouse style has been gaining popularity over the years as homeowners look for ways to spruce up and personalize their spaces. Regardless of the theme or layout of a farmhouse home, wood is still the denominator and the defining material.
Whether it’s furniture or structural upgrades, wood finishes allow you to create your desired rustic look to complete your style. Modern designs take this trend to the next level with hand-crafted furniture, grooved boards, and wooden kitchen supplies.
In this post, we’ve covered some of the cedar wood products you can use to complete your exterior projects and give your home a perfect farmhouse style. You can install unfinished products, offering a stunning weathered look when exposed to the elements.
Or, you can apply finishes like opaque coatings, semi-transparent stains, weathering products, and trans[arent stains to achieve your desired look. Still, you can find finished factory decorative products to save you time — you only need to find a woodworking shop that offers quality and durable cedar wood produc
