A Little Iron-on Siding

Looking at my inspiration photo and several other cottages, I realized I wanted to do vertical siding. The best way to go about this, I thought, was by using Band-It Iron-on Veneer Strips. The roll is typically 3/4" by 25' long and is right around $6.50 at the big box stores. I used Red Oak, but this link is for White Birch. If you go visit Band-It's website, you will see that they have many different woods and even sell in sheets. This is a great product and it is really easy to work with.

I started with the outer wall to the kitchen-sanding it smooth with 220 grit sandpaper. A super smooth surface makes for uniform application!

I put a strip of scrap wood near the base of the house (where the tabs/slots are) to be a thick divider between the boards and the eventual rock/brick base.

Then, I measured a strip of veneer from the bottom edge there up to the top; cut it and held it in place with the clamp. I repeated this process until the wall was covered.

Then it was out to the garage!

With my iron on a medium dry setting, I began to press the veneer in place. It is important to press and not rub like you would with your clothing. You don't want to push the veneer around on the freshly melted glue- you'll just frustrate yourself to no end. After they are all pressed into place, it is okay to rub around on them, making sure they are all smooth.

All the pieces are on!


Now to putter around in the garage while it cools off. ♫ ♫ ♪ ♫ ♪

Once I was back in the studio, I started with a wash using White Wash and Slate Gray by Americana. Paint a strip, wipe it off. Paint a strip, wait thirty seconds, wipe it off.

Then back in between the gaps to give it a little richer color.

Final wash product:

My next step was to put some color on it, using Glidden paint test color French Country Blue. In case you have not heard of the Glidden testers (like I hadn't, a year ago) they look like this:

and you can find them in Hope Depot in the paint aisle with the paint chips. Martha Stewart has some, too, but she only has a few colors at a time-although, her sample size is larger.

I used the same technique that I did with the wash, but I used it full strength, not watered down.

Finally, the strip wood at the bottom got a couple coats of paint and light aging.

I'm really happy with this look and think the end result will be amazing. I might use some crackle medium to rough it up a bit more, but I'm not sure about that yet. The Orchid is a tricky house to put together, so I think the next step is to finish the other outer walls.

See you soon!