As an Architect, I am BIG on materials and details. They add character and make your home balanced and beautiful. 

Recently I have designed and renovated several houses that have used board and batten siding. It is a very versatile type of material for the exterior and interior of your home. You can make a house seem rustic, traditional and also modern just my modifying the type of wood (or composite) and the stain/paint color.

So, what exactly is board and batten siding? Board and batten is a fairly simple exterior siding system of gapped wide vertical siding boards with narrow overlying vertical battens to cover the gaps. The boards may be placed horizontally or vertically. Historically the individual boards are typically one-foot wide, but in today’s construction it is also common to have a four foot wide composite board behind batten strips.

In most of the construction I see getting built near me, more often than not, all the trim boards such as the corner, eave and skirt board are the same depth as the battens. When I design a house with  board and batten siding, I prefer to vary the depths of my trim boards. For example, the batten and the fascia board plus corner board will all be different depths. The battens will not be as deep as the other materials so you will see a slight shadow line where the batten abuts the trim board above.