10 Great Home Exterior Design Ideas for Double Wides

When it comes to home remodeling most of us don’t have a professional designer helping us through every step. We have to decide on the right materials and colors ourselves.

An exterior home makeover or remodel is the most intimidating for me. I can tell you exactly what I want to be changed inside my home, down to the secondary trim color, but if you ask me about the exterior I get overwhelmed – I don’t know what siding or skirting I want, and I certainly don’t know which combination of the 2 will look best on my home.

So how do we figure out the right home exterior design for a manufactured home?  Look at other manufactured homes, of course!

10 Great Double Wide Home Exterior Designs

The homes below are wonderful examples of the various home exterior designs we can use on our manufactured homes. They use color, texture, lines, and angles to make their home unique and beautiful.

Simple Neutral Colors

The first home uses color and texture perfectly. The block used around the foundation is brought up to trim a faux chimney. This lets texture, and not color, make the statement. The only additional color used is copper above the windows and the window frames. DaVinci had it right, simplicity is the ultimate form of sophistication!

Happy Cottage

Above, a bright color is used to give the home a happy cottage look. This home exterior design is affordable and easily changeable when the mood strike. The natural stone foundation will match any color. The vertical board siding gives the home some vertical height, something every manufactured home can use. The shutter design is the wow factor for the home, it’s simple but eye-catching.

Terrifically Trimmed

Below, is a double wide trimmed in a bold lavender color. Trim is just as important as the siding material. One of the most lacking features of a standard manufactured home is the eave design. Site built homes usually have eaves that are 8-12″ long, or wide but manufactured homes rarely have any kind of overhang.

Eaves protect the home and add style. Some of the best-manufactured home exterior remodels I’ve ever seen involved extending the eaves, but if you can’t extend you can pretend! By trimming the eave in a bold color you are tricking the eye and making the home look like it has a wider eave.

Adding additional trim around the home itself and the windows give the home a fresh style that is affordable and can be easily updated with a new color.

Hello Yellow!

Above, we have a happy yellow home with several simple details working together to make a picture perfect home. Architectural stone panels for the foundation, lapped horizontal siding, and old-fashioned shutter designs are a perfect combination if you’re going for a cottage look.

Boxed and Beautiful

Below, the owners built out the window boxes and added brick around the foundation for a custom look. The window boxes add balance and depth to the home. The architectural brick is perfect for the foundation, it tends to make a manufactured home look more grounded and connected to the land.

When your home is in a community the end of the home is the most important. It’s the perfect place to add curb appeal and your own unique style. Use it wisely!

 

 

 

Delightfully Designed

The home above has had a complete remodel of the exterior (and interior). A few really smart home exterior designs were used here so if I had to guess, an architect was involved in this redesign but we can still get some great ideas.  Angles and pitches are used perfectly on this home. Additional lines give the eye more to look at, but it needs to be balanced in order to look right. This home has even roof pitches on both sides and above the bay window. The angles are derived from one side of the double wide extending further than the other – that’s where the magic lies. Muted colors with a darker brick foundation grounds the home wonderfully.

Twin Arches

The home below is cute and different. They switched the material design that we are used to seeing on a home – brick is used on the home and boarding is used as the foundation. The wider eaves,  roof trim, and arched windows are the statement makers here.

 

Understated Beauty

Above is another perfect example of angles and depth. Everything about this home appeals to me; the simple horizontal siding, the natural brick, and the custom columns are perfect. The only thing I would change is the owner!

Showcase Home

The home below is beautiful. Natural colors and materials are showcased and that always makes for a eye-pleasing home design. The wider eaves and the thicker trim are the winners here, together the home has an inviting, friendly look.

 

 

The Royal Treatment

Last, but certainly not least, is the home above. Architectural shingles, wide eaves, and vertical windows work together to give this home an unforgettable style. The windows make the home look taller and also makes it easy to change the secondary color by simply replacing the curtains – that’s pretty smart!

3 Important Factors to Consider When Updating Your Home’s Exterior Design

Our homes are unique because they have lower ceiling height and other construction features that are typically found only on a factory built home. These differences do not make our homes inferior to a site built home, but they do have an effect on the overall design so it’s best to look at homes similar to your own.

• If you want your manufactured home to look more like a site built home, the eaves should be extended. Eaves, or the overhang of the roof,  are very narrow on a manufactured home but not on a site built home. If the factories built eaves onto their homes they would have to reduce the interior width – they simply aren’t worth losing living space. However, eaves can really help a manufactured home look more like a site built home. If you are having your home re-roofed, spend the additional money to have the eaves extended. Not only will it help protect your home from rain and snow, but the entire look of the home will be changed instantly.

• Think about vertical and horizontal lines as well as angles. Adding depth to a manufactured home will help get rid of the plain rectangle box. You could add a window box or a porch roof that extends to the middle of the home. You can also fake it, adding trim in places that trim doesn’t normally go can give you just enough depth to make a huge impact.

• If you are using two or more materials on the exterior of the home, you’ll need to decide on the break line, where one material ends and the next begins. Lots of people do this with brick or stone, and it looks wonderful when it’s done right. This is an important decision. If you go to high with the skirting or foundation, you can make the home look smaller or shorter than it is. If you go to low, you’ll have an unbalanced design. Balance is the name of the game when it comes to home design (or so I’ve been told).

Exterior home remodels are complicated. There are so many materials and colors available that it can get overwhelming pretty fast. Keep a binder, or Pinterest board,  for your favorite home designs. Notice the colors and materials, shapes and angles that appeal to you most. Stay with the same type of home you have – while looking at site-built homes can give you great ideas, you never know what it will look like until you see it on a manufactured home. There are design apps and software’s that will help you visualize what new siding or skirting will look like on your home. They can help you a lot!

Calculating Cost and Life Span of the Materials

Home exterior designs have endless options and combinations. If you can narrow your choices down to a handful for the siding, foundation, and trim material, you may be able to let the total price make the final decision for you.

Material Costs vs Labor Costs

While that real river stone would make for a gorgeous entryway, the cost to have it installed is usually triple the cost of the material. You may have to settle on the faux rock panels that cost more per square foot but has a much cheaper labor cost. That’s one decision out of the way!

Warranty and Life Span

Other important factors to consider is the maintenance and lifespan of the material. Vinyl siding comes in different price ranges, the lower priced vinyl isn’t as good as the higher priced because it has a shorter lifespan and is more prone to color loss. It may be worth paying an extra few cents per foot to get the better product. You want your new exterior home design to last at least a decade. Could you imagine having to pick all this stuff again in only 5 or 7 short years? No, thank you! 

Tim Milideo is the photographer of these homes. He has many great sets on various topics, including manufactured homes, and most are available in small booklets or zines.  I happened to buy the last one on manufactured homes, but he may have more in stock soon!

As always, thank you for reading Mobile and Manufactured Home Living!