Making an entrance: Eight breathtaking exteriors

Sliding glass doors allow breezes and abundant light to pour into every room of this eco-home. Flanked by greenery, the bedroom and balcony look out over a panorama of eucalypts and other native trees and plants.

The cladding of this modern home is studded with batons of rough-cut cedar, with all 563 painted every three times in Wood-Man’s ‘Cladcoat’ timber finish in Coal. Viewed from one side, the batons give the house an irregular, corrugated finish, like the time-roughened trunk of the banksia it is built around.

This country home in rural Birregurra, Victoria, blends into the sun-bleached landscape with its low, single-storey profile and Lysaght Spandek steel and silvertop ash timber wall cladding. It is built into the hill, which provides protection from the southerlies.

With a generous patio encircling an inviting swimming pool and views over the rolling hills of Kangaroo Valley, this modern weekender is perfect for entertaining in summer.

This graceful French-style building, built in the 1930s, has an enchanting fairy floss pink facade and chateau-like grandeur.

This long, narrow home boasts huge glass windows offering views of the blackbutt deck and surrounding greenery. In line with the home’s breathtaking interiors, the exterior of the extension is clad in tactile timber. The natural material draws attention to a window seat that overlooks the rear deck.

Boxy angles led to this home being nicknamed ‘the bunker by the beach’. The pool doubles as a water feature, with an infinity edge creating a wall of water, with tiny black glass mosaics used in the pool to create the feel of swimming in a black pearl.

With an exterior that blends seamlessly with the surrounds, this casual, elegant and understated home focuses on neutral colours, natural finishes, subtle textures and a recurrence of elements throughout.