The goal on this project was to clad an entire modern Los Angeles home in narrow vertical redwood slats — walls, soffits, front door surround, and the door itself — and build a set of matching custom redwood gates on hidden steel frames that read as one continuous, seamless exterior.

This is one of the most detail-driven exterior packages you can do on a modern home. Every slat is milled to the same width and depth, every gap is consistent, every corner is mitered clean, and every transition between siding and gate reads as one continuous line. Done properly, it is the kind of exterior that photographs like an architectural magazine and holds up in the sun and rain of Southern California for decades.

Project Overview

This project included several stages:

The home is a modern single-story build with low-slope roofs, floor-to-ceiling black-framed windows, a reflecting pool along the back, solar on the roof, and mature landscaping. The client wanted the entire exterior — main volumes, soffits, front door surround, hidden front door, and every yard-side gate — clad in the same narrow vertical redwood slats, stained a rich warm brown, all mounted on a rain-screen system so the wood can breathe and the wall behind can shed water properly.

The exterior work included:

• Rain-screen furring layout across the whole facade
• Full-height narrow vertical redwood slat siding, milled to consistent width and depth
• Mitered outside corners for a seamless slat wrap
• Redwood-clad soffits under the roof overhangs
• Concealed hidden front door clad in the same slat pattern with a full-height black pull
• Custom-built redwood gates on welded steel frames
• Black steel hardware — hinges, deadbolts, magnetic latches, pull handles
• UV-protective oil finish to lock in the warm tone and slow silver-out
• Black river-pebble drainage detail at gate thresholds

The main challenge was consistency. When the whole exterior is one material and one pattern, every single slat has to line up, every gap has to match, every corner has to close cleanly. There is nowhere to hide sloppy work.

Why Redwood for Modern LA Exteriors

Redwood is one of the best exterior wood species for Southern California. It handles the sun without cupping, resists rot without needing pressure treatment, takes stain and oil evenly, and — when milled thin and vertical — reads modern and architectural in a way that few other materials can match.

For this project, redwood was the right call because:

• The narrow slat pattern only works with a wood that stays dimensionally stable
• Redwood accepts a warm-brown oil finish that holds up under LA UV
• It ages gracefully — even if the color eventually silvers, the profile stays crisp
• It pairs cleanly with black steel window frames and hardware
• It matches the character of high-end modern architecture in the Hollywood Hills, Silver Lake, Pasadena, and along the Westside

Cedar can work for similar looks, but heart redwood holds up better long-term against LA sun and moisture cycles.

Rain-Screen Furring — Why It Matters

Everything you see on the finished exterior is mounted on a rain-screen system: a layer of vertical furring strips over the weather-resistive barrier, with the slats attached to the furring. That creates a continuous air gap behind the wood so:

• Any moisture that gets behind the slats can drain out
• Air can circulate and dry the back side of the wood
• The wood is not sitting flat against the sheathing where it would stay wet and rot
• Fasteners can be hidden behind the slat rather than face-nailed

The furring layout is invisible on the finished wall, but it is the reason the whole exterior will still look the way it does now in 15 years instead of 3.

Milling and Slat Consistency

Every slat on this project was milled to the same profile — same width, same depth, same edge treatment. On a rain-screen slat wall, the eye reads the pattern before it reads any single piece. Two slats out of a hundred that are 1/16″ narrower or thicker are immediately visible from across the yard.

Because of that, the material was sorted before installation:

• Any board with a knot, split, or wane larger than acceptable was set aside for cuts
• Boards were pre-checked for straightness and twist
• Batches were kept together so grain direction and color read consistently across a wall
• Each slat was pre-drilled and pre-finished on all four sides before install, so once it went up, it was done

Doing this on the ground in a shop or driveway saves days of fussing on the wall.

Mitered Corners and Seamless Wrap

The corners on a slat wall are where cheap work shows immediately. On this project, every outside corner was mitered so the slat pattern wraps continuously around the building — no butt joints, no corner trim, no interruption in the rhythm.

That means:

• Every corner slat cut to a 45° miter on both faces
• Miters test-fit dry before final install
• Small back-relief cut so the miter closes tight even if the corner moves seasonally
• Fasteners tucked into the shadow line between slats so nothing shows

When the miter is right, from ten feet away the whole house reads like it was carved out of one block.

The Hidden Front Door

The single most striking detail on the whole project is the front door. It is clad in the same narrow redwood slats as the wall around it, at the same width, same spacing, same stain — with a full-height matte-black pull as the only visible interruption.

For that to work, several things have to line up:

• Slat spacing on the door has to match the wall exactly so the pattern reads continuous
• The door has to be built up on a solid substrate so it does not warp under all that wood
• Hinges have to be concealed so nothing breaks the vertical rhythm
• The door swing has to clear the surrounding slat depth cleanly
• Weatherproofing at the head, sill, and jambs has to be tight without visible trim

Guest reactions on a door like this are always the same — they walk right past it looking for the door until you point out that they are standing in front of it.

Redwood-Clad Soffits

The redwood does not stop at the walls. Under every roof overhang, the soffits are clad in matching redwood — running the same direction and stain as the walls below. This turns the roofline into an extension of the wall rather than a break in the material, and gives every window and doorway a warm wood ceiling above it.

Practically, redwood soffits also need:

• Proper ventilation behind them if the roof cavity requires it
• Consistent stain and oil so they don’t sun-fade differently than the walls
• Clean transitions at the fascia and at the wall meeting

Custom Redwood Gates on Steel Frames

Around the yard, four separate gates were built to match the siding — same species, same slat profile, same stain, same rhythm. Each one is built on a welded steel frame so it stays perfectly rectangular for years, will not sag under its own weight, and can carry serious hardware without stripping out.

Each gate included:

• Custom-welded black-painted steel perimeter frame
• Full-height redwood slats attached to the frame with concealed fasteners
• Heavy-duty commercial hinges
• Deadbolt with keyed access
• Magnetic latch for quiet closing
• Long matte-black pull handle
• Adjustable strike plates for seasonal movement
• Sealed threshold with river-pebble drainage below

The steel frame is the reason a wood gate this size stays true. Traditional all-wood gates on this scale sag within a season — the wood tries to swing on its own hinges, and gravity always wins. With a proper welded steel skeleton behind the slats, the gate opens the same way for years.

Coordinated Hardware Package

Everything visible on the exterior — hinges, pulls, latches, doorbell, smart lock, wall sconces, drainage grates — was specified in matte black. That single color choice does more for the finished look than any other decision on the project:

• Warm redwood + matte black steel is a signature modern LA palette
• Black hardware disappears against the wood and shows only when you get close
• It reads intentional rather than picked-out-of-a-catalog
• It matches the black window frames the architect already specified

Hardware coordination is one of those things that costs almost nothing extra at spec time and looks like a serious upgrade at the end.

Finish — Warm Brown Oil, Not Clear Coat

For the color, an exterior wood oil in a warm brown tone was used across everything — walls, soffits, door, and gates — so the whole exterior reads as one continuous material.

On redwood in the LA sun, oil finishes are the right call over clear varnishes:

• Oil penetrates the wood instead of sitting on top like a film
• If the color eventually fades, you can re-oil without stripping — much easier than a clear coat that has to be sanded off
• Oil finishes don’t crack, peel, or blister the way UV-damaged varnishes do
• The warm brown tone stays even and rich for years with periodic re-application

The trade-off is a periodic maintenance oil refresh every couple of years to keep the tone at its warmest. That is the price of admission for a wood exterior that looks this good.

Working With Bamboo, Stone, and Landscape

The exterior wood work does not sit in isolation — it is part of a larger landscape package with bamboo hedges, gravel side yards, black river-pebble drainage strips, poured concrete steps, and a reflecting pool along the back of the house. The wood ties all of that together:

• Warm redwood against green bamboo reads as high-end architecture
• Black river pebbles at the base of the gates match the black steel hardware above
• Concrete steps and pool coping in cool gray let the wood carry the warmth
• Grass, gravel, and pavers vary the ground plane without competing with the wood

Every one of those decisions gets easier to make when the exterior material is one clear, consistent choice.

What Homeowners Should Watch For on a Slat Siding Project

Slat siding is one of the most demanding modern exteriors to install correctly. Before signing off on someone doing this on your home, look for these things in their previous work:

• Slat consistency: every slat the same width and depth, from ten feet away
• Gap consistency: every gap the same width, top to bottom
• Corners: mitered clean, not butt-joined with visible corner trim
• Fasteners: hidden, not face-nailed with visible screw heads
• Rain-screen: actual air gap behind the slats, not slats mounted flat to the wall
• Slat ends: cut square and sealed, not left rough or unfinished
• Transitions: siding to door, siding to window, siding to soffit — clean shadow lines, no exposed sub-material
• Wood species: actual heart redwood (or an equivalent premium exterior species), not a thin veneer over pine

Cutting corners on any of these makes the whole exterior look wrong within a season or two.

Common Pitfalls on DIY or Cheap Slat Siding Jobs

The wall goes up fast if you skip the details. Common failures to avoid:

• Slats face-nailed straight to the sheathing with no rain-screen — wall rots behind the wood within a few years
• Cheap pine painted brown to fake redwood — fails on the first hot summer, cups, cracks, and splits
• Corners covered with a big trim piece — kills the modern look completely
• Inconsistent stain because slats were finished after install — visible streaks and blotches
• Wood gates without a steel frame — sag within one season
• Hardware from a mixed catalog — some brushed, some polished, some matte — reads busy and unresolved
• No sealant at slat ends and end grain — water wicks in, dark spots appear, then rot

Every one of those is a fix-later problem that costs more than doing it right the first time.

Redwood Siding and Custom Gates in Los Angeles

At ProHands Handyman, we work on modern wood siding, redwood and cedar rain-screen exteriors, custom wood gate design and installation, steel-frame wood gates, hidden front doors and slat door surrounds, soffit and fascia wood work, exterior wood finish and maintenance, and full exterior remodel packages across Los Angeles.

We can help with:

• Full-house redwood slat siding
• Cedar rain-screen exteriors
• Custom modern wood gates on steel frames
• Driveway gates and pedestrian gates
• Hidden front doors clad in matching siding
• Redwood-clad soffits and fascia
• Black-hardware coordination packages
• Exterior wood staining, oiling, and maintenance
• Slat wall accent walls for facades and courtyards
• Full modern exterior remodel and coordination

Whether it is a single accent wall of slat siding, a custom redwood driveway gate, a hidden front door detail, or the full package like this project, the process is the same: right species of wood, right rain-screen behind it, right steel frames under the gates, right coordinated hardware, and clean detail work at every corner.

Conclusion

This project involved a full-house exterior of narrow vertical redwood slat siding, matching redwood-clad soffits, a hidden slat front door, and a coordinated set of custom redwood gates on welded steel frames — all in a warm-brown oil finish with matte-black hardware, on a modern Los Angeles home.

The result is a modern exterior that reads as one continuous material, will hold up in the LA climate for decades, and looks like architectural editorial work rather than a standard exterior remodel.

If you are planning a modern exterior remodel, a full-house siding replacement, a custom redwood or cedar gate, or a matching set of exterior wood elements in Los Angeles, Glendale, Burbank, Pasadena, or nearby areas, ProHands Handyman can help.

Call or text ProHands Handyman: (818) 401-7766

Send us photos of your exterior — or a reference photo you love — and we can walk through what a similar treatment on your home would look like, what species and details make sense, and provide an estimate.

Free Estimate · Glendale · Burbank · Pasadena