Im not a pro—hell, Im not even really a hobbyist! I used to build things with my dad when I was younger and we had a dual sliding compound miter saw that I learned to use when I was maybe too young to learn how to use a miter saw.

I like to go down ADHD rabbit holes. And I’ve been seeing a TON of board and batten over the last 5-7 years and I want to know the proper composition and utility for it. But all I can find is cheap DIY projects that are clearly not really board and batten—they are simply people gluing MDF to the wall and thinking it’ll look good in a year (not to mention they aren’t matching trims, and their verticals are hanging over their baseboards). This is infuriating.

So where do I find this info? Isnt their supposed to be a veneer “board” that the verticals and/or horizontals are supposed to “batten”…? I’m so sick of people thinking they are an artist when they are finger painting a coloring book.

I’m not even saying I’d take up doing it, I just want to know.

We are in the throes of deciding what kind of siding to put on our '74 Ranch (w/ big boxy second story apartment above a carport). Kinda a big long box of a house. Done in T1-11 with very little else (a tiny bit of shingles in the gables). Its real boring. Looks like an apartment building had a baby with a mobile home. See pics.

All budget-reasonable priced options are being considered. Since its so long, we're leaning towards a mixture of Hardie-type products. Maybe some alternating-sized laps, then a belly band, then the 'stucco panel above. We dunno yet. Its gotta be affordable. We want to do the area around the front door in stain-grade wood. (open your wallet and shake)

Another option that could potentially save a lot of time/money/material: The house is currently covered in old (but relatively well cared for) T1-11, with 8" on-center grooves. We were thinking about doing at least part of the house cheap-style...i.e. tacking up a 1x3 (or similar) vertical trim board, "board and batten"-style. I'm a bit worried its going to look goofy with such narrow spacing between the groove.

We are planning to put whatever-else-type-of-siding on top of the remaining T1-11 -- several contractors have said its fine and better to leave it. There is no vapor barrier currently. (There is some kind of fibrous board underneath -- not sure what they were doing in 1974)

TLDR; Can 'vertical trim board' be added to cover the grooves in T1-11 to make my house look less cheap/tacky/apartment-building-ish? (OR other ideas! I'm not a designer!)