How can I disguise stone clad 70s facade?

[Alkemi]

It's the kind of bungalow built in its thousands in the 60s and seventies,that has fake stone cladding half way the front. In my case it frames an underhouse garage door and the steps up to the front door of the house.. So my question is, because lovely cedar cladding is out of my budget, how do I get rid of the stone effect? Paint over it? Chip it off? Smother it with a render? I'm guessing the cheapest and safest route would be to paint the rest of the house in a colour that blends in so the stone is less noticeable, but has anyone successfully gone down another route?

What is underneath? Can you chip it off?

I am not sure. It is pretty solid looking. The building was designed to be built with it initially . It is not the kind of stuff that some Victorian terraces were covered with in the 1980s. I am imagining that there will be some kind of metal framework underneath to hold sections of it in place over poorly constructed block work