Pick the right shingle color
Your roof accounts for a significant part of your home’s visual exterior, because of this, it deserves as much attention as your interior design. When choosing a shingle color, pick a style and color that will complement and enhance your house.
We understand it can be overwhelming to choose a color among the many options available, for that reason, we came up with some guidelines that will help you narrow down those options and pick the best shingle color for your home.
Guidelines to choosing the best color for your new roof
1. Consider where you live, geography and climate are important factors. Based on the area where you live, there are some factors you want to take into account:
- a) Natural Environment. If you happen to live in the Pacific Northwest, you may wish to choose roofing shingles in shades or combos of grey, brown or green to harmonize with the natural environment of sea and evergreens.
- b) Temperature. Darker colors absorb heat; lighter colors reflect heat and may help keep your home cooler. However, a proper and well-balanced attic/roof ventilation system and the quality of your home’s insulation are much more important when it comes to energy efficiency.
2. Choose a color that complements the color scheme of the entire house. As a rule of thumb, if you want to go for a traditional look, stick with gray, brown or black shingles. If you are interested in a more contrasting color, you may choose a lighter reddish or tan color. However, it’s important to choose a color that will complement the exterior color scheme of your house, use the following table as a general reference:
| HOUSE COLOR | BEST MATCHING ROOF SHINGLE COLORS |
|---|---|
|
Red |
Dark Brown, Black, Grey, Green |
|
Light Grey |
Grey, Black, Green, Blue, White |
|
Beige/Cream |
Brown, Black, Grey, Green |
|
Brown |
Grey, Brown, Green |
|
White |
Almost any color including Brown, Grey, Black, Green, White |
|
Wood/Log |
Brown, Green, Black, Grey |
3. Consider the exterior construction materials. While you can paint your home’s siding, there are other facings that can’t be painted (or should not), such as brickwork, stone, stone veneer or wood logs. In such cases, these exterior elements can guide you to the right shingle color. Make sure your asphalt shingles won’t clash with these facings. For example, the suggested shingles for a red brick house would be dark brown, black, grey or green. If the brick color is a uniform red tone, then shingles with a variety of shades would look best. If on the contrary, your brickwork features various colors, then you want a more uniform color on your shingles.
4. Consider your home’s architectural style. Pick a shingle color that complements but also contrasts your home’s exterior, regardless of the style of your home. The look would be too plain and boring if everything matches. As a general rule, Victorian and other historical houses look good in traditional colors, like dark grey and black, either in solid colors or in shades that mimic the look of natural slate tiles or wood shakes. Rural and rustic homes typically have a more casual look, so weathered browns and greys will provide a more relaxed look.
5. Be mindful of neighboring homes. It’s wise to choose a shingle color that harmonizes with the houses around yours as well as the natural surroundings and your landscaping, you definitely don’t want your houses to stand out for the wrong reasons, especially when it’s time to sell it.
6. Mix design patterns with care. The same design principles that apply to the interior of your home also apply to the exterior, the goal is to achieve good balance and to have features and colors complementing each other rather than competing or clashing with each other. For example, if your house has multicolored bricks, choosing shingles in a multicolored blend may not be a good choice.
7. Try some samples. Before painting our house, we make sure we try different sample chips and even paint small areas on the wall to see what the paint actually looks like. The same applies to asphalt shingles, it’s smart to get a few samples and see how they would look like on your house and how well they harmonize with the surroundings and neighboring houses. Our estimators will be happy to bring you some samples of styles/colors you’re interested in, and give you the addresses of homes that have those specific styles/colors.
If you’re still stuck or having trouble visualizing ideas, check out the Virtual Roof Designer on our website. It shows how different shingle colors would look on different home styles and colors. You can also check out our manufacturers catalogs which show both a photo of the asphalt shingles and how they look installed on a house: