The roof is an important element in the overall appearance of your home. Knowing how to choose the color of roofing shingles will help ensure that you make a choice that will suit your home’s appearance as well as work in the climate where you live. Hopefully, your roof will last a long time so you don’t want to be stuck with the wrong color. It can also depend upon the architectural style of your home and upon many other factors ranging from energy efficiency to neighborhood regulations
- Consider your climate. The color of your shingles can affect the temperature in your attic by 20 to 40 degrees and make a real difference in heating or cooling your home. Lighter shingles reflect sunlight and help keep the temperature of your home down. However dark shingles absorb heat and will help homes in colder climates stay warm. They also help melt snow and ice from your roof.
- Attempt to coordinate the color of your roof shingles with the colors of other elements of your home such as bricks, wooden siding, stone or stucco. Dark shingles match well with gray and blue houses, while brown shingles mesh well with cream, beige, and brown homes. Black shingles on a white home will give the house a more traditional look. Other color homes like a yellow home have more flexibility to be matched with a wider array of shingles.If you want to be trendier, think about using color combinations such as a palate of various tones of brown or a mixture of blues, blacks and grays. High-contrast colors highlight features of your home while low-contrast colors tend to hide defects.
- Remember your neighbors when you get ready to put on a new roof. If you are thinking of going with something trendy and nontraditional you will want to check with your neighborhood association to make sure your choice of roofing color does not violate any neighborhood rules or covenants.
- Accentuate the architectural style of your home. A Spanish style home might look good with reddish clay-colored roof shingles which would mimic traditional clay roofing tiles, for example. A casual ranch house might look good with a combination of colors while a traditional colonial would not.Drive around several neighborhoods to get an idea of what color of roofing would look best on your home. Look for houses similar to yours in color scheme and architectural style.
- Explore the wide variety of material choices you will find in choosing a new roof. Many homes use a trendier alternative to traditional shingles such as clay tiles, slate, or metal roofing. If you are considering a roofing material besides shingles, make sure to review this decision with a specialty roofing contractor to learn about the pros and cons to alternative roofing materials
