Consider Your Home’s Roof Color: A Major Design Statement

Not too long ago, roof color was black — or a shade of black. Today, coordinating roof and house colors or choosing a new roof can be quite a project. So many choices and expensive ones at that. It is important to make a wise decision to avoid a long-term design disaster.

If you’re due for a new roof, congratulations! You now have a chance to select your roof color from the myriad choices that are available. Here are a few guidelines and considerations:

Photo by Minnetonka Custom Homes, Inc. See more craftsman exterior designs

Traditional Shingle Roofs

• Gray or blue house.  Stay with a traditional roof color like dark gray or black. That way your roof will blend with your house and make the whole structure seem bigger. Any other roof color will stand out too much and make the house look chopped up.
• Cream, tan, or light brown house. Consider the many brown roof options, some of them with a mixture of browns that really make the house look updated and terrific. A brown roof will blend with the cream or tan and make the house look bigger. Black and gray roofs just look ordinary. A brown roof looks like you actually planned out your entire color scheme.
• White house.  Dark gray and black are traditional, but they work. Blue is also a terrific option. Red or green metal on a white farmhouse give a traditional country look. Bottom line on a white house: you have lots of options.
• Red, green, or yellow house.  You can go either way, a brown or a gray/black roof. I prefer a brown roof for red and green house colors and a black roof for a yellow house.

Of course, the same suggestions apply if you are stuck with your roof color and are looking for a paint color for the house.

• Black/gray roof.  The ideal house colors are gray, blue, white, and yellow.
• Brown roof. The ideal house colors are cream, tan, brown, red, green.
• Green roof and other colors. You can either use the roof as an accent color to the house or try to blend it by using a lighter tint of the roof color on the house itself.

Nontraditional Roofs

What about metal roofs? They’re all over Colorado, Upstate New York, and other areas of the world where snow on the roof is a major factor in the winter. Metal roofs come in a rainbow of colors, from red to green to brown to purple. If you have a metal roof, you are making a design statement (whether you mean to or not, of course) and you can treat it as an accent color, kind of like picking a front-door color. However, if you do not want to call attention to your metal roof, choose a natural roof color like dark charcoal, bronze, black, or brown instead of a color like blue.

What about terracotta roofs? These are traditionally seen on Mediterranean style homes and are a definite design feature. Keep the house color neutral to highlight the beautiful roof and the other architectural elements that are undoubtedly present.

Other nontraditional roof materials. Just like a thatched roof on an English cottage, a nontraditional roof is a design feature of the home. Hopefully, you want it that way. Choose a house color that makes the roof look like you planned it as a feature.

Regardless of what kind of roof you have, make sure you consider it when making house color decisions.