Choosing an Ideal Color for Your Home’s Roof
Your roof, which can account for up to 40% of your home’s exterior, can impact the overall look of your home. It plays a key role in helping to define your home’s character and highlighting your personality and style. While color is a personal choice, and no two individuals see color the same way, you’ll get a lot of feedback from those people you ask—and probably from many you don’t ask! So, how do you choose a roof color that reflects your personality yet coordinates with other exterior design elements? The good news is there are lots of color choices.
One of the easiest and most inexpensive ways to help you decide on a final roof shingle color is to create a home exterior mood board that can help you discover your style (if you don’t already know what it is). Here’s a video by OwensCorning® to help you create your design or mood board. It can also help you figure out how all of your exterior elements go together. Envision the changes you may want to make in the future. Mood boards aren’t always about dealing with what you have today but dreaming about what could be.
Think of mood boards as a collection of the things that catch your eye. Once you see them all in one place, it will likely become a snapshot of your entire decorating scheme. For example, you may see that you are attracted to soft, pastel palettes. Or you may find that you like big, bold, colorful items. A mood board will also help you identify items that are inconsistent with your style and maybe you just couldn’t see it before.
Mood boards are beneficial and created for others things like interior decorating, wardrobes, and/or even life coaching, but are especially helpful when working with large designs, such as landscaping or a home exterior plan which could include a roofing project.
Mood boards help you to:
- Experiment with color combinations before any outlay of cost
- Easily see which colors work – and more importantly – don’t work together
- Identify and determine your design aesthetic
Here are some curated style board examples from Owens Corning.
A roofing contractor should ask you what color roof you want but some may not ask and will suggest colors that may or may not fit with your style and color preferences for your home exterior. Creating a mood board can help you solidify your choices and help you discuss them with a professional contractor, so it’s very clear which roof color you would like on your home.
Here are five steps that explain how to start a mood board and offer suggestions on interpreting your mood board and applying it to your exterior design projects.
1. Gather Inspiration for Your Mood Board
Start by rounding up items and pictures that appeal to you or affect your emotions in a good way.
Here is just a sample of possibilities:
- Pillows
- Pottery
- Linens, including bedding and window treatments
- Tabletop and wall décor
- Photos
- Words and phrases that speak to you
As your mood board grows, look for trends — colors and patterns that you go back to again and again. Your completed mood board can help identify the overall theme of your decorating style, such as:
- Beachy
- Traditional
- Serene
- Rustic
- Farmhouse
- Industrial
- Eclectic
- Victorian
2. Assign Items on Your Mood Board to Home Exterior Elements
As you look over your mood board, consider where you would use the various colors, patterns and textures, keeping in mind the size of the surface area. For example, siding or brick can cover a large portion of your home, while trim and doors take up a much smaller footprint.
So, if your favorite yellow shade is too bold for your siding, try it on the front door or a porch chair.
3. Use Your Mood Board for Roof Design
Search for a roof color that complements the hues in your mood board. Roofing shingles — especially those with multi-dimensional colors — will help tie in all the elements in your mood board.
4. Review Your Mood Board for Unity
Once you’ve accounted for all your home exterior elements, from roofing shingles to accent items, gather your colors for a final review.
Look for inconsistencies in your palette—you don’t want one thing to stand out against the other elements in the overall design plan. In other words, you want visitors to say, “What a beautiful house,” not “What gorgeous bright green shutters.”
5. Share Your Mood Board Us!
Snap a picture of two of your mood board, so it’s always available when shopping for home improvement needs or meeting with contractors.
If you’re planning a roof replacement, we want you to choose to work with us! As an OwensCorning® Preferred roofing contractor, we have access to Owens Corning products and can tell you which shingles and colors are available in your area or you can browse directly on the Owens Corning Roofing website.
Don’t settle for choosing from limited product or color selections presented to you during a sales process. Instead, do your research first so you already know what’s available in your area. You can search for available roofing products and colors in your zip code on the Owens Corning Roofing website. Don’t be discouraged if you have to wait a short while for the color of your choice to be delivered. It will be worth it in the end when you get exactly what you wanted.
Color Accuracy
As color experts, we know getting the shingle color right is a big part of any roofing purchase. We recommend you start online to research and narrow down your shingle color options. Due to computer monitor color variations, we suggest you visit the Xtreme Exteriors showroom closest to you and see the actual shingle samples to help envision how it will appear on your house. Lastly, verify your color choice by seeing it installed on an actual home as we can provide a sample and may be able to direct you to a homeowner in your area who is willing to chat with you about the color choice.
At Xtreme Exteriors, we’re proud to be an OwensCorning® Preferred Roofing Contractor!
