The roof accounts for as much as 25 to 40 percent of your home’s visible exterior and plays a key role in how your home is perceived from the street.
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That is why it is crucial to pick the right shingle color, especially if you want to enhance your home’s overall curb appeal and present it in the best possible light.
What to expect: This guide offers practical and proven tips for choosing the right asphalt shingle color to achieve that WOW effect in highlighting the beauty of your home.
The advice provided below will help you achieve the visual harmony with respect to how well the roof color integrates with the rest of your home’s exterior and its surrounding environment. Let’s get started.
Coordinate with Siding and Shutters
Interior designers don’t just randomly pick pretty colors for flooring, cabinets, countertops and walls without regard to the big picture.
All colors must work together to achieve a whole that is visually coordinated and appealing.
The same is true for your home’s exterior. First, the roof color should be dissimilar enough to provide contrast.
A dark brown roof would be boring with wood siding stained dark. Brown shingles would work with beige siding, a mild contrast, or with white, a more distinct contrast.
Also, when the roof color picks up tones in window shutters, the front door or accent trim, it nicely ties together the exterior look.
The table below shows roof colors that integrate best with siding colors.
| House Siding Color: | Best Matching Roof Colors: |
| Red | Black, dark gray, dark brown, dark green |
| White | Brown, black, green, gray, blue, red |
| Gray | Black, dark gray, dark blue, dark green, white |
| Beige/Tan | Brown, black, dark green, dark blue |
| Brown | Green, black, blue, charcoal and browns that are lighter or darker |
| Blue | Black, brown, gray, white |
Average Roof Replacement Cost:
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Low End
$7,500Mid-Range
$10,500High End
$14,500 |
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See costs in your area
Know When to Use Color Blends
Asphalt shingle lines are produced in solid colors and blends. For example, CertainTeed Landmark shingles in Hunter Green show no variation. They’re just deep green.
By contrast, Landmark Heather Blend shingles are a mix of several brown tones and rust too.
Owens Corning Duration Designer shingles in multiple blends are even more varied.
Now, here’s the blending principle: The plainer the siding is, the more a blended color pattern is needed to make your home look interesting and appealing.
A solid black roof on a home with dark brown wood siding creates a boring combination.
The same home with shingles that have a charcoal base but flecked with greens, tans and browns would be far more appealing.
On the other hand, if your home’s siding is varied – perhaps brick featuring multiple shades or an elegant stone front with varied colors – then color-blended shingles with clash.
You wouldn’t wear a patterned shirt with a patterned skirt or pants, right? Go solid on the roof when the home shows variation.
Here’s an example of Landmark Driftwood shingles that fail in this regard. The result is a busy clash. The colors aren’t coordinated either.
The stone veneer on the house above is arguably quite busy, and so is the roof. The plain white color on the rest of the house helps to balance the appearance, though.
