Choosing A Shingle Color
For many homeowners looking to change their shingle roof, choosing an asphalt shingle color choice is very difficult. There are many factors to consider, including aesthetics, energy efficiency, the style and build of the home, and future home remodeling improvements.If you're a homeowner who is thinking about installing a new shingle roof, you have an important decision to make. There are thousands of various shingle colors, types and patterns to settle from. Here are some of the most common ways homeowners choose shingles for their new roof that complement their home.
Coordinate Shingles with Siding & Shutters
For many homeowners, one of the easiest ways to complement their roof to their home is to match their shingles to the siding, shutters and house trim of their home. You can ask your roofer for shingle samples in different colors, then hold them up to your siding and shutters to find the best fit. It also helps to look at the samples at different times of day to see how the shingles look in different lighting.
Consider Your Home's Architectural Style
Different building styles look best with different shingle colors and styles. For example, homes with natural wood siding in tree-lined areas look best with deep green or brown shingles. For a beach house in light colors install a lighter roof. Stucco homes are often best with rusty red or orange-colored shingles. Stately and traditional homes tend to look best with a neutral roof.
Can't Decide? Try Color-Blended Shingles
Color-blended asphalt shingles allow homeowners a way to add intrigue to their roof. Common color-blend combinations include browns and reds, blues and greys, and even blends of green. CertainTeed Landmark and Owens Corning Duration Designer are two kinds of shingles that have a range of color-blending. It’s best to remember that the plainer your home’s siding is, the more varied your color-blending can be. If your home’s siding includes a variety of materials and colors, color-blended shingles may clash.
Consider Your Climate
If you live in colder areas, you’ll need to consider different asphalt shingle choices than homeowners in warm climates. This is because darker shingles absorb more heat than light-colored shingles. During hot days in warm climates, there could also be a 50-degree difference between an attic with dark shingles and one with light shingles. A hot attic can force a home's air conditioner to work much harder during the summer, which can contribute to HVAC wear and tear. On the other hand, a dark shingle roof in a colder climate may be slightly more energy efficient. Dark shingles help heat the attic and reducing the burden on the home's furnace at cold times of the year.
Create Visual Balance
Your home’s height and overall style should be considered into your asphalt shingle choice. Lighter-colored roofing can make a multi-level home seem unbalanced. For these sorts of homes, darker roofs can draw the attention upward, giving the house a top-down visual appeal. Meanwhile, dark-colored roofing shingles can make a single-story home look smaller and shorter than they are. For a single-story home, a medium-toned colored roof often looks best. Blending asphalt shingles with metal roofing is additionally a growing trend for homeowners.
Make Use of Technology
Many roofing supply companies now provide apps to their customers to help them visualize the way a new roof would look on their home. For example, Owens Corning DESIGNEyeQ enables homeowners to upload a picture of their house or use one of their sample pictures of a home, and then swap out different roofing colors by Owens Corning.
Owens Corning DESIGNEyeQ also allows homeowners to manipulate the siding colors and roof type on a sample picture of a home. This can help users imagine how different siding, trim, and roofing style and color look in proximity to each another.
More Helpful Tips
Some roof colors are very hard to match others. Red, green, and blue shingles, for instance, only look right when side by side with very specific styles of siding. Shingles in neutral colors are much easier to match, so if you're thinking about changing your home's color any time soon, select shingles of a neutral shade.
If you've tried the software, held sample shingles up to your home, consulted with members of your household and you're still not sure what kind of shingles are right for your home, you can talk with your trusted residential roofing expert. These professionals have seen thousands of roofs and will be able to provide you with insight on how to best complement your shingle roof and home.
Read our blog and call DONE RITE your local Indy roofing contractors for a FREE no-obligation inspection and quote. We will discuss with you, how to select shingle color.
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