The modern home brings indoor elements and colors to the outside and the roof is no exception. Trends in pergolas and landscaped walls add texture, color, and dimension! Outdoor kitchens are becoming the focal point of gatherings. Many of us now even have edible landscape gardens that are beautiful and delicious. Spending more time outdoors should mean rethinking our roof choices for both color and texture. Your shingles can coordinate nicely with their new outdoor aesthetic. Hence, we put together the following shingle color selection tips by tones to help you make an easier decision on choosing the right roof.
Blue and Green Hinted Shingles are Soothing and Sustainable
Blue soothes the soul via its link to the sky and sea. It is atmospheric in all its shades. Green is the color of balance and renewal as it evokes a sense of sustainability and harmony of nature.
It’s the natural tones that shift to green and blue that we’re talking about here. While some shingles come in green they really should only be used in areas where the home is meant to blend into its surroundings. Blue shingles have been made but really have no purpose being on a home.
Pairing Tips – Shingles like those below will look best when paired with homes that have an abundance of like tones. A home painted with a dark turquoise will look great with a cool slate roof and white trim. Homes with riverbed gray tones will look fantastic with a color like Mountain Sage. Cool tone shingle color selection is perhaps the most difficult and requires looking at samples outdoors next to the home. An expert opinion should be utilized to aid in the decision making process.
The following shingles from GAF are some of our favorite cool tones that speak to green and blue hints.
Please take a look at our GAF Shingle Gallery for more!
Brown and Red Shingles Equate to Rustic and Romantic
Fire pits have extended the time we spend outdoors, echoing the love we have for indoor fireplaces. Reds and browns convert our outdoor spaces into an extension of our cozy indoor space! Brown is simplistic and dependable emulating rustic shades of earth tones, allowing other color to appear richer and brighter. Red while romantic and refined is also assertive and daring in its sensibility and style.
Pairing Tips – Both red and brown shingles look great when on homes with lighter warmer colors that hint at a similar tone. A beige or greige home calls for a brown roof. Red shingles looks great atop a pinkish ear tones and yellow slanted creams. Red and Brown shingles can also work on homes painted white or a very specific neutral 50% gray.
GAF is North Americas #1 shingle manufacturer because of their high quality products, style, and color options. The following examples showcase these attributes.
Gold and Beige Tones are Bold yet Balanced
Beige helps balance boldness by its relaxing and flexible neutral personality. It can be the beautiful calm that tames the wild side of an abode. Gold tones establish an immediate bold feeling of luxury and quality, adding warmth and richness to its surroundings. They may not work on every roof but you’d be surprised how they can elevate a largely white home in ways grays and reds cannot.
Pairing Tips – Finding the right shingle to fit your lifestyle should be as easy as deciding on new outdoor furniture or fixtures but it is rarely the case. Most homeowners will play it safe when it comes to selecting a shingle. Cool grays and charcoals are an immediate place people turn to when unsure. Grays are a fine pick for most homes but lack the luster that a beige or gold can provide to most looking for a mid-level to lighter gray.
Take a look at our favorite GAF gold and beige shingles to use in Cincinnati.
Gray to Black Shingles are Calming and Stoic
Grey is a calming neutral sitting between the extremes of black and white allowing it to be the perfect backdrop when combining with other colors. It is the transition of light to dark giving you the freedom to explore the range in between. It’s nearly impossible for a gray roof to look bad unless it’s a lighter tone that the rest of the house. As mentioned before, it is a “safe” choice for most people. That does not however mean it’s the best choice although it may be in some circumstances. With so many beautiful organic materials from cedar shingles to stone being used on homes these days it can be a bit jarring to see a gray asphalt shingle that is nearly void of color on a roof.
The powerful impact of black and dark gray shingles can really make or break the overall effect of a home. Black is the absence of color, yet when used in the right setting makes a powerful and classy impact. A home can go from “standard” to stoic with a dark roof.
Pairing Tips – Gray shingles look best if they have a mix of other colors in them or are slanted cool or warm. These can go with a wide variety of modern homes that utilize stone-work and/or have combos of lighter and mid-range values as a whole. The darkest shingles make the loudest display and nothing does that like a white house with a black roof and a pop color for shutters and doors. Black shingles in Cincinnati can also work well on homes with a large use of classic red bricks.
Here are a few of our favorite shingle color selections and product lines from GAF.
Make Your Shingle Color Selection with Help from Roofing Annex
Schedule your at-home consultation to review product samples with one of our renovation experts.
Cincinnati Area – 513.685.9092
You can also make a request by emailing us your name, address, phone number, and specifics. Attaching a photo of your home can help our staff create a plan of attack.
