Choosing a roofing material can be overwhelming, especially when you’re weighing aesthetic considerations alongside practical concerns for your home. The sheer number of excellent roofing options, styles, colors, and contractors can lead to analysis paralysis for homeowners, potentially keeping them from picking the absolute best roofing system for them.
Fortunately, we’ve listed here some of the most common roofing colors and styles, making your big decision much easier to make when the time finally comes!
What Roofing Colors and Styles Exist? There are hundreds of different styles, color combinations, and materials to choose from when planning a new roofing installation. Read below for information on some of the most popular choices for residential roofing!
Asphalt Shingles (Browns, Blues, Off-White, etc.)
Asphalt roofing shingles come in a wide variety of color options and styles. Typically, they come in muted, dark, and neutral colors. If you look through any roofing manufacturer’s catalog, you’ll find a whole host of shingles offered in variations of brown, gray, black, and white. However, some shingle companies can also offer blues, reds, greens, and yellows in addition to their more traditional range of colors. While these roof shingle color options are sold in dark, muted tones so that they blend well with common home colors, the diversity of choice means that you can add plenty of personality to your home’s exterior, even if you go with a conventional roofing style!
Additionally, asphalt shingles come in a number of shapes, and they can be decoratively placed to create an attractive pattern, making them a great choice for homeowners looking for an understated yet good-looking roofing option.
Tile Roofing (Orange/Red, Gray, etc.)
Traditionally, tile roofing comes in variations of terracotta red and orange, but the individual tiles can be glazed in most neutral colors. Much like asphalt shingles, tiles are offered in grays, whites, royal blues, browns, and black, and they can be shiny or relatively matte.
Tiled roofing is often sold in the traditional barrel shape associated with Spanish-style architecture, but tiles can also be flat and rectangular. Contact Elite Roofing today for more information on installing tile roofing!
Metal Roofing (Reflective, Matte Gray, etc.) Metal roofing is a sleek, modern roofing style that can be made to be extremely lustrous and reflective or very matte. It’s a great choice for businesses, but many residential properties have begun to choose metal roofing for its durability, sustainability, and ease of installation.
Questions to Consider When Choosing a Roofing Color/Style
With the myriad of styles and colors to choose from, making that final selection can be extremely difficult, especially without the proper guidance. Here are a few questions to ask yourself as you’re preparing to choose a new roofing style and color.
Which Colors Accent (or Clash With) Your Home?
Paying attention to visual harmony is one of the most important things you can do when selecting a color and style for your new roof. In general, you’ll want to choose colors that accent one another and avoid colors that clash.
Choosing an accenting color is all about balance and harmony. If your home is already very bright and busy, you may want to opt for a neutral tone that helps those bolder colors feel less aggressive. By contrast, if your home is pretty neutral, you may want to add a small dash of bright color to balance everything out.
Unlike harmonious accent colors, clashing is when two colors have significant enough differences that they’re jarring and disharmonious to look at. Think of combos like bright purple and bright red or neon green and neon orange. In the case of bright purple and red, the saturation is similar, and they’re in proximity to one another on the color wheel, but they’re not close enough to be harmonious. This holds true with neon green and neon orange as well – they’re both extremely saturated, but they’re in a weird middle distance from each other that they’re neither close enough nor opposite enough to be in harmony.
Much of the time, picking accent colors and avoiding clashing colors just comes down to your eye and preference; there’s not necessarily a specific methodology that will help you pick the right colors with 100% certainty! Consider getting paint chips in the same hues as the exterior of your home’s siding and your shingles and hold them up next to each other – do they go together? Or are they overwhelming and off-putting to look at?
Do You Want Warm or Cool Colors?
Color families, like cool versus warm, can help guide your color choice and keep your home harmonious. Making the decision upfront – especially when keeping your home’s current exterior in mind – can help guide you when you’re choosing your specific shade of roofing.
Using cool tones, like slate gray and other lighter colors, can keep your color palette harmonious while giving your home a cool and modern feel. By contrast, choosing warm and darker colors like terracotta red will give your home a more welcoming vibe.
Will Texture Come Into Play?
Texture is an often-overlooked design element, but for homeowners with excellent attention to detail, it can be just the thing to take a house from ‘meh’ to perfectly cohesive! Texture can matter a lot, depending on the overall design and feel of your house. Sleek, smooth metal roofing is often a great choice for newer home builds or for businesses, but it can sometimes look a bit jarring on older, historical homes. Similarly, asphalt (or other materials textured to resemble asphalt) can be excellent for traditional houses!
What Style Will Add Curb Appeal? Another factor to consider is how attractive your roofing choice will make your house. This is especially important if you’re looking to eventually sell your house. While some styles might be appealing to you, depending on your aims, it may be best to make choices that are in line with some of the latest design trends at the moment. This can ensure your home’s curb appeal and resale value remains intact. Will the Local Climate Affect My Roofing Choice? In a perfect world, homeowners would be able to choose whatever style they want for roofing based on aesthetics alone. Unfortunately, roofing does serve the primary purpose of protecting your home from the elements, so make sure your aesthetic choices are still practical! Consider the Natural Surroundings Of Your Home As anyone familiar with landscaping knows, the natural features that frame the exterior of your house have a massive impact on how it looks. Consider roofing colors and styles that will blend well with your environment for a cohesive, harmonious look, like incorporating hues and shades found naturally around your home.
Elite Roofing is a Top-Rated Roofing Contractor in Texas
As a trusted roofer in the state of Texas, we take great pride in providing top-rated residential and commercial roofing services for our community. Whether you're in need of a few simple repairs, or an entire roof replacement, we've got you covered!
Here at Elite Roofing we have been offering our professional roofing status to business owners and residents across Texas since 2012. After a decade worth of impeccable service, clients know they can expect us to deliver high-quality results on the job! Interested in our services? Contact Elite Roofing today to receive a free inspection on your next roofing project.