What Your Roof Has to Do With Your Exterior Paint Options

January 18, 2014

Changing the color of your home’s exterior is a big commitment so when the time comes to repaint you may be excited to explore all your options. You may also be dismayed to discover that the sky isn’t really the limit when it comes to your home’s hue.

Blame the roof.

Your house is always going to look its very best when your exterior paint color or color palette harmonizes with the color of your roofing materials.

Manchester Estate Elastomeric After 3

The most common roof shingles are black, brown, or gray, though your house may sport vivid red, green, or even blue roofing. Unless you have concrete plans to change the color of your roof in the near future, it’s best to choose exterior paint colors that won’t clash or look off.

You don’t want to match your exterior to the roof, i.e., no red siding with red shingles; instead, think in terms of color coordination.

Here are some rules of thumb for picking out the perfect exterior paint colors for your home.

Browns, tans, yellows, whites, and exterior paint with orangey undertones will look great with a brown roof. Classic blues? Not so much unless it’s just the right brown and just the right blue.

A black roof will look best with gray, white, or blue exterior paints and will be the most versatile because you can pair black with almost any color.

Gray roofs go well with the same colors that look good with black roofs with the addition of various shades of green. So it should come as no surprise that green roofs pair best with gray paint.

If you just can’t decide on an exterior color without actually seeing how it looks with your roof, there are plenty of free online tools that will let you give your home a virtual paint job.

This story originally appeared in our monthly newsletter, Prime Time by Jerry Enos Painting company in Massachusettsto subscribe, contact us!

 

Categorised in: