Picking your roof shingle colors deserves as much thought as the exterior colors of your home! The roof colors expresses the personality of your home, so it’s understandable to be concerned over this big decision. Below are some of the most popular examples of house and roof color combinations to choose from in 2023!
Different exterior color palates need different roof shingle colors because:
- A roof makes up roughly 40% of your home’s visual exterior, so the choice you make with the shingles defines the style of your home (coastal, urban, traditional, etc).
- The shingle color effects utility costs, longevity of the roof and even the value of the property
Below I am sharing exactly what color houses go with what roof shingle colors.
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Picking Our Roof Shingle Color
The obvious key to choosing the correct roof shingle color is by picking the color that emphasizes your siding and trim. For example, our home is all white – brick, siding and trim. We used Sherwin William’s Extra White for everything, giving our home cooler, coastal tones. Our shutters are Uncertain Gray.
(Read about painting our shutters and door Uncertain Gray).
When you have a cooler all white home, a black roof always works! But with our coastal blue shutters, I wanted lighter tones. After speaking with our roofing contractor, we chose a very light gray – almost silver – roof shingles.
Our shingles are made by Certainteed and the color is called “Silver Birch.” We did a silver metal roof to match. This silver gray roof serves as an accent to the siding and shutters.
This home also has Certainteed “Silver Birch” shingles, a silver metal roof, and a blue and white color scheme.
Some Roof Shingle Colors Are More Energy Efficient Than Others
Climate and geography are everything! Don’t ignore your location!
- A light-colored roof absorbs less heat through the roof during the summer and reflect UV rays
- Dark-colored shingles attract and absorb heat into your home’s highest rooms, making them up to 10 – 15 degrees warmer on a typical sunny day.
- If you live in a colder climate with long winters, it’s more of a priority for your roof to absorb heat, and vice versa
Here in North Carolina we have mild winters and long summers, so light colored roof shingles allow our air conditioner to use less energy and lowering our summer’s utility bills.
In the highest rooms in our house, the cooling system is forced to work hardest to compensate for heat that rises and gets trapped. In warm climates like this, a dark roof could stick you with a higher bill. Since we finished out our attic into a playroom (you can see it here) and gave the whole 3rd floor its own HVAC system, we paid special attention to this!
The 5 Best House and Roof Color Combinations in 2023 To Help You Coordinate
The trick to a good house and roof color combination lies always in combining a warm shingle color with a warm siding color, or a cool shingle color with a cool siding color. Your color palette for your roof and siding should fall under the same tone: cool or warm.
Here are the 5 most popular house and roof color combinations below. You will most likely be using
- Brown shingles (taupe, stone, earthy browns, dark browns)
- Black shingles (dark crisp black to warm lighter blacks)
- Gray shingles (silvers, warm and cool grays, light, medium and charcoal grays)
- Green shingles (forest green, earthy green)
- Sometimes red shingles (copper, farm red)
1. Brown, Taupe, Stone or Earth Toned Siding
To accent brown siding, choose roof shingle colors between beige to blacks to accent brown siding, picking a color that accents the trim. Opt for browns and tans to pair with any natural, earthy toned house!
Brown shingles work work for green painted homes as well.
Below is an earthy green house with cream trim, arm wood accents and a brown roof.
2. Beige, Tan, or Cream Siding
For beige and tan houses, choose roof shingle colors between light brown to warm blacks. Use of copper with a brown roof gets you bonus points. Kidding, but copper is such a stylish way to get your house exterior noticed!
Shingles For Gray or Blue Houses
This is the easiest one! Use shingles that are black, or gray. If your home is gray, make sure to go lighter or darker than your siding. Same color tone (warm or cool), but contrast the siding. And if you’re looking at navy paint colors, by all means try Hale Navy and read more about that color here.
The house above is painted all Sherwin Williams colors: the shutters are SW Peppercorn, the siding is Network Gray, and the trim is Ice Cube. I don’t know the color of their roof but it sure works well! SW Peppercorn is a great color for this combination.
Roof Shingle Colors For White Houses
White houses fall into two categories: warm white or cool white. Opt for shingles that are a coordinating warm or cool gray (don’t forget about silver!), brown or black.
- If the white siding is on the warmer side, almost a cream, consider light brown shingles.
- Red or green shingles actually work with a white farmhouse, a period style house, or very specific styles homes (as in a red roof on a spanish style home).
- Cool white homes always look classic with black.
Update: last year we moved to (another) white home. The brick was already painted a warm white color (SW Alabaster) and paired with a combination of brown shingles and brown metal roofs:
Shingle Colors For Red or Yellow Exteriors, Including Red Brick
Choose shingles for red brick or yellow homes that are black, dark brown, and darker gray shingles. I have seen green on red homes (scroll below!) and sometimes that can work really well, especially if the red brick has flecks of green in them.
House Colors With Brown Roofs
One of the most common questions I received after originally writing this article. If you already have a brown roof but are repainting your exterior, what paint goes with a brown roof?
- Warm Creamy Whites (SW Alabaster, BM Cloud White, BM China White)
- Beige Colors (SW Kilim Beige, SW Accessable Beige
- Muted and earthy versions of paint color, like earthy green, or a deep chocolate brown would fit with a light brown roof.
- Yellow Siding (BM Goldfield)
Notice if your roof is a dark, medium or light brown shingle, and pull the opposite for the siding. Also note the undertones; usually red, orange or yellow or even gray. Coordinate the side of the home with these same undertones!
How Do I Find The Exact Shade of Roof Shingle Colors?
Look for accent colors in your home to give you hints for your specific roof shingle color. The exact house and roof color combination is not always obvious – perhaps your bricks or stone have green or gray flecks in them – pick up on this color with the same color shingles. Or use the same color from an accent – a color that is in the shutters, door, or the trim.
Remember when you are looking at a sample (physically- you must do this!) that the sun will make everything different. When choosing a shingle color to match your home, take your roofing sample outside, and place it next to your siding to see how it looks in the daylight. Make sure to look at actual samples in different light conditions (cloudy, sunny, etc.) and during different times of day.
The exterior elements will dictate house and roof color combinations.
If you hate your wood siding or your ugly brick, of course by all means paint them before you choose a roof so that it all coordinates together! But many elements of your exteriors cannot be changed and should not be. In this case, it’s much better to work with them than against them.
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