Roofing Available in a Rainbow of Colors

by Kathy Ziprik, Staff Writer

From Dark Terracotta to Light Gray. From Light Autumn to Dark Green. If you like colors, you’re in for a special treat when planning the roof for your new home!

Polymer slate and shake roofing tiles come in a wide range of colors. At DaVinci Roofscapes, there are 50 standard colors of roofing options plus an unlimited offering of custom colors. For example, if you’re a die-hard fan of Carolina Panthers blue or Denver Broncos orange, the company can create a customized roofing color for your home!

With so many options available, selecting the right color for your home can be a challenge. Not to worry! There's professional color help available.

“Selecting roofing colors that complement the rest of the home’s exterior can be challenging for some people,” says Kate Smith, chief color maven at Sensational Color. “While people have the freedom of color choice these days with the vast multitude of synthetic roofing colors and blends available in the marketplace, there are certainly some fast and easy guidelines they can keep in mind.”

Smith, who is the DaVinci Roofscapes resident color expert consultant, recommends the following guidelines when matching polymer roof colors with different styles of homes.

• Green roofs look best with homes that have natural wood siding, or are painted gray, white or a lighter green color than the roof itself. Avoid red or colors that are very “warm” for the siding, although these bright colors could be used as an accent, such as for a front door.

• Brown roofs complement houses painted in tan, yellow, cream, off-white or a different shade of brown. Brick homes that have a yellow or brownish color cast to the bricks can also look good with a brown roof. Stay away from using a brown roof if you have a home with “cool” colors, such as blues and grays, on the main body.

• Black roofs provide an anchor for tall homes by helping to visually lower the roof and make the home look wider in contrast to the siding color and trim. A black roof has a strong link to homes painted in gray, blue, green or white, and can also be used with a brick exterior. Try to avoid a black roof if you have a single story or smaller home, because the black can seem too weighty for a smaller structure.

• Gray roofs are an ideal complement to more traditional style homes and can also be used on blue, green, black or white house colors. Bolder accent colors for trim, shutters or the entryway door can broaden the visual appeal of a home with a gray roof.

• Terracotta color roofs work exceptionally well with stucco and brick homes, along with stone and those houses with a mixture of exterior materials. White is a classic color to use with a terracotta roof. The high contrast between the body and roof colors looks crisp and clean together, and is often a choice for warmer climates.

• Red roofs match up beautifully to accent gray or warm brown house colors. Consider a red roof for a white or cream exterior to create a country look for a home.

According to Smith, depending on the style of a home, as much as 40 percent or more of the visual you get when looking at a house is the roof. The more roof that is shown, the more important it is to allow the roof color to help define the home’s style.

“I’m a great fan of color blends for roofs," says Smith. "When you select blends with different shades of a color or two in it, the entire roof seems to merge and unify the home exterior. This softens the roof visually and provides the homeowner with more long-term options for accent colors to ‘pull out’ from the roofing blend color.”

DaVinci, the color leader in the polymer roofing industry, offers 28 standard color blends. Homeowners may also create their own custom blends using the company’s 50 roofing colors and a free online Color Designer tool.

Samples of color blends include:

- Aberdeen featuring Dark Gray, Light Brown, Dark Purple, Green Stone and Dark Stone

- Castle Gray featuring Light Gray, Medium Gray and Dark Gray

- Brownstone-VariBlend featuring Light Brown, Medium Brown, Dark Stone and Dark Tan

- Tahoe-VariBlend featuring Light Tahoe, Medium Light Tahoe, Medium Tahoe and Medium Dark Tahoe

- European-VariBlend featuring Light Gray, Medium Gray, Dark Gray and Dark Purple

Create a Personal Roof Color

Cherry tomato red. Warm caramel. Sea glass blue. If you can visualize it, DaVinci can create the perfect-match custom color for your roofing tiles.

“We’ve created a fired brick red roof for Bass Pro shop in Phoenix, a royal blue shake roof for the Church of the Realization in California, and a chateau blue slate roof for a homeowner in New York,” says Bryan Ward, vice president of operations at DaVinci Roofscapes. “If someone has a sample of the color they desire—whether a fabric swatch, a paint chip color or even the hair off a golden retriever, we can match it.”

By mixing selected pigments into color concentrates that are then added into the tile molding process at DaVinci, the company can develop any color a homeowner, roofer or developer may want on a project. “The true beauty of this process is that roofs can be customized to complement or accentuate the design of any home,” says Ward.

So, whether you want to create your own blend from existing colors or have a personal color custom-made just for you, the roof over your new home can perfectly reflect your home’s style and personality.