What Roof Shingle Color is Right for Your Home?

Your roof affects your home’s curb appeal more than you may realize, so picking the right shingle color to match your house color is important. 

We will help you figure out the best color for your shingles by explaining how to pick them, what colors work well together, and reviewing the most popular roof shingle colors.

How to pick a roof shingle color

Your roof shingle color should cohesively blend with your home’s exterior coloring, as well as the natural landscape that surrounds it. 

For instance, green shingles will look out of place in a desert landscape and light brown shingles might look odd surrounded by lush pine trees. 

When determining the perfect color for your shingles, you should consider your home’s:

• Architectural style

• Siding color

• Natural surroundings

Determine your home’s architectural style

Is your home a Cape Cod, Tudor, Contemporary, Colonial, or a Craftsman? Its architectural style plays a key role in your home color and matching shingle color.

If you live in the Northeast where Cape Cod or Tudor-style homes are more popular, consider the colors that make sense for those homes. For instance, a Cape Cod-style home is more light and airy, typically with weathered wood siding - so dark red shingles would not play well with that look. Classic, cool lighter colors like light grey or driftwood are a good bet.

Cape Cod-style houses have a light color scheme and the shingles should match accordingly. Image source: House Method

But a Tudor-style home has a darker-toned style, with cream siding and dark brown features, so dark brown shingles would work best.

Light brown shingles help bring out the softer tones of this Tudor house. Image source: My Move 

As for Contemporary homes, many times the key features of the home are the windows and prominent angles, and the roof itself is usually playing off of the clean, crisp design with darker tones. 

Contemporary homes have a sleek look, dark shingles make the design stand out. Image source: Frankel Building Group 

As for Colonial-style homes, their look is more classic with light-colored siding and dark shutters. Matching your shingle color to a Colonial home can be easier; you can stick with the basic, most popular shingle colors, which we will outline below. 

Colonial-style homes look great with classic shingle colors, like black or brown. Image source: Impressive Interior Design 

Take note of your siding color

If you have shutters or prominent windows, note their color as well. You don’t want to have an uncoordinated house that has red siding, black shutters, and a light brown roof. 

Should you choose red siding, a more cohesive match of white shutters and a dark grey roof will be easier on the eye.

Matching your siding, shutters, and roof shingle colors are key for a cohesive look. Image source: Allura 

Ensuring your siding color matches your roof shingle color is important in getting the overall aesthetic of your home right. 

For instance, if you have dark blue siding and want a lighter overall look to your home, you should pick a lighter shingle color like light grey. This will help your home look softer and more light. If you chose black shingles with dark blue siding, however, your home would give off a dark, foreboding presence. 

Consider the natural surroundings of your home

Is your house next to a lot of trees? Are you in the desert, or located near a lake? The natural colors surrounding your home play an important role in deciding the colors of your shingles and will make sure that your home pops - without looking out of place. 

Desert landscapes have wonderful brown and red shades that can bring out your home’s natural look. Image source: Envirogreen 

If you have a desert home, using muted, light brown, and red tones plays with the natural surroundings and makes your home blend in with the surrounding beauty. 

Light colors work best with the ocean in the background. Image source: Kimmel Studio 

If you live by an ocean or lake, it is great to blend the earthy, sandy tones of light cream, yellows, blues, and light brown. This will give your home a relaxed feel and fit into the effortless landscape around it.

Darker tones make your home look perfectly in place in the woods. Image source: ACM Design 

For a home in the mountains surrounded by trees, dark wooden tones play well with the landscape. Think of a log cabin or a sturdy home built in the clearings of the trees. Reds, browns, and black make your home stand out but don’t take away from the stark greens surrounding you.

The suburbs offer a place for your home to be unique amongst its neighbors. Image source: Curbed 

Within a busy suburb or cityscape, you may want to opt for brighter colors. Fresh white or light blues, light browns, or yellows can help your home stand out next to your neighbors’ homes and look unique.

After you determine your home’s aesthetic and natural surroundings, it is time to apply that to finding your shingle color. 

Siding and shingle colors that work well together

Here is a quick guide for what siding and shingle colors work well together:

Each siding color has a few shingle color combinations that work well. For example, if you have brown siding and don’t like maroon or you feel maroon will clash with your natural surroundings, you can still pick from dark blue, green, or even darker colors like brown.

A brown house with a brown roof is a classic look. Image source: The Spruce 

Are you looking for a pop of color? You could opt for brown siding and a green roof.

For a more unique combination, try matching brown siding with dark green shingles. Image source: Home and Garden Design Ideas 

What is the most popular shingle color?

The top shingle brands like CertainTeed, GAF, and Owens Corning all have their own lines of architectural shingles. While they are not curated designer shingles, they each offer many different colors and are of high quality. 

When new homes are built, new roof shingle colors are chosen using design tools based on the home’s aesthetic and color. However, if you have an older home that is being refreshed, you need to be in charge of picking the siding and roof color. 

You can never go wrong with the basic color choices for shingles, which offer solid color palettes: black, dark grey, light brown, dark brown, or grey. If you don’t feel confident matching a unique roof color, like a blue, to your siding, choosing a classic color is always a good option. 

These are the most popular roofing shingle colors and brands: 

1) Black

CertainTeed Landmark Shingles - Charcoal black

2) Dark brown

CertainTeed Landmark Shingles - Burnt Sienna

3) Dark grey

GAF Timberline AH Shingles - Appalachian Sky

4) Light brown

GAF Timberline AH Shingles - Golden Harvest

5) Grey

Owens Corning Duration Shingles - Estate Grey

If none of these colors seem right to you or you are having trouble deciding which one you like the best, your roofing contractor can work with you to determine which shingle color will look the best! 

Your roofing company can provide swatches and shingle samples so you can see color blends up-close before you pick. 

Final thoughts on choosing roof shingle colors

Ultimately, when choosing the right shingle color for you, it is important to consider your home’s style, as well as your siding color and natural surroundings. 

Viewing all of these as one cohesive piece will help you determine the right shingle color to tie them all together. And if all else fails, the classic shingle colors black, dark grey, light brown, dark brown, and grey are always a great choice.