You just got a new roof. Congratulations. Now, you’re probably wondering how to best complement it with the rest of your home’s exterior. Thankfully, there’s no shortage of fantastic ideas to make your new roof pop.
Even if you didn’t get a new roof, there are plenty of ways to add a little pizzazz to your home’s exterior. Most homeowners want to increase their curb appeal. Focusing in on highlighting your roof is a surefire way to do that.
Now, you might think that your roof isn’t that important to the overall aesthetic of your home. However, a home’s roof and how you highlight it could be the wow-factor you need to make your house truly awe-inspiring.
But how do you do that? How do you complement your roof with the rest of your home? Let’s talk about it.
Here are several ideas for complementing your roof with your home’s exterior.
It Starts with The Roof
Not to state the obvious, but if your roof isn’t in tip-top shape, there’s no reason to highlight it. If your roof is currently in poor condition or needs a little T.L.C, consider redoing it.
Instead of choosing an expected material like asphalt, choose something more exciting. There are so many asphalt shingle alternatives on the market. For instance, there are metal roofs, solar shingles, vinyl shingles, cedar shakes, tile, slate, and more.
There’s no shortage of exciting roofing materials. Choose one that makes sense for your climate, budget, and aesthetic preferences.
Starting with a solid, sparkly-new roof is the best first step to improving a home’s exterior.
But once you have it, how do you complement it?
Intelligent Color Combinations
Just like with the inside of the home, colors are crucial. There is a nearly unlimited amount of roof and house color combinations. It’s all about choosing a color for the rest of your home that complements your roof rather than detracting from it.
For example, think about your siding. It’s a smart idea to coordinate your siding and roofing colors. Most commonly, people opt for two complementary colors. They’ll go for something like a red brick with a grey roof, or a neutral colored vinyl with a brown roof.
It’s about pairing warm tones with other warm tones or cool tones with other cool tones. Adversely, you could opt for contrasting colors, like a white home with a dark grey roof, or light blue siding with red clay tiles.
To really make an impression, you can even match the color of your roof with the color of your house. Go for an all black, all white, or all brown home for an amplified aesthetic impact.
The first step to elevating your roof is to choose complementary or contrasting colors to boost its appearance.
Think About the Small Details
Beyond siding, several small details can highlight your roof. For example, there’s an abundance of exterior window trim ideas that can complement your roof’s existing look.
You can choose a contrasting trim color to make your roof pop. Alternatively, you can choose to match your trim to the color of your roof to highlight cohesion. The trim also provides the ability to easily add a third color to your house’s exterior.
Aside from trim, your porch, garage door, front door, and mailbox are other details that you can use to complement your roof’s design. For instance, if you have a wooden roof, a large, wooden porch is a fantastic way to highlight it. Another example would be matching your door’s color to the color of your roof to tie everything together.
Think about every detail of the exterior of your home as an opportunity to complement your roof.
Use Your Landscaping
In addition to the house itself, your landscaping is crucial to your curb appeal. If your landscaping is a mess, it won’t matter how amazing your roof is or how you’ve combined colors. A poorly managed yard can detract from your home’s appearance.
Your landscaping is a terrific opportunity to play with your home’s tone. For example, let’s say you have a large, white farmhouse-style home, complete with a light grey roof—a green, manicured lawn and a cute garden complement this design. A completely rock landscape with a cacti garden wouldn’t. Instead, that type of landscape would look great with stucco siding and a clay-tiled roof.
The landscaping is all about tying your thematic-look together. Doing so effectively is the best way to complement your roof.
Use Your Home’s Exterior to Complement Your Roof
These are a few ideas for complementing your roof with the rest of your home. Think about the look and vibe you want to achieve. Then, combine colors and make material choices that are within that theme. Don’t forget the little details and the landscaping, because they bring everything together.
Matt Lee is the owner of the Innovative Building Materials blog and a content writer for the building materials industry. He is focused on helping fellow homeowners, contractors, and architects discover materials and methods of construction that save money, improve energy efficiency, and increase property value.