Your roof is one of the most important parts of the exterior of your home, and one of the first things visitors or passers-by will notice. Because of this, it’s important to choose your shingles carefully in order to ensure your home strikes beauty into the hearts of all who behold her. In order to make the right decision, you’ll need to weigh in the style of your home, the color of your exterior paint job, and the Maryland climate.

Choosing a Color

Just as an interior designer wouldn’t choose the color of a kitchen cabinet at random, nor should a roofer select a shingle color without careful consideration of the surrounding pallette. It’s important that all colors and styles work harmoniously to make your home really shine. The first step towards such harmony is to make sure that your shingle color is different enough from the exterior paint job to create a nice contrast. For example, a light colored roof with a white house would look rather bland, as would dark brown shingles with a darker paint job. Brown with beige or brown with white, for a mild and more distinct contrast respectively, would be more the way to go. Traditionally, shingles tend towards grays, browns, and blacks. It’s also important that your shingles match or compliment the look of your window shutters or accent trim. Often we look for the shingle color to just pick up tones of the shutter and trim, rather than copying the color exactly.

Mono-Color vs. Blended

Something else to be considered is whether you want to use mono-color or blended shingles. Some shingle lines come just in one color, such as a dark green or a gray, where others will come in a blend of different tones of brown or even in a mix of browns and grays. The general rule of thumb is that the plainer the vinyl siding of the house, the more varied and vibrant you’ll want your roof installation: For example, a solid black roof on a solid tan house would look rather boring. Conversely, the more varied the siding, such as a brick wall with multiple shades, the simpler shingles you’re going to want to choose, so as to avoid the colors clashing or giving off a garish appearance.

Contrast

Beyond the actual pigment of the shingles, you’re going to want to consider the overall lightness or darkness of the roof. As dark colors tend to draw the eye more, light vs dark in relation to the roof of a home is important to establishing the balance of your home’s appearance. Multi-level homes tend to have darker shingles, designed to balance out the height of the home. Ranch homes, on the other hand, tend to have lighter shingles in order for the roof to not overwhelm the rest of the home. Above all else, be sure to check your local regulations to be sure that you’re complying with regards to hiring a roofing contractor to perform this work.