Choosing exterior colors for your home is a tough decision and one that you will live with for many years to come.

For best results, your new roof should compliment your home's exterior. When choosing a color or style, consider how it will blend with the home's brick, stone, siding or paint color.

Neutrals are a natural choice because they blend well with a variety of colors and stay stylish while "trendy" colors come and go.

Today's shingles are created combining a variety of colors and are unlike the monochromatic colors of shingles in years past. This opens up a wide variety of new color options for homes.

Below are three suggestions for successfully coordinating and selecting colors for the look you are trying to achieve. As always our experts at Northern Exposure Exteriors are here to help.

Once you have chosen the method to create the look or effect you desire, you may want to take the following steps to help make your final color selection:

Gather
Gather samples that represent the outside permanent colors of your home (brick, siding, etc.) You can use paper or fabric or whatever other sample you can find that is very close to the home exterior.


Consider your surroundings
Consider the environment and your neighborhood. Coordinating with your neighbors home should not be a prime consideration, but duplicating your neighbors home would not be ideal either. Landscape colors may lend direction for color schemes. You may want to consider coordinating or blending in with nature or choose contrasting but complementary colors. For example, a log home in a wooded area might have a green or brown color blend that would work with the surroundings very well; whereas, a red roof would be a vast contrast.


Select Similar Colors
Select colors in the same family as the existing permanent elements (i.e. brick or stone) to produce a simple scheme which will make a small home appear larger. For example, a light brown shade of shingle on a tan colored brick home.


Select High Contrast
Select high-contrast colors to produce a bold, striking effect. These highlight architectural detail and design. Low-contrast colors hide details which may be desirable in some cases.


Using Color to Balance
Use color to balance the proportion and design of a home. Light colors make homes appear larger, dark colors make homes look smaller. Dark colors outline architectural details against light backgrounds while light colors create the opposite effect.

Once you have decided what color will create the desired effect, you have just a couple of items to consider regarding the style of shingle and exact shade. View them at a distance in natural daylight to get the full impact of the blending of colors and patterns. Keep in mind the appearance of a shingle color may vary due to the conditions and time of day. Wet weather or overcast conditions will change the appearance of a shingle.