A home that has beautiful curb appeal is a home that makes its owners happy. To produce an attractive look that feels coordinated, homeowners should consider all the elements of the home’s exterior. Often, that means thinking about an aspect of home exterior design that you may not have thought about — the right color combinations for siding and roofing for a home’s unique architectural style.
Fortunately, even if you’re not a home design expert or a pro at coordinating colors, there are handy tools online to help you choose the shade combinations you want your trusted home improvement contractor to use when upgrading your house. And one of our favorites, especially if you’re investing in new siding and roofing, is the James Hardie® home color visualizer tool — which lets you experiment with shade combinations to see what they’ll look like before you apply them to your home.
Here are some tips to help you make the most out of this cool home design tool and choose colors you’ll love to come home to.
1. Consider What Looks Good in Your Local Neighborhood
When you use James Hardie’s (also known as Hardie plank or Hardie board siding) home color visualizer, you’ll notice that the first thing it asks you for is your zip code. And there’s a good reason for this. Your home’s architectural style, appearance from the curb, color scheme and more can all be influenced by where you live.
Take a look at the color schemes common in your area. Are there paint and siding shades that look particularly good? Are there colors that tend to look off somehow? Do some colors fade fast and lose their vibrancy more quickly due to the amount of sunlight, wind, and other weather elements homes in your area are exposed to?
Remember, simply looking around at homes where you live and seeing what you like (and what you don’t) can help you narrow down a color combination for your siding and roofing that will make you happy. Consulting a roofing contractor/siding contractor with experience in helping homeowners choose a beautiful design can also be a great advantage.
2. Consider Your Goals
Another key element in choosing great color combinations for your home exterior is to choose based on what you plan to do. For example:
New home build
If you’re constructing a brand-new house, or if you’re engaged in such dramatic remodeling that you’re changing up the home’s overall exterior, you have a lot of freedom in terms of choosing colors you like for roofing, siding and more.
Replacement siding
If your goal is to upgrade or update siding, then it makes sense to look at the shade of your roof and choose a siding that matches it.
- A warm shade in your roof (such as brick red or rust brown) means you should look for warm siding colors such as tan or beige.
- Likewise, a cool tint in your roof (grey or black) lends itself to cool colors in siding (grey, blue, or green).
- James Hardie fiber cement siding comes in a variety of prepainted colors with its long-lasting ColorPlus® Technology, or primed to be painted with any shade of paint you like, giving you great versatility.
Roof replacement
If your siding is in good shape but you are replacing your roof, you have a simpler choice because roof shingles don’t come in as many colors as siding.
- Roof shingles typically come in shades of black, brown, grey, and red.
- Get shingle samples and hold them up to your siding to see what matches.
- Use the James Hardie home color tool to play around with James Hardie color options.
- A lighter roof color can brighten your home’s look, while a darker shade can create a dramatic effect.
- Darker roofing also draws in more heat, which can be handy in the climate of Michigan.
3. Choose Your Siding Color Before Choosing Accent Colors
When it comes to color coordinating your home exterior, remember that your siding color is what is most prominent on your home, so choose a color that you really like. Then choose complementary shades for elements such as doors and window frames.
Ask you click through the James Hardie® visualizer tool, you’ll see that you can choose James Hardie fiber cement siding options in a variety of colors — warm Navajo Beige, versatile Timber Bark (a great neutral), cool Gray Slate, dark Evening Blue, and many others. Feel free to play around with the options until you land on the tint you like best.
Take some time to explore the Hardie board colors gallery too, as well as other online sites and images that show attractive color options for homes like yours.
4. Envision the Color on Your Specific Home Architecture
Once you select a color, you can then click on the visualizer tool’s options to see it on a variety of home architectures, including colonial, farmhouse, ranch, and other styles. This enables you to see a particular shade on a home that looks a lot like your own, helping you envision what effects your color selection will have.
Get the Best in Beautiful Roofing and Siding
Every element of your home should come together so you get a polished look that impresses guests and makes you proud. At John McCarter Construction, we’re experienced at helping homeowners in the greater Detroit area plan a coordinated look for their homes, from roofing that safeguards your home to siding that looks beautiful while protecting your home exterior. To do that, we follow a process that ensures you get superb workmanship:
- Listen — We listen closely to you and inspect your property so you enjoy an accurate quote that fits your needs.
- Design — We coordinate all the details and use top products to ensure you get excellent home improvements — such as long-lasting, high-performing James Hardie fiber cement siding.
- Love — You love your home’s new look and enjoy the pride that comes with owning a home your neighbors admire.
To get started, contact us today for a free quote and consultation.
