Red Roofs and Exterior Paint: Finding a Look That Works
A red roof can dramatically affect how the rest of your home's exterior reads. Depending on whether you choose a single hue, a patterned roof, a contrasting palette, or leave the walls unpainted, the overall impression shifts in distinct ways.
By Jordan Evans
There are a lot of options available for homes with red roofs.
What gives a house much of its character is the style and palette of its exterior paint. Adding a red roof is one way to introduce extra visual interest. Even after settling on the general idea of a red roof, plenty of stylistic variations remain available for both the roof and the rest of the exterior, so it's worth taking time to consider the possibilities.
A Single-Color Approach
In a monochrome scheme, one color carries the entire design. One example would be coating both the roof and the exterior walls in red. That said, sticking to a single shade isn't required. You might pair a lighter red roof with a deeper, brick-toned red on the walls below it, for instance.
Alternating Shingle Patterns
A checkerboard-style roof takes its cue from the alternating squares of a chess or checkers board. Shingles are laid so that their colors switch from one to the next — perhaps a red shingle beside a black one, or different shades of red taking turns across the roof. This same alternating motif can extend to the house body itself, which is simpler to achieve on a brick exterior. Even when bricks have been laid in a single uniform color, paint can be applied afterward to produce the checkerboard look.
Working With Contrasting Hues
Because red commands attention so strongly, a red roof can alter how the eye perceives the other colors on a house. A faded gray or brown, for example, might appear more green, giving the viewer a Christmas tree effect. For that reason, it's generally better to select a color that stands in clear contrast to the red roof — a rich, woody brown, for instance, can evoke a redwood appearance.
Leaving the Walls Unpainted
Some homeowners choose to skip painting the house exterior altogether and paint only the roof. This tends to happen when the exterior material already has an appealing color of its own — brick or fiberboard, say — and there seems no reason to cover it. If you'd rather not paint the house too, this remains a viable route: simply select materials that already come in the color you're after.
