Although the decision to replace our roof, soffiting, and gutters sort of snuck up on us, I have to confess I’ve been thinking about exterior colors for months. In fact, I had everything so planned out in my head, it took me all of two minutes to pick our new shingle, siding and soffiting colors.
Right now, the brick, the trim and the roof all kind of just melt into one another into a big blob of brown. Bleh. I knew that I didn’t want it to stay this way forever. So months ago, I came up with a loose long-term color plan to follow.
Knowing what colors I wanted the roof and trim to be someday helped me choose colors when I was painting the porch, refinishing the front door, painting the railing…
Of course, I didn’t realize the opportunity replace everything else and execute the full plan would come quite so soon.
The biggest change will be the color of the roof. It might seem like we’re jumping the gun a bit on replacing it, maybe because I’ve never talked about it here. And actually, between Dan and I, we’ve only briefly mentioned replacing the roof a few times in the past three years.
But when we bought the house, the inspector estimated the roof to be about 15 years old — and that was three years ago. It’s at the end of its life and the roofing company we chose rated it a 4 on a scale from 0 to 20. That less-than-stellar rating combined with the small leak in the living room means there really was no arm twisting involved in the decision.
Anyway, I chose these architectural shingles in a greenish gray. They will contrast with the red brick so much better than the current sandy brown shingles. I’ve seen a few houses in person with this combo and it will look great with the style of our house.
And then there’s the second story dormers, which are currently faced in roofing shingles. They are starting to flake off and really, shingles aren’t the best material for vertical surfaces. We’re getting the dormers re-surfaced in vinyl siding, and I settled on this beige tone called “Pebble Clay.” Honestly, there aren’t that many colors of vinyl siding available, so really my choice came down to a few shades of brown, beige and white.
White would make the dormers super noticeable, and since they are an addition to the original house, I thought it best to downplay them. This beige shouldn’t draw attention to itself. Plus it happens to be the exact same color of the siding on the back of the house, so it made sense to match that.
The new soffiting, facsia and gutters will all go white, providing better definition for the lines of the roof. The white will also tie in the white windows and balance the light gray stonework of the foundation.
Here’s my quick photoshop rendering of what the house will look like once all this work is done. Excuse the lack of texture; I didn’t want to pour hours into this.
Can’t wait to get rid of that brown roof. Seriously, why did someone think that was a good combination with the red brick? There are multiple better choices commonly available (black, gray, green, etc.). Ah, well. Hold on little house, makeover help is on the way! Cross your fingers for a warm winter.
