How to Create a Mood Board for your Roof Color & Home Exterior Design

Your roof, which can account for up to 40% of your home’s exterior, can impact the overall look of your home. Therefore, it plays a key role in helping to define your home’s character and highlighting your personality and style.

While color is a personal choice, and no two individuals see color the same way, you’ll get a lot of feedback from those people you ask—and probably from many you don’t ask!

So how do you choose a roof color that reflects your personality yet coordinates with other exterior design elements? The good news is that typically there are lots of color choices.

Mood Boards: Choose a Roof Color That Reflects Your Style in
Five Easy Steps

One of the easiest and most inexpensive ways to help you decide on a final roof shingle color is to create a home exterior mood board that can help you discover your style (if you don’t already know what it is).

It can also help you figure out how all of your exterior elements go together. You can also envision the changes you may want to make in the future. Mood boards aren’t always about dealing with what you have today but dreaming about what could be.

What is a Mood Board?

Mood boards, or style boards, capture the colors, textures and patterns of items that appeal to you and gather them together in one visual experience.

Think of mood boards as a collection of the things that catch your eye. Once you see them all in one place, it will likely become a snapshot of your entire decorating scheme. For example, you may see that you are attracted to soft, pastel palettes. Or you may find that you like big, bold, colorful items. A mood board will also help you identify items that are inconsistent with your style—and maybe you just couldn’t see it before.

Mood boards are beneficial and created for others things like interior decorating, wardrobes, and/or even life coaching, but are especially helpful when working with large designs, such as landscaping or a home exterior plan which could include a roofing project.

Mood boards help you to:

• Experiment with color combinations before any outlay of cost
• Easily see which colors work – and more importantly – don’t work together
• Identify and determine your design aesthetic

Here are some curated style board examples from Owens Corning.

Using a Mood Board to Design Your Roof

A roofing contractor should ask you what color roof you want but some may not ask and will suggest colors that may or may not fit with your style and color preferences for your home exterior. Creating a mood board can help you solidify your choices and help you discuss them with a professional contractor, so it’s very clear which roof color you would like on your home.

Here are five steps that explain how to start a mood board and offer suggestions on interpreting your mood board and applying it to your exterior design projects.

1. Gather Inspiration for Your Mood Board

Start by rounding up items and pictures that appeal to you or affect your emotions in a good way.

Here is just a sample of possibilities:

• Pillows
• Pottery
• Linens, including bedding and window treatments
• Tabletop and wall décor
• Photos
• Words and phrases that speak to you
  

As your mood board grows, look for trends — colors and patterns that you go back to again and again. Your completed mood board can help identify the overall theme of your decorating style, such as:

• Beachy
• Traditional
• Serene
• Rustic
• Farmhouse
• Industrial
• Eclectic
• Victorian
  

2. Assign Items on Your Mood Board to Home Exterior Elements

As you look over your mood board, consider where you would use the various colors, patterns and textures, keeping in mind the size of the surface area. For example, siding or brick can cover a large portion of your home, while trim and doors take up a much smaller footprint.

So, if your favorite yellow shade is too bold for your siding, try it on the front door or a porch chair.

3. Use Your Mood Board for Roof Design

Search for a roof color that complements the hues in your mood board. Roofing shingles — especially those with multi-dimensional colors — will help tie in all the elements in your mood board.

Owens Corning TruDefinition® Duration® Series Shingles are available in many color categories, all with contrast, dimension, and outstanding curb appeal.

As you browse through the selection, look for those that capture the theme and colors of your design, whether it’s a mix of warm blues and browns or a single shade with a range of tones.

Today’s modern roof shingles have various color tabs, so you could coordinate with a single tab or find an overall shingle color that matches your design.

4. Review Your Mood Board for Unity

Once you’ve accounted for all your home exterior elements, from roofing shingles to accent items, gather your colors for a final review.

Watch for any colors or materials that grab the spotlight and detract from your overall plan. Your goal is to create a harmonious blend that fits your style.

Look for inconsistencies in your palette—you don’t want one thing to stand out against the other elements in the overall design plan. In other words, you want visitors to say, “What a beautiful house,” not “What gorgeous bright green shutters.”

5. Share Your Mood Board with Your Roofing Contractor

Snap a picture of two of your mood board, so it’s always available when shopping for home improvement needs or meeting with contractors.

If you’re planning a roof replacement, work with an experienced professional like those in the Owens Corning Roofing Contractor Network. They’ll have access to Owens Corning products and can tell you which shingles and colors are available in your area or you can browse directly on the Owens Corning Roofing website.

Pro Tip: Don’t settle for choosing from limited product or color selections presented to you during a sales process. Instead, do your research first so you already know what’s available in your area. You can search for available roofing products and colors in your zip code on the Owens Corning Roofing website. Don’t be discouraged if you have to wait a short while for the color of your choice to be delivered. It will be worth it in the end when you get exactly what you wanted.

Redesigning a Whole Home Exterior

If you’re planning a complete redo of your home exterior, a mood board is more important than ever. In addition, follow these tips:

• Choose your roof color first since it’s much easier to match a paint color to shingles
• Consider purchasing shingles and siding at the same time for a good match
• Change accent items (i.e., front door, porch décor, shutters) little by little if your budget is tight
  

Design Tools for Roofs and Home Exteriors

Roofing design tools can help you personalize your home exterior project. Here are some tools and resources from Owens Corning that can help.

Owens Corning Style Boards

Sometimes it helps to see examples of mood boards developed by skilled designers. Owens Corning has a variety of mood boards that pair the most popular shingles with varying colors of siding or brick and accent colors.

Once you find one you like, you can tweak it to make it your own.

Color & Design-Related Blog Posts & Videos

Get the latest design tips by browsing Owens Corning Roofing blog posts and videos. You’ll find a wide range of information from choosing shingles along with other helpful topics on storm damage, finding a roofer, and leaking roofs.

DesignEyeQ® Roof Visualizer

DesignEyeQ® Roof Visualizer is an online tool that lets you switch out style elements on your home exterior until you find the perfect combination.

Start by uploading a picture of your home or choosing from a selection of pre-populated house images

Next, select your current siding, brick or trim colors and begin experimenting with shingle colors and patterns

Take your color pairings up a notch or tone them down as you work toward the ideal balance of color harmony.

Read next: How to Use DesignEyeQ® Roof Design Visualizer

Roofing Shingle Samples

Online imaging is convenient and helpful when creating your mood board and narrowing down possibilities. You can order digital samples from Owens Corning; these may help you pare down your choices.

But before making your final decision, you’ll want to view the actual product. That’s where roofing shingle samples come in—your roofing contractor can provide them or you could visit a home improvement store. Be aware, however, that home improvement stores may not carry all product lines or colors—there are just too many to stock.

You can also consider going to a roofing distributor, where the pros shop. Even though they typically sell only to contractors, they are more than happy to provide you with roofing sample boards.

[ Find roofing suppliers near you ]

Pro Tip: While hand samples of actual product are a great way to see the color first hand, your roofing contractor may be able to direct you to an installation of the color on an actual home.

Build Your Roof™

While you’re deciding on your color selections, you should also be focused on the roofing system itself. Owens Corning has an online Build Your Roof™ tool that lets you choose the features you want component by component.

You’ll learn the importance and essential functions of each roofing layer, from performance shingles to underlayment and ventilation. Your roofing contractor can also guide you through the roofing system and answer any questions you may have about the individual products.

In the end you want a new roof that performs at the highest levels and looks beautiful while doing it. Make sure your roof fits your home exterior plan and that it uniquely fits your personality and style.

Start by creating a mood board, then meet with a qualified, experienced roofing contractor. Soon, you’ll be pulling into the driveway of an awe-inspiring home that is a 100% reflection of you.