How to Select the Right Colors for Your Roof - PODCAST TRANSCRIPTION

Editor's note: The following is the transcript of a live interview with Kate Smith from DaVinci Roofscapes. You can read the interview below or listen to the podcast. 

Megan Ellsworth: Have you ever had a question about your roof and didn't know who to turn to for answers? Are you interested in learning more about one of the most important aspects of your home? Not to fret, the AskARoofer Podcast is here for all you home and building owners. Join us as we talk with industry experts, roofing contractors, business owners and more about all things roofing. And remember, ask a roofer. Hello, everyone. My name is Megan Ellsworth.

Lauren White: And I'm Lauren White.

Megan Ellsworth: And this is the AskARoofer Podcast. And we are so excited to be chatting about all things DaVinci with Kate Smith today. Hi, Kate. How you doing?

Kate Smith: Hi. Great. Thanks for having me.

Megan Ellsworth: Yeah, we're super excited to have you. Why don't we just start by having you introduce yourself? Tell us a little bit about how you got into the industry and how long you've been with DaVinci.

Kate Smith: Oh, terrific. I'd love to. Well, I've been in the industry most of my career. I have a design background, but I went into, well, not the home industry, but basically product development and color trend forecasting and working with color when I first got out of college. And then, I stayed in the corporate world working for some great companies, including something that's always people always like to know, I used to do uniforms for the NFL, as well as some other cool menswear things, before getting into more home products and this industry and paint and everything.

So I've had kind of a diverse career, but in 2001, I started my own color consultancy called Sensational Color, and that has led me to work and share my expertise with some of the best companies, well-known manufacturers, for the last 20 some years. And so, I've worked as the color consultant or color expert for DaVinci Roofscapes for more than a decade. And I do a number of things for them. But the thing I most enjoy and I think gives them the best benefit is I give what I call top-down color advice to homeowners that are selecting DaVinci Roofscapes' products.

Megan Ellsworth: Wow, that's really cool. So you started Sensational Color in the early 2000s, so it's 20 years old. That's amazing.

Kate Smith: Amazing to me too.

Megan Ellsworth: Yeah. Wow. Congrats. That's fabulous.

Lauren White: Very cool. So right, we're talking about color today and how that ties into roofing. So I think of roofs, and I think of kind of the standard neutral colors. So how colorful can a roof actually be?

Kate Smith: Well, I can understand that, because I think that's what most people think. But some companies, like DaVinci, create roofs with color through and through and their composite tiles, and they have 49 standard colors and blends. And a few of my favorites are Black Oak, Weathered Green, Slate Gray, Aberdeen. They have so many colors that I love, and DaVinci can even create custom colors to match anything from the roof of your favorite historic building to your color of your favorite sports team.

Megan Ellsworth: Oh my gosh, that's amazing.

Kate Smith: Not that anyone wants their sports team on their roof, but the idea is they really can do anything.

Megan Ellsworth: Yeah, that's amazing. So what makes DaVinci Roofscapes products stand out, in terms of what they're made of and like you mentioned before, color options?

Kate Smith: Well, there's many things. In fact, when I first was contacted by DaVinci to consider or for us to consider working together, my first thought was "Roofs. Oh, I don't know. Can I get that excited about it?" But then, I started looking at the product and talking to them, and of course, the colors excited me immediately, that there were so many options. But beyond that, it's such a great product. It has a very long life, 50 plus years, lasts a lifetime. It has color through and through. It's made really well, and it has everything from protection from hurricanes to sun, you name it. It just really is a fantastic product that I'm proud to represent and I'm proud to recommend to people.

Megan Ellsworth: I love that. So with your customers at Sensational Color, do you often recommend DaVinci?

Kate Smith: I do, but I will tell you that I work mostly with other companies, so mainly, it's in my writing. So I work directly with homeowners through my corporate clients to their customers. I used to work with directly with homeowners. I don't as much anymore. I just don't have time. But when I'm writing, when I'm recommending other products, and I have an opportunity to cross reference or they ask me about a roof, I absolutely always talk about DaVinci. I sometimes talk about it when people aren't even interested in roofs.

Megan Ellsworth: That happens once you get into roofing.

Kate Smith: And once you get excited about a product. Exactly.

Megan Ellsworth: Exactly.

Lauren White: Yes. And we have some of your articles on AskARoofer too.

Kate Smith: Yes, you do. Thank you.

Lauren White: So, for those listening, who want to hear more from Kate Smith, check out the articles. So you mentioned how many options, at least through DaVinci, that's just one company, how many different color options are available. So how easy is it to find the right color for your roof and your home?

Kate Smith: Well, you would think that it's very easy with that many choices, and sometimes it can be. So a color like Slate Gray, it's such a versatile neutral, that I tell homeowners, "You really can't go wrong with this choice." So if you just don't know, or if you just pick having to pick something in a hurry, it's always a fantastic option that works across both warm and cool color schemes and with just about every style house.

But when a homeowner has the desire for a more colorful option, they often ask for my assistance to ensure they make a good choice. For example, a couple of weeks ago, I had a couple who planned to replace their original cedar shake roof on their waterfront home with DaVinci Slate, and they had their eye on a product, a color blend called Vineyard. And Vineyard is a mix of gray with muted gold, green and burgundy. So it's a little bit of a bolder choice, and they wondered if it would work for their home. So how it works is they submit pictures and give me some details about what they're thinking and what they want for their home, what their vision is. And after seeing the pictures and listening to their thoughts, I was happy to tell them Vineyard was an excellent choice for the style of their home and their location.

And this customer had made a great choice and only needed my reassurance, which is often the case. Customers often know what's right. They just want to make sure. It's a big purchase. It's something they're not going to replace for a long time. So they like to know they've got it right. Other times, homeowners are still determining what they want, and they feel a little overwhelmed. And so, the resources a company has available online can be a tremendous help and a place to get started. So DaVinci Roofscapes has several helpful tools, including the Visualizer, that allows you to see a roof on a picture of your home, or a photo gallery, so you can see all the colors, how they look on other homes installed. But my favorite resource is an ebook that I wrote, and I recently updated FRESH Colors for Your Home Exterior. And it's available for free. It's a PDF download, and you can get it at davinciroofscapes.com.

Megan Ellsworth: Wow, that's awesome. What are some other examples of how you assist homeowners in choosing the right color for their home?

Kate Smith: Well, I go through a process with them, and I take an approach that's very educational. So it's not me saying "Use this." It's me explaining to them how to look at the home from the top down and telling them exactly what I'm looking at, so while they're looking at their home, they can be thinking the same thing. So in, as I mentioned, the book, I use the word "FRESH," and it's to help homeowners recall the five things that every homeowner must consider when selecting colors for their exterior. An F, which is the first in FRESH is for what I call fixed features. This is the most crucial item homeowners often overlook. When a customer is unsure, looking to the fixed features is a place to begin. And these include the roof, of course, if they have stonework or bricks, colored window grids, sometimes doors or other exterior elements.

These are the elements that rarely, if ever, change, so they're going to be part of the house, no matter, even if they change like the paint color, the primary color of their siding, or their trim color, these are the elements that rarely change. So a roof rarely changes, especially with a long term product. The window grids don't change that often. And certainly stone and brick probably never changes. So we look at those. So first, I look up at the roof. Then at any stone or brickwork. I note the color of the window grids, if they're something other than white or putty, because those are kind of neutrals that blend into anything. And then, look at any of those other elements. Certainly, with DaVinci, I'm often helping customers find the right roof color. I don't consider the existing roof color. I forget about what they've got now.

And I look, first, at the brick or the stone. And why I do this is, when a house has brick or stone, it's the most crucial factor when selecting a roof. And why that's true is it's essential that the roof and brick or stone will complement each other. Because when these architectural features harmonize, they create a cohesive scheme that exudes curb appeal. So some of your listeners might not know how to think about the colors in brick or stone, because they're often multiple colors. But they have something that I call a color cast. And that's true of often for roofing as well, because generally, these materials aren't a solid color. They mix up colors, and even to say they were a solid color, it doesn't do them justice, since the beauty's in that depth and variation of color. So I use a term, or a lot of people use a term called color cast, as a better way to describe these materials.

And what a color cast is is, although they have many colors within a, let's say, brick or stonework, there's kind of a color that washes over all the hues. And this is, although the colors are different, the color cast, which is this unifying color, is what I look at. So oftentimes, you might have red brick, but it might have gray over it. You might have stone that looks predominantly tan or cream, but it might have gray or tan. There's some other color that sort of unifies the whole look of the material, even though it's made up of a lot of colors. Does that make sense?

Lauren White: It does. Yeah. That's really interesting. Once you start looking at something closer, then that's when you start noticing all those different hues and shades and it's not all just one color.

Kate Smith: Yes. In fact, that's a great point, because if I ask a customer what color are their bricks, I get two answers. "They're either red or tan." I'm like, "Well, there's actually more colors than that." Because bricks can be classic red. There are many buildings and homes with classic brick red, and there's some variations within that. But they could also be like a washed red or pinkish, white cream, red with brown mixed in or with a brown cast or even with a black cast. And so, I try to delve a little deeper, to find out what the colors of their brick are. And the same is true with stone, although there's fewer variations, but that helps them to identify. On the DaVinci Roofscapes, there's tons of examples, because I write a lot for the blog, and all you have to do is go on their website and search "color cast," C-A-S-T, just like it sounds. You'll find a lot of things I've written about it, examples of the different colors and how to work with them and how to harmonize them with the roofs, because it is such an important factor.

So identifying and repeating that color, the color cast, from one fixed feature to the next visually really ties the whole scheme together. And when all of these elements harmonize, as I said, you create curb appeal, plus the other bonus is that, when you go to change, let's say your siding, your paint color or siding color, your trim color, it makes it so much easier, because you're working with basically similar elements already, rather than two that are different. And then, you're trying to find a color that works with both. It can be very difficult. I've worked with customers in that case before, and it's sometimes very difficult. Because you're limited in what you could choose. But when you have these elements harmonizing, it's a breeze.

Megan Ellsworth: Wow, who knew? That's awesome. There's so much to take into consideration, and yeah, I would have a tough time with all the options.

Kate Smith: Yeah. Well, once you got your roof, I always like to say it's one of the bossy elements. It kind of says, if you have a certain roof or a certain stone or brick, those dictate a lot of what you can do. So I'm like, "Just look at it first, and let's work from there." And the other thing is the house helps. It basically was telling you what color to paint. How great is that?

But there's some other things. So let's say you don't have brick or stone. You could still look at color cast. If you have colored window grids and you have black window grids, you may or may not want a brown roof. It sort of depends. You've got to look at it and just say, "Well, I want something that's going to go with these." And a lot of times, a gray or a black will give knob to those, the other colors in the scheme. So it's a better choice. But each home is individual, and you can look at it. I give some things to look at, because oftentimes, homeowners aren't really thinking that they have to consider all of these things. But the other things, the other letters in FRESH, there's R for regional colors. So a color that might work on your house in southern Florida, whether it's on the roof or the siding, doesn't necessarily those same colors may not work in New England.

They may not work. So you've got to look around and say, "Okay, what are the colors that work in my region, that look great?" So down there, a flamingo pink might look great, whereas if you're in Massachusetts, it might seem a little out of place in your neighborhood. Then you also want to look at your environment and surroundings. So are you in a neighborhood? You don't want to be the same color as your next door neighbor necessarily. You want something a little different. You always want your house to stand out, while still fitting in. So you want to fit into the surroundings. If you're in a wooded lot, how shady is your lot? How much do you want your roof to blend in versus standing out? So you have to think about, "What's my environment? What's around my house?" And also, the style of your home.

You might think of a Victorian with lots of different paint colors, as we often see in the Painted Ladies of San Francisco. But on the average house, three or four colors is usually the max in a scheme. But you do want them to match your style of your house, and you can look through pictures of Tudors or ranches or the different styles of house and get some ideas of what you like. And also, if there's other homes in your neighborhood with a similar style, which there often are. Yeah, I love to, in fact, it's one of the reasons I love exteriors. I can walk around and evaluate exteriors every single day. "Oh, a different front door color would've been better. That roof isn't quite what I would've chosen," without ever interrupting anyone's day. It's actually one of the ways I got started and why I love exteriors so much, because I walk quite a bit. And I just love looking at homes and just saying, "Do I love it? Or could it be better?"

So that's another thing. You could look around your neighborhood. And then, the last, and sometimes most important, is you can use historic colors for your style of home, if it has sort of a historic style and you want to mimic that. But also, if you're in a historic district, you may be limited to the colors that you can use. So before you even start, the first place to start is find out what the limitations in the historic district are. And the same with a HOA or a homeowners' association. So if I'm working with someone that tells me they're at a homeowners' association, I'm like, "Okay, so what must you work with?" DaVinci's been really great about getting the roofing approved for a lot of homeowners' associations. They don't seem to be as open, oftentimes, of changing the paint colors.

So we work with them on whatever their homeowner association, what they have as guidance. But the most important thing is for the homeowners to know that they actually have to get their colors approved. So we also can help them with that or help explain what to do. And the other reason I educate them is so that they can reeducate anybody that they have to talk to or convince about the color, so they know why they were chosen. And also, because it makes good cocktail conversation when their family or friends come over and they're proud of their new house, they have a few talking points of why they chose the new roof or the new colors.

Megan Ellsworth: Love that. With the HOA, that is so common too, and needing to stand by certain guidelines and neighborhood rules and whatnot. So that's always good to be informed on. And just one more to reiterate, I know you already said it, so your FRESH ebook with the FRESH acronym that you just went through, that is available where?

Kate Smith: DaVinciRoofscapes.com. There's also a lot of articles I've written on your website and on DaVinci's website and my own website talking about it. And on DaVinci, there's also a lot of matches of paint color schemes or color schemes for people to use for different colors of roofs. So to give them some inspiration and to help them decide what other colors might work in their scheme. And I've actually, we've listed all the actual brands, so they can see the actual colors, not just a green, but this particular one we like, and it's a whole mix up of all the different major paint brands. I don't just recommend one, but just to give people guidance. Because as I said, the roof is so important in giving your home curb appeal. And we often think it's more just part of something we have to have. We focus all on the color scheme, but the roof is so important and making the house look just amazing.

Megan Ellsworth: So true.

Lauren White: Very true. And it's a big part of the house too. It's not just a small portion.

Kate Smith: So yes, that's exactly why. Because it is a big part of what you see on the home, and that makes it important, Lauren. So great point.

Lauren White: Wonderful. Well, since August is National Curb Appeal Month, is there anything else homeowners should know regarding their curb appeal and choosing the right color for their roof?

Kate Smith: I could talk about this all day, but I'll give you a couple other tips. Yes. August is National Curb Appeal Month, and it makes it a great time to go outside. It's usually beautiful, things are a little bit quieter sometimes in the summer. And really evaluate and look at your home and decide if there's some way that you could spruce it up. So certainly, if you need a new roof, it's a great time to get it and get it put on in the fall.

And with so many colors to choose from, it makes it a great starting point. But also, the other thing that I always point out to homeowners, to give them curb appeal, is to focus on your entrance, make it really attractive, because it is the focal point of your home. And so, maybe spruce up your door color, put something decorative around it, paint the trim, make it look clean and fresh, but also give a little something to draw the eye, because that really will help draw the eye to the whole front of your home. And it's a great way to just add that little bit of punch without too much expense, without too much effort, since people are busy. It's a great way to add a bit of something nice to the house. And I always think that, if you don't have time for anything else, that's the thing to focus on.

Megan Ellsworth: Yeah, that's great advice. I've been really wanting to paint my door, my front door. So that is inspiration to do it.

Lauren White: Now's the time.

Kate Smith: It gives you a whole new look, and it could be fun. And you can keep it that color, and then, a year or two, you can paint it a different color. And it's always fun, because it's a great way to express your personality. It gives your house a little personality. I've written some articles on choosing door color too. You can check them out.

Megan Ellsworth: Ooh, that's good to know. So last question, and this is just a fun one. What color is your roof?

Kate Smith: What color is my roof? Well, currently, I live in a condo, so it's black.

Megan Ellsworth: Oh.

Kate Smith: I know. Not too exciting. But if I was going to, and I am, now that my, well, I won't go into why, but I am going to be buying another house. I'm really torn, because there's several colors I like. But in DaVinci, there's a color called Aberdeen, which is a blend of five similar colors. So from a distance, it almost looks like some sort of a solid color roof. And the beauty really appears when you get up close, and it's a very versatile roof. I've just always liked it, and I'm always excited when a customer buys. I'm like, "Oh, I want to see." We've put it on a lot of homes, especially Tudor homes, but really, it just adds a bit of punch to any home. But I definitely would go with, I think, one of our multicolor blends. If that one doesn't work with my bricks or stone, I might have to choose something else, but my desire is to use Aberdeen on the next is my next route.

Megan Ellsworth: Oh, I love it. That is so fun. Well, thank you so much, Kate. Is there anything else you want to add before the end of the podcast?

Kate Smith: The only thing I would say to homeowners is to relax a little bit and just take their time and always look at samples. So don't choose things from [inaudible 00:22:27], whether it's pain or roof or anything. Always look at samples, look at it in the different light around your house, and take your time and trust your eyes and your gut. I find most people really do have a good idea of what's correct. And so often, as I said almost at the beginning, all they need is a little reassurance, and I'm happy to give them complete advice or a little bit of reassurance, whatever they need.

Megan Ellsworth: Oh, that's great. Yeah.

Lauren White: And that's a good point, looking at them in different lights too, because just like the clothes that you wear, if it's night, it's going to look different than broad daylight or in the shade. So I think that's an important thing too.

Kate Smith: Well, Lauren and Megan, thank you so much. As I said, I love talking about roofing and homes and exteriors, every aspect of it. So thank you so much for inviting me to join you today on the podcast.

Lauren White: Yes, thank you.

Megan Ellsworth: Yeah, thanks for joining us. This has been such a blast. I want you to be our guest every month.

Kate Smith: Okay. I've got plenty of other topics too.

Megan Ellsworth: Okay, great. Well, thank you so much. And to everyone listening, you can find Kate and all of her articles on the AskARoofer site, as well as the DaVinci Roofscapes' site. That's where you can download her ebook as well. So everyone, please go check those resources out. Thank you again, and this has been the AskARoofer Podcast. Thanks for listening to the AskARoofer Podcast. Feel free to subscribe and leave a review. Go to AskARoofer.com to ask a question.