No longer relegated to warehouses and barns, one way that metal roofs reflect the residential architectural trends is color. If we look at the current trends of simplicity, we see interest in modern neutrals and paring down the number of colors used in the full home color scheme or the tonal variations to reduce visual clutter. Classic, yet modern colors for the exterior body and metal roof include clean whites, inky blacks, smoky grays, concrete grays and beige grays. Additionally, the advent of coatings with infrared-reflective pigments in light, medium and dark colors alike enable roof panels to deflect solar heat and allow residential buildings to stay cooler and use less energy for air-conditioning. These tried and true colors can be used as one colorway from roof to body, creating a seamless, single, simplistic design embracing the current trends. One of the stunning examples we see more and more in residential homes, borrowed from urban builds, is the inky black being used on both the body and roof of the house. It sounds like it could be too severe but it’s not. It’s quiet and unimposing, especially if the house is on a lot with many trees and lots of nature surrounding it. In the case of more modern home designs, metal roofs are adopting powder coatings with anodized aluminum that are able to achieve the same aesthetic as conventional anodized aluminum while providing enhanced color fastness and better long-term corrosion resistance.

Two particular architectural styles that look great with metal roofs are the Farmhouse and Mid-Century Modern styles. Farmhouses can use the classic colors mentioned above, but also the sage green and navy blue body with either smoky gray metal roof, or maintain the same colorway on both body and metal roof. Mid-Century Modern’s concrete grays and smoky grays look great on both the body and metal roof, but always with a punch of chartreuse, orange or jade on the front door.

The Craftsman style includes more muted variations of the new love we’re seeing for warm colors such as a muted clay, terracotta brown, warm beiges and creamy whites. The metal roof colors are these warm browns that are not the yellow-based browns from the ‘90s, but more gray-brown and bronze. We see these colors used on exterior residential architecture in parallel with surrounding natural landscapes. Wood- and soil-inspired browns, beige and gray stone hues, and muted, leaf sage-greens drive palettes for this style. All of these colors are subtle enough for metal roofs, and the browns reflect the trend we see in wood stain colors.

Overall, the cool grays that have been trending since 2008 are moving away from institutional grays to warmer beige grays and tinted grays, like green-grays and blue-grays that work well with the natural browns. Since so many residential builds are using mixed materials, the metal roof and body colors need to coordinate or be a version of those material colors, not contrast.

Happily, metal roofs have added an entirely new and noticeable color opportunity for exterior color schemes. It’s these color palettes—as well as materials such as stone, wood and brick—that are unlocking new aesthetic possibilities to upgrade metal roofs for homes of all types.