Pop Quiz: Shingle Shades
Thinking about roofing isn’t my favorite thing in the world. Mostly because we’re in need of a new roof (but it’s not the cards right now) so thinking about it just kinda aggravates me. But one thing that I’ll put my frustration aside for is a free online decorating/personality quiz. Enter this Roofing Color Compass Personality Quiz, stage left.
I was a bit skeptical about spending my time to find out my “roofing color personality,” but the quiz is pretty well done as far as these things go. The questions are unique and the interface for answering them has nicely mixed things up from your usual check-the-box format. For example, you can drag a stamp that represents your favorite type of vacation into a passport…
…and sort a crayon box to indicate your favorite colors by order of preference…
In the end, I was told that my roof color personality was brown and gray (which, btw, I put in the middle of my crayon box- so the results weren’t that predetermined). They’re fairly traditional and safe as far as roof colors go, but I’d say that the description sounds enough like me to be considered moderately accurate. Hopefully people agree that I’m a “down to earth person with a subtle sense of humor.” And even though I’m not a wine drinker, I guess I could entertain the idea of installing the “Merlot” colored roof that they suggested.
Sherry’s results, on the other hand, had us laughing out loud. Not because purple and red are terribly inaccurate (although they were Sherry’s last two selected crayons) or because the description was particularly off base (she was described as highly creative and artistic- and she did get a bachelor of fine arts). But we have this running joke about purple and red being Sherry’s favorite pre-teen color combo because she often built outfits around these hues in grade school. Think purple leggings and a red bodysuit. Awesome, right? She doesn’t pair them so boldly anymore, but her closet does still feature a few deep purple tops (and she recently picked up a red bathing suit). As for the “Summer Harvest” roof suggestion, Sherry pleads the fifth (she dreams of a slate roof, a metal roof, or even a recycled tire roof, which looks surprisingly slate-like).
But enough about our results. We wanna know what you guys think. Was the quiz dead on? Completely and utterly wrong? Oh, and if you’re in the mood to explore other decorating quizzes of yore, you can find links galore right here.
PS: We were in no way paid or perk’d to mention this quiz- we just like free online entertainment (and talking about leggings and bodysuits apparently). But speaking of free, if you’re so excited by your results that you order a new roof, be sure to enter your before & after pics in the That’s My Roof contest for a chance at $500 or a full roof cost reimbursement. Not too shabby, eh?
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I came out as Brown and Taupe, which were two of my last selected colours. The description does sound quite a lot like me, though.
It also says I’ll make a good wife and mother some day, which is always good to know, right? (:
Our lovely landlord and lady put a recycled rubber roof on their addition – and I had to touch a shingle before I would believe it was rubber and not slate. Amazing! It’s weathered 2 Vermont winters and looks fab. The original part of our farmhouse has multi-colored slate shingles and the roofer did a great job of seamlessly blending the new to the old. On the back porch they did a dark green metal roof (the house is creamy yellow with dark green trim). We live on the second floor of the house and our kitchen windows overlook the porch roof. The heat coming off that roof when the sun is overhead is stifling, so yeah…not so much love for the dark metal.
Thanks for the roof tips! That recycled rubber roof sounds amazing! We too can’t believe how slate-like they look!
xo,
s
We’re in the same boat as you guys. We have a brick house very similar to yours actually that will be needing a new roof sometime soon. We live in Austin, TX so anything to help with the heat is a plus! I was interested to hear about the light coloring roof movement Lucia posted. Something to keep in mind!
You’re on your own for color, but I’d definitely go for a Fabrall (or similar) metal roof. They look nice, are lightweight, inexpensive, easy to maintain and apparently last forever. I can’t personally vouch for that last part, not having been around for forever yet. But asphalt shingles need to be replaced every 15-20 years and I couldn’t imagine climbing on my roof when I’m 47, 67, or 87. With no sons or grandsons on the way, I don’t want to pay a guy either. Something to consider.
This thing is crazy. Purple and Orange were my last two crayons, my least favorite colors, and that’s what it picked for me. Yuck.
It was fun to do though!
That is so interesting! The description seems to be accurate but the colors – my least favorites! lol We’re in the market for a new roof too (well, we’re building an attached garage and have no choice but to at least start partial roof replacement – over slate). We’re actually considering a steel roof or a green product called Ondura for our farmhouse. Still just in the ‘planning’ stage so we’ll see. :) Thanks for sharing that! What fun!
We have had a metal roof in the last two houses we’ve lived in. Love them. They’ve both been white, which keeps the house cooler. And the snow slides right off.
We just got the GAF shingles that Erica mentions above this past May when we had to replace our roof. They have definitely helped keep the house cooler this summer – and there have been plenty of days to test them out! (Today, for instance, it is forecast to reach 107 in Baltimore! Ugh.)
Our house only took one day to re-roof – they had to take off 3 layers of old shingles and put on everything else new. It was also much less expensive than I thought it would be. (Although we did spend a year gathering estimates and negotiating.)
I disagree with the roofing personality quiz though. It suggested purple for me – my least favorite color in the world. We don’t have one purple thing in our house.
We actually had to compromise on roof color – I wanted black shingles, to match the shutters and trim, and he wanted light gray. We compromised on medium gray, which still looks really good. Much better than the sheets of shingles that were flying off the roof into our front yard.
Having been in the roofing business almost 20 years I can warn you that choosing a wild color is often a mistake. Most people only stay in a house from 5-7 years so you have consider what would happen if you put your house on the market with that purple roof you just had to have!
I always recommended a conservative color–weathered wood, gray, a shade of brown, or perhaps black–it will depend somewhat on the area of the country where you live since different areas have different favorite colors.