Color · 7 min read
Choosing paint colors that work with slate roofs, brick and stone
The roof, the brick and the stone are not changing, so the paint has to work with them. Here’s how to read what’s fixed, match undertones and choose colors that belong.
Key takeaways
- Start with the elements you can’t change, roof, brick, stone and copper, and choose paint that agrees with their undertones.
- Slate comes in grays, greens, purples and blue-blacks; tile and brick lean warm or cool, and the trim and body colors should echo that.
- Undertone matters more than the name of a color: a warm white next to cool-gray stone, or the reverse, will look off even if each is lovely alone.
- Test large samples on the real house, on the shaded and sunny sides, and look at them through a full day before deciding.
Sherwin-Williams colors in this guide
To choose paint colors for a house with a slate roof, brick or stone, start with the fixed materials and read their undertones: warm, cool, red, brown, green or gray. Pick trim and body colors that share or complement those undertones, keep the palette small, and test large samples on the actual house in morning, noon and evening light.
Many older houses in Grosse Pointe and across Metro Detroit have a slate or tile roof, brick or stone walls and copper details, and none of those can be changed with a brush. That’s a gift: the house hands you a palette. The job is to read it correctly. Here’s how.
Why start with the roof, brick and stone?
Paint is the flexible part of an exterior. The roof, masonry and metal are permanent, expensive and colored by the material itself. If the paint ignores them, the house looks as if it’s made of parts that don’t belong together. If the paint takes its cue from them, the house looks settled and intentional.
Most of the time, a house has only a few places where paint meets the fixed materials: trim, windows, doors, gutters, wood soffits, shutters and sometimes stucco or siding sections. Those are the decisions to make.
Walk around the house and list what you can’t change. Include the roof, the brick or stone, any copper, chimney caps and the driveway or walks. Then look for the dominant undertone in each. Our broader guide to choosing exterior colors for a classic home has the general method; here we’ll go element by element.
What colors go with a slate or tile roof?
Slate roofs vary more than people expect. Depending on the quarry and age, they can look gray, blue-gray, green, purple, rust-streaked or nearly black, and many are mixed. Tile roofs lean terra-cotta or brown. The point is to look at the roof closely, in several kinds of light, and decide what it really is, not what you assume.
- Gray or blue-gray slate works with cool and neutral palettes. Soft whites, light grays and deep navy or green accents sit comfortably.
- Green or mixed slate suits deep traditional greens, warm creams and bronzes that echo its tones.
- Purple or rust-streaked slate asks for care. Choose body and trim colors with an undertone that sits near it, usually warm neutrals, and avoid whites that fight with it.
- Near-black slate is forgiving. It pairs with almost any traditional palette, and gives you freedom with trim and door colors.
Slate itself is never painted. Keep paint off it, and leave the roof work to a roofer. The paint decisions are for the wood and metal around the roof: fascia, soffits, gutters and flashing. Our guide to painting gutters, flashing and metal details covers the metal.
Copper gutters, flashing and roof accents aren’t painted. They develop a green patina on their own. That green is part of your palette, too, and it tends to sit well with warm creams, deep greens and brick tones, and less well with strong yellows. Look at the copper’s current color, not what it was when new.
How do you choose colors around brick?
Brick isn’t one color. It has a body color, a mortar color and often a range of variation from brick to brick. Look at it from across the street, not up close, and decide what the overall impression is: red, orange, brown, buff, or a mix.
- Red or orange-red brick has a warm undertone. Creamy whites such as Creamy SW 7012 or Greek Villa SW 7551, and warm neutrals such as Accessible Beige SW 7036, sit well with it. Deep greens like Rookwood Dark Green SW 2816 are a classic pairing.
- Brown or tan brick pairs with warm off-whites like Alabaster SW 7008 and rich dark accents such as Urbane Bronze SW 7048.
- Buff or cream brick looks good with soft whites and with muted greens like Clary Sage SW 6178.
- Dark or iron-spot brick takes crisp trim in Extra White SW 7006 or Pure White SW 7005 and deep accents, such as Iron Ore SW 7069.
The mortar line matters. Pale gray mortar pulls the brick cooler; buff or tan mortar warms it. If your trim white is far warmer or cooler than the mortar, the contrast will show at every window. Our guide to Sherwin-Williams whites for exteriors compares the choices.
One more point: paint trim and sash, but not the brick, unless you’ve made a deliberate decision to paint it. Painted brick is hard to reverse, and our guide on whether to paint brick lays out the trade-offs. Failed mortar joints and white salts on the surface are masonry problems to fix before any painting.
What about limestone and other stone?
Stone is usually the quietest color on a house, and easy to misjudge. Limestone and sandstone look buff, tan, gray or nearly white, and the shade shifts across the day. Fieldstone has several colors at once.
- Limestone trim and sills often sit in a cream-to-gray range. Warm white trim next to cool limestone looks yellow; cool white next to warm limestone looks stark. Check the undertone against a clean part of the stone.
- Gray stone works with Agreeable Gray SW 7029 and Repose Gray SW 7015 in the body or trim if the stone is cool enough, and with deeper contrasts like Naval SW 6244 or Gauntlet Gray SW 7019 at the door and shutters.
- Warm stone sits with Shoji White SW 7042 and Accessible Beige SW 7036, and with earth tones like Restrained Gold SW 6129.
Stone should be kept free of paint spatter. Masonry is porous and unforgiving, so a careful painter masks and covers it before painting adjacent trim.
How do you read undertones?
Undertones are the hint of another color inside a neutral. A white can lean yellow, pink, green or blue; a gray can lean blue, violet or green. They’re hard to see in a swatch and obvious on a wall next to something else.
Here’s a simple way to check:
- Hold a pure white sheet of paper next to the stone, brick or trim you’re matching. Notice what the surface seems to lean toward.
- Put your sample beside the material, not on its own. A color that looks perfect in the store can look pink next to brown brick.
- Compare against the roof. If the roof leans green and your gray leans violet, the clash will show where they meet at the roof edge.
- Look at it in several lights. Morning, noon, late afternoon and overcast all change a color.
Some of the colors in the palette lists illustrate how much undertone matters: Repose Gray can lean slightly blue or violet in cool light, while Agreeable Gray reads as a warmer greige. Neither is wrong, but one will suit a particular roof and brick better.
How do you put the palette together?
Most traditional houses work with three or four colors: a body, a trim, a door or accent, and the fixed materials already there. Keep to that.
- Identify the dominant fixed material, usually the roof or the brick, and its undertone.
- Choose the trim first. Trim touches everything, so its white or cream has to get along with the stone, mortar and roof.
- Choose the body to complement, if the walls are painted (stucco, siding, wood). Often a quiet neutral is right.
- Add one accent for the door or shutters, taken from the roof or the garden. Our guide on shutter colors helps.
- Check any detached buildings, so the garage joins the picture; see painting garages and carriage houses.
For houses with a historic character, our guide to choosing historic house colors goes deeper into period palettes. Some individual houses in the area are historically designated, and rules about exterior changes vary by community and by property, so check with your city before changing exterior colors, materials or windows.
Our Color Studio is a good place to experiment, but remember that screens and chips mislead. Sample on the house.
What does careful work around fixed materials look like?
The lines where paint meets brick, stone, slate or copper are where care shows:
- Masonry, slate and copper are masked or protected before painting; paint doesn’t land on them.
- Joints where wood trim meets brick or stone are sealed with paintable caulk, and lines are crisp.
- Efflorescence, failed mortar and loose bricks are flagged for masonry repair before painting.
- Samples are tested on the house, in multiple lights, before the full order is made.
- Trim colors look consistent across sunny and shaded sides.
Once the colors are chosen, the prep-first steps on our process page keep the finish as good as the palette. Bob and Bobby are on every project, and a final walkthrough with touch-ups closes the job. Visit our exterior painting page for more.
Questions
What paint colors go with a slate roof?
It depends on the slate. Gray and blue-gray slate suits soft whites, light grays and deep navy or green accents. Green or mixed slate suits warm creams, bronzes and traditional greens. Purple or rust-streaked slate calls for warm neutrals. Look at the roof closely in several kinds of light before choosing, and test samples on the house.
Should trim be warm or cool white next to brick and stone?
Match the undertone of the fixed materials. Red and brown brick usually sit well with creamy, warm whites; cool gray stone often looks better with a crisp, slightly cool white. Check the mortar and limestone color too, since mismatched whites show at every window and sill.
Do copper gutters and flashing need to be painted?
No. Copper develops a green patina on its own and is left unpainted. That patina becomes part of the palette, so consider it when choosing trim and body colors. Other metals such as galvanized or terne are painted with products made for metal.