From the Architect’s Corner – Choosing a Color
With 50 individual colors and 7 product lines to choose from, we'll admit that we offer a lot of choices to our customers. Spending my days working with architects and other design professionals, I see the work that goes into making sure you choose not only the right product for your clients, but also the right color for their homes or projects. We offer a variety of tools to help, any of which we'd love for you to take advantage of:
1. The Project Specialist – at DaVinci Roofscapes, everybody who is interested in learning more about our products is a customer, not just somebody who works in the building material field. We have folks here at the plant who are dedicated to talking exclusively to homeowners. They can attest, the majority of their days are spent on the phone with folks who are ready to roof, but need assistance in choosing a color. They are happy to take a look at photos of the house (or future house), paint samples, siding samples, or brick/stone samples, and make suggestions on what product and color may look best. To get in touch with a Project Specialist click here.
2. Color Expert Advice – for several years now we've been working with Kate Smith, a Color Expert and owner of Sensational Color. Kate has written two books for us, the most popular outlining her F.R.E.S.H. Approach, which guides homeowners and designers on a simple and methodical way at choosing exterior color. You can download these books for free by clicking here, or, if you are in need of some credit hours, you can take the continuing education course that is online and based off this book. Click here and you will jump over to AEC Daily for this free online learning course.
3. Samples – This is probably the most important thing in choosing color. You can't decide until you see it in person, and we offer samples of any product in any standard color for free. While we can do the best we can with good photography of our blends on our website, blogs, and literature, seeing the samples outside, in the sun, next to the building's other major fixed features is the only way to choose a color. We offer color chips, individual tiles, and sample boards in every product in every color blend, and we're happy to send as many as you need for your project.
Also, we will always stress the importance of putting your samples outside (even nailing them up on your roof, if you can) and watching them for several days in all lighting. This is recommended as a photo is just a snapshot of a color at one moment in time. The color of a roof can shift throughout the day, all due to lighting, so it is important that a color is approved after seeing it at all times of the day. See below. These photos show the same product and color blend, but they look pretty different because of the lighting at the time of day the photo was taken, as well as other factors, like the direction of the house, the cloud cast, and the time of year. One photo shows the Mountain Blend looking pretty brown and the other shows it looking more gray. Same product and color, different lighting.
Happy Friday, Architects!