We had a similar dilemma last year. Our contractor gave us some addresses which had shingles in the colors we were looking at......it really helped us to see some "real life" examples (as you discovered with your neighbor's house). Our house has cooler siding and brick colors, so we decided barkwood would too orange in certain light, and shakerwood too yellow in certain light. We ended up with weathered wood, which is a pretty safe choice. Weathered wood looks good with just about everything, and gives you the most flexibility with siding colors in the future.

I think shakewood might not give enough contrast with your siding and trim, so I would vote weathered wood or the bark wood. I wouldn't worry about matching or tying in the cedar deck with your roof or siding. Cedar decks are like blue jeans......they tend to kind of go with whatever. Not to mention, the cedar ages, and you can change the stain it a different shade if you want. You will need to live with your roof color for a long time.

Thanks CLC. The cedar is actually a paint color that isn't going to fade. It's the same color of our new hot tub (the one in the picture is a teakwood hot tub, but you can't really see from the picture anyway). We're going to be selling the house in 3 years so we want to make sure the house stands out with the right roof, but isn't something too weird. Our siding is the kind that isn't painted and the HOA is pretty picking about those changes so we don't have to worry about that changing. I love your advice about looking at real life examples. All the houses with the roof colors that are like weathered wood or barkwood with the similar house color as ours are much bigger houses with some brick fronts and I don't know if that makes a difference.

Ah, got it.....you have like a deck over paint?

If you are selling in a few years, I would focus on how the roof looks from the front of the house.

SERreal Designs made a good point about coordinating with the metal roof in front, too.

Cute house!

I found a visualizer where I could put the different colors on. The barkwood was the safest color for good impact on the front and the back. Although the hickory looked good from the back view with the deck, it didn't look good with green (as I suspected). The weathered wood looked a little green and didn't coordinate with the back very well. The shakerwood didn't give enough contrast just like you suggested. It's definitely between weathered wood and barkwood since the hickory red tones didn't go with the green. We can paint the shutters and door, but the weathered looking green metal part of the roof limits us to a green or blue/gray shingle/door color (of the colors approved by HOA). Really appreciate your help! Do you have a picture of your house with the weathered wood?

Chocolate brown roof

Hi. I'm considering Barkwood for a similarly colored house. Did you eventually go with the Barkwood, how did it turn out?