Embracing Your Shed Roof with Exterior Design

By: Sarah

A shed roof can go by many other names: pent roof, lean-to roof, skillion roof, outshot, catslide, or mono-pitched roof. It is also one of the simplest of all roof styles used on homes. A shed roof has a single pitch, sloping in one direction. Many of the homes we design that have shed roofs feature more than one roof style. They may have multiple lean-to pitches, or have a pent roof over one part of the home and a gabled roof (for example) covering another portion of the house. Either way, your roof plays an important role in exterior design, and a shed roof brings both challenges and opportunities for curb appeal. Read on for how we’ve embraced this roof style in a handful of our designs.

Bringing together all of your home’s design elements to create thoughtful, intentional, enviable curb appeal is what we do. We factor in everything from roof styles to paint colors to hardscaping when we help our clients reimagine their exteriors. Learn more about our virtual exterior design services.

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Contemporary home with a shed roof

Gentle slope

We highlighted the gentle slope of the long shed roof on this home with thick fascia and a deep soffit by using a dark, rich paint color: Benjamin Moore’s Black Beauty. We love how the trim is replicated with similarly thick horizontal lines on the home’s façade. One beautiful and functional benefit of the shed roof: how it extends beyond the home’s walls to create a second floor balcony awning, complete with wood paneling and ceiling fans.

Mid-century home with white brick and small shed roof accents

Woodgrain siding

Our designers used a woodgrain steel siding to accentuate the shed roofs above the entry and garage doors on this home. Trellises, Corten steel planters, and a rain chain all bring visual interest to the plain brick walls on this side of the home.

A home rendered with siding solutions to fix woodpecker damage to house

All about angles

We used intentional siding application methods to work with the pitch of the roofing on this home. Most importantly, our designers suggested drawing attention to the portion of the home with the front door by using engineered wood cladding applied at the same pitch as the roof. Vertical batten siding on the other exterior walls emphasizes their height.

Contemporary home with dark gray siding and a shed roof

Solar panels

While many shed rooflines mean that you don’t see much of the roofing material at all from the front of the home, the front view of this property is largely roof. The gray shingle material ties in well with the color palette our designers recommended. Plus, we helped this homeowner envision what solar panels would look like on the large swath of roof beneath the clerestory windows — which happen to be placed between one shed roof and another.

Contemporary home with a shed roofline and white siding with wood and black accents

Roof style combination

This home features a more classic gabled roof to the left with a more contemporary staggered shed roofline on the right. Black Beauty on the trim, eaves, fascia, soffits, and windows connects these geometric elements. Furthermore, Sherwin Williams’ Anew Gray acts to outline the cladding and punctuate the multiple layers of the home on the right side. Note how Anew Gray is the backdrop to a set of clerestory windows similar to those immediately above.

Contemporary home with shed roofline, dark siding, and wood cladding accent around the entryway

Shed roof with rafter tails

We drew the eye to this home’s roofline by using an off-white paint color on the trim, eaves, fascia, and soffits. Benjamin Moore’s Seapearl pops against the Wrought Iron siding. Plus, using this bright color on the rafter tails brings attention to a unique design element.

Commercial property with a shed roof and dark siding with wood accents

Commercial property

We helped the owners of this commercial building bring new life to their exterior, in part by making better use of the shed roofline. We extended the roofing on the left side to create an overhang above the front door. This both brings the eye to the entryway and offers protection from the elements just outside the door. Additionally, it gave us a place to hang a statement pendant! Next, we suggested extending the roofline a bit on the right hand side, too, for added depth.

Contemporary new construction home with a shed roof, white siding, and stone accents

Embracing your shed roof with exterior design

Often, it isn’t feasible to completely redo the exterior architecture of your home. And it’s usually not necessary in order to give you the curb appeal of your dreams. Instead, our designers prefer to embrace the existing elements of your home, and harness them to give you the style and function you’ll enjoy for years to come. When it comes to designing with shed roofs, we use paint, lighting, building materials, and more to make your home’s unique angles shine.

Need help with picking a new paint color scheme and nothing more? Looking to redesign the front and back of your home? Working with a blueprint and struggling to see how your new build is going to come together? We’re ready and waiting to help you visualize the exterior design of your dreams. Get started today.