5 Bright Palettes for Front Doors
Splash bold green, blue, orange or red on your front door, then balance it with a more restrained hue on the rest of the house
Houzz contributor and designer at the Austin-based architecture and interior design firm, Loop Design (http://www.houzz.com/pro/loopdesign/loop-design).
Loop Design specializes in modern residential new construction and renovations. We are passionate about sustainable building practices and enjoy it when our clients bring those same interests to their project.
Houzz contributor and designer at the Austin-based architecture and interior... More »
Nothing welcomes guests to your home better than a bold, beautiful color on the front door. Many people have no trouble picking out a fun color to paint the door, but don't know what to do with the rest of the exterior. And what about the trim?
The key to working with bold colors is to limit them to elements you really want to stand out, which makes the front door the ideal place to feature a vibrant color. Then select supporting hues for the rest of the house that don't try to compete for attention.
Check out these Houzz homes with delightfully colorful front doors, along with potential palettes that incorporate a bold front door hue with other exterior hues.
The key to working with bold colors is to limit them to elements you really want to stand out, which makes the front door the ideal place to feature a vibrant color. Then select supporting hues for the rest of the house that don't try to compete for attention.
Check out these Houzz homes with delightfully colorful front doors, along with potential palettes that incorporate a bold front door hue with other exterior hues.
This acid yellow-green front door shouts "Come on in!" and works nicely with the natural wood siding. If you have no choice but to paint your siding, you could go with a cooler brown/taupe shade to set off the brighter hue of the door.
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by Jennifer Ott
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| Example palette. Get a similar look with these colors (clockwise from top left, all from Glidden): Lime Sorbet GLG12 for the front door, Bronzed Ivy GLN23 for trim and Khaki Green ICI830 for the main house color. |
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| I love this vibrant turquoise door against the dark sage-green house color. The white door trim makes it all look crisp. |
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by Jennifer Ott
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| Example palette. Get the same effect with (clockwise from top left, all from Martha Stewart Living): Lagoon MSL125, Lamb MSL225 and Bayou MSL237. |
Orange doors are hot right now. Cool them down by pairing them with gray hues that have a bit of green in them.
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by Jennifer Ott
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| Example palette: Try (clockwise from top left, all from Benjamin Moore): Tangy Orange 2014-30, Narragansett Green HC-157 and Templeton Gray HC-161. |
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| One of my favorite colors, a bright leafy green, works well with steely gray neutrals. |
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by Jennifer Ott
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| Example palette: For a similar effect, use (clockwise from top left, all from Mythic Paint): Sweet Summer 069-5, Grecian Grey 132-5 and Court Magician 133-1. |
by Risinger Homes
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Red doors look fantastic on just about every house style, from traditional to contemporary. Let the door remain the star by keeping the main house color neutral, ranging from white to cooler taupes or to gray. The cooler neutrals won't compete with the red, but instead will offer a nice, contrasting background.
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by Jennifer Ott
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| Example palette: Clockwise from top left (all from Sherwin-Williams): Red Tomato SW6607, Iron Ore SW7069 and Cityscape SW7067. Tell us: What color is your front door? What color would you like it to be? More: Should you paint your door black? Explore more color palettes for inside and out |
Ideabook updated on Sept. 12, 2012.
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Remember reading that Feng Shui says a red door is supposed to be good. Loved the homes in France with the different vibrant coloured front doors.
Another Q- should the garage door be the same color as your front door?
Your two colour door is gorgeous...each colour looks great with the surrounding space. Love your daring choices, but still very livable too. In my opinion, NO!, the garage door should not match your front door!! Too matchy matchy and also, kinda detracts from the welcoming entrance you have carefully created.
What Color did you use for the Blue, I love it!
So what color(s) can I paint the door for a pop of color? I thought about red, but is that too boring and predictable to be matchy-matchy with the mailbox? Do I paint both the door and the storm door same color?
I can't find it right now, but I saw a "Curb Appeal" (HGTV) episode where a couple had a Cape Cod style house. They painted it yellow with a I believe taupe window trim, I think trim around front door was white, and then the front door was a beautiful shade of blue, it all came together and looked great. I thought I emailed it to myself because at the time I was looking at a CC style house and thought it looked fantastic. I'm sorry, I can't find it.
http://www.interiordesigngreensboro.com/2012/08/what-color-should-i-paint-my-front-door.html
THe blue door is called Fiji, Benjamin Moore #A526
Thanks for saying NO to the garage matching the front door. My instinct said no also.
http://www.mariakillam.com/2012/04/ten-best-front-door-colours-for-your-house.html#comment-88801
At the end she provides the equivalent colors for American market. And there's good ideas in the discussion forum that follows.
I posted earlier needed some advice (no responses yet), do you think based on my situation I could do a turquoise? I love that color in general. I think I could do a lot of colors, but it's coordinating with my fire engine red mailbox that I want to look right too.
Are you looking to move away from gray for the house color? because I actually really love red with gray, especially if it's a cool red. You could go with a warmer gray, such as this: Project: Wellington Residence
or cooler, like this (scroll down to the 3rd photo): Project: Sandywoods Farm - Tiverton, RI
You are selling a house and want to stand out in the crowd - not blend in! If you are not sure if you have the right blue, or if it should be a different color, shade or value - , ask a friend who has some background in Art - teacher, artist, designer, or take a picture of the house and door to the local paint companies. Many have decorators and colorists on staff. Get all the advice you can, then make your own decision as to what will appeal to others.
I believe every home should have 4-5 colors showing, depending on the style of the house. House color, roof color, trim and the front door. If the main house color is stucco, brick, stone, etc - then you could use a 5th color for siding areas, shutters, a bench by the front door. I always like the front door and shutters to be different colors, shades or values so they do not matchy-matchy. Good luck and hope your house sells fast.
astraea
When I put my house on the market, my agent suggested repainting my colonial blue door white, because that was more "common" in the area. Sometimes it feels that no matter what you have, agents suggest the opposite!
efrayre said:
"Hi Jennifer, my front door has a screen door in front of it. We like having it since we live in a city with cool days and nights, even in the summer
Because they can do multiple, thin, high enamel, paint layers which they bake between coats so you get a hard surface that can withstand weather extremes, kicks by kids, scratching by pets, bumps from tricycles and luggage on wheels.
If you have the money, choose a car paint and have it sprayed!
Melissa Tobin wrote:
"New to this, so if I posted this question twice, I'm sorry!!! I am trying to figure out a color to paint my front door. I have a light green (think mint green) Cape style house, black shutters on the two front windows, and a white metal screen door. The door is currently white, but looks kind of boring! Any suggestions for a color? I'd rather have white than black! I would love a pop of another color though...."
I did a Google search on "paint colors to go with mint green", one of the options came up with a Houzz link, although it's more for walls, this might give you some ideas. I know you want a pop of color, but I think that kind of color always looks great with a rich chocolate brown/espresso, very retro, then you could do a secondary and complimentary color with a wreath. Or perhaps a rich denim blue color, deep fuschia (there's a picture on the Houzz link below of a room with the green walls and fuschia chairs, looks great), or maybe a burnt orange, tangerine is the "it" color this year. Glossy black would look good and compliment the shutters. Yellow could work, but I think it should be pale, almost butter, but would not be my top choice. I like the suggestion someone had of deep/charcoal gray too. Whatever you pick, paint storm door same color.
http://www.houzz.com/mint-green-walls
http://blog.hgtv.com/design/2012/02/03/hgtvs-color-of-the-month-has-us-longing-for-spring/
You might also consider taking a picture of the front of your house with the door, then upload it to one of the paint manufacturer's visualizer programs.
Hope that helps! I'm still waiting for ideas on my front door, my post is early on in this one along with a picture. Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?
traveladdict1967 wrote:
"I was about to send out the "help me" call too, but jopadiet beat me to it. I have a Tudor cottage style house, brick that's been whitewashed a cream-ish color, dark brown trim (I plan to paint the tall peak dark brown, I don't like current color, doesn't go). My front door is arched with a matching glass fronted storm door, both in dark brown. I also have a fire engine red mailbox outside the door. There is also a big oak tree that sits almost smack in the middle blocking the view of front door.
So what color(s) can I paint the door for a pop of color? I thought about red, but is that too boring and predictable to be matchy-matchy with the mailbox? Do I paint both the door and the storm door same color?"
http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/photos/0,,20567862,00.html
Jennifer Ott - Thanks for the suggestions. I didn't know if dark red/burgundy would be "too predictable" on my house, do you think I could get away with a deep fuschia? I've considered purple, it's supposed to be a homey, welcoming color for a front door. All the trim is dark brown except the peak, which I plan to change to match rest of trim. Some of the whitewash is wearing off, but not enough to really see the true brick color (maybe a smidge). I definitely plan to paint the storm door same color after reading all the comments, this was my plan and was reconfirmed. I know I don't want green, black or yellow. Ugh, I'm so tired of picking out paint for my whole house, too many choices!
this one might be too burgundy for you but it's moving toward fucshia: http://tinyurl.com/9qz39kg
or this: http://tinyurl.com/9yd299q
Initially, I was leaning towards a baby teal-ish color but the more I look at the house, the more I think that color would not work. Also, I fell in love with the doors in Richmond, VA (the unique screen doors in poppy colors) and would love to mimic that in my home somehow. The screen door on the front door is mostly glass with a thin metal frame around it and I have a black security door on the side. Any suggestions for a fun pop of color for the doors and should I paint the "screen" door as well?
I've decided to focus my efforts on the inside of the house and only paint the interior of the front door. it'll be like a mullet.... business on the outside, party in the back (or in this case on the inside)!
Although I didn't paint outside I replaced the lights on the exterior and the house numbers. It's made a HUGE difference to me lol - that could be a mental thing though.
(We bought our house 4 weeks ago).
The Tomato Red/ Iron Ore combo has Our family and all the Neighbors saying: Bravo!
The front door is just left of the white built out area and it fades into the background. The french doors near the garage is the enclosed breeze way entrance to the kitchen
Your home has nice lines and is charming. However, I think some small fixes would make your home really charming.
Two things struck me right off the bat: the white part of your front exterior should really be painted out to the yellow. To me it makes the front look disjointed. The second thing is how much impact some landscaping would have on your exterior. The goal for landscaping would be to add presence and to visually 'fill in' the areas below the short windows at the front. I would keep it really simple, cohesive, modern and not tight. I'm no landscape designer, but perhaps integrating some native tall grasses below the windows might be attractive. However, more than anything, get a plan and think of it as a whole, not little parts. If you live near a university that has a landscape design program, you can get a student to do a design for much less than a firm would charge (this is what I did).
With regards to the two doors, I guess I would ask you, are you trying to bring the original front door back as the focus?? It sounds like it from your letter. In which case, I would paint out the original door in one of the following 1) first choice would be a deep, almost black green such as Farrow and Ball's Green Smoke. There are probably many other good choices at your local store. My goal would be to reference the roof colour a bit, make it dark and smart. Give it presence. Definitely paint out the aluminum screen, or better yet, replace it with a simple screen. Do not feel beholden to paint it anything close to hunter green, which would be too close to the roof and as a paint colour, is rather tired. 2) Second choice would be charcoal, or black. 3) A deeper yellow.
If it was me, I would not introduce another colour since you already have yellow, white and green happening.
I would also introduce a large planter right to the left of the front door for bringing the eye over there and creating more focus. The current one you have does not have enough weight.
Finally, the french doors... Hmm...I'm really not sure what you should do with these but I think something. You could also paint them yellow which would visually keep it really clean and cohesive and your eye would go right to the front door. Another alternative, probably not my first choice, is that you could make them whatever colour the front door becomes. I'm not sure I would leave them white. I think the goal for your home should be to reduce the visual break-ups, and leaving them white may do that. Once you paint the front door, you'll know what's best.
I really like your house and think that the yellow is very pretty. Good luck!