One of the easiest and cost-effective ways of updating your home’s exterior is by choosing a new front door color! With so many different options and colors on the market, it can be difficult to select a color or even what design is best for your house.
This green jewel tone door is on trend and looks incredible with the surrounding brick!
Your front entry is usually the first thing people see when they visit and it should be welcoming and give them a clue as to what to expect when they cross the threshold. It is the first “hello” from your home, so it’s important to get this right from the onset. Having a daring color or design for your front door helps to catch the eye from passersby. It is crucial to get the color and design right, as there is a fine line between balance and being too much, so it is important for this to be well considered.
Far too often we are afraid of being bold and bright with our color choices. Your front door is the perfect opportunity to experiment with being adventurous with color. Conversely, updating the overall design of the door in some cases can be enough to lift the whole exterior of the house.
We have decided to share our top recommendations and tips for helping you choose the right color and design for your home’s front door. Let’s take a look!
Examining the Surroundings
First of all, it is important to inspect the surrounding area of your front door. Here’s a list of things to ask yourself as you get started:
- Do you have a modern or traditional porch?
- Is there exposed brickwork or stone on your home? If so, what style and color?
- What color are your windows?
- What plants are nearby?
- What color is your siding?
These are all key elements that will come into play when choosing to upgrade your front door design and color.
The color tone of your brick or stone can have a large impact on the color choice for your front door. Pale brickwork with pastel-colored doors can look too washed out, and conversely, a bold and bright colored door next to darker brickwork can sometimes create too harsh a contrast. You will also need to consider the color of your window frames and how that will work with the color for your front door.
The visual vibrations are powerful between the crisp white stucco, the bright flowers and bright blue doors in this example.
The color of your exterior siding plays a vital role in the selection of your front door color and design. Similarly to the above, if the exterior is particularly pale, consider brighter colors for your front door. The siding may already be painted a specific color in which case you may want to use a different tone (darker or lighter shade) of this same color for continuity.
Perhaps your porch is light-colored concrete which would lend itself nicely to a bolder colored front door. Or if the floor is more of a darker color, you can add impact to this by using a lighter pastel color for your front door, or even a natural stained wood door.
It’s also significant to look at any surrounding landscaping you have. Are there any plants or flowers in particular that you can draw colors from? Perhaps there’s a rose bush which blooms red or pink roses – this is the perfect opportunity to explore front door colors along these lines. Or you may have a lavender plant which then lends itself well to having a purple or lilac-colored front door.
Choosing the Design
The overall style and design of your front door should complement the style of your home. In many instances, you won’t necessarily need to update the design of your front door, but it can be a worthwhile exercise researching other options that may equally work well or even better.
Should you be updating your whole home’s exterior to a more modern look, coloring and materials play a huge role in the transformation. There are many modern door designs on the market to suit any style you’re going for. There are options with stained glass features, small glass elements or long and thin glass elements for you to completely customize the look.
This wood door exudes chicness and looks incredible paired with the grey building and neutral porch. Who wouldn’t feel welcomed approaching this home?
To keep your front door in keeping with the overall design of your home, take cues from other elements of the exterior. Your windows, for example, can offer big design cues as to the route you should take with your front door design. The proportions of the glazed elements and overall shape and size help determine the design for your front door too.
For those with existing wood doors looking to update them, you may want to consider an alternative stain (lighter or darker for example). Although this is a very simple change, it can be just as effective.
Choosing Your Color
Selecting a color is probably one of the hardest decisions for a homeowner to make within an interior, let alone with your front door too. If your home is fairly monochrome in color on the exterior, consider a bright color to offset the rest of the home. It’s almost important to understand how color psychology plays a role in color selection.
For example, reds exude power, strength, and energy while yellow evokes feelings of optimism and friendliness. Blue doors are popular too and bring thoughts of trust and security. Green, the color of new growth, feels fresh and gives hope. Brown is serious, earthy, and authentic. Black brings a feeling of sophistication and power while white is clean and pure. All of these colors can be warm or cool and relate to your exterior in some way.
If you’re feeling nervous about going for a bright color, try more neutral hues. Brown, black or charcoal are all timeless looks. Consider deep reds, navy blues or purples; these are classic colors that also fit into the neutral category.
Both the red and white doors look amazing given the architecture and landscaping. The red door pictured is a cool red which works perfectly with the brick.
Once you have examined your surroundings and have a few ideas as to which colors to look into further, we always recommend that you try to get a sample pot and paint it up on a scrap piece of wood or paper and pin it up on your existing front door. Make sure you can see it alongside the rest of your exterior so you can really see whether or not it fits in well with the rest of your home. Always examine your samples at least 25 – 30 feet away.
Top Tip: Make sure when you’re examining paint samples to always look at them outside in good daylight, not indoors.
Be Bold and Creative
If you’re feeling adventurous and really want to make an impact, go for a strong, bright color for your front door but choose a shade that compliments the surrounding materials of your home. Of course, the color should also be in-line with your personality and personal style. As mentioned previously, always choose a color you absolutely love and won’t get sick of looking at every time you arrive back home!
Don’t be afraid to try bright colors like orange, yellow or lime green. These are really striking colors to use for your front door – and will definitely get noticed! Remember to be bold and brave with your color choice.
Bright green doors aren’t for the faint of heart, but don’t be afraid of color. Paint is easy to experiment with!
We hope you have enjoyed reading through the different aspects of front door designs and color choices. Have you recently updated your front door? We would love to hear your thoughts and ideas in the comments below and don’t forget to pin!