Here in New England, painting season begins as soon as the weather turns warm and continues unabated until the first frost. Around our neighborhood there are painting contractor sings in nearly every other yard! But before you can hire the painter, you have to pick the colors!
Picking exterior color combinations is a delicate balance and depends on the style and location of the house, the surrounding landscape and hardscape, and personal preference! But the finishing touch for any exterior color scheme is the front door color.
A front door should be obvious and welcoming and one way to accomplish that is to draw attention to it with color. Here are some color families that work well together.
For medium to light toned neutrals
like the taupes and grays so popular here in the New England, there are a multitude of choices, but the door MUST compliment the undertone of the neutral.
This light taupe house has a surprising shot of coral at the front door that totally evokes welcome…and will look gorgeous decorated for fall too!
The neutral siding and slightly darker neutral shutters take a back seat to this bright front door creating a welcoming “enter here” visual cue.
Also notice - the storm door was painted the same coral color as the front door, which is always a good idea. Had they left the storm door white, the striking door color would be reduced to an out of proportion narrower sliver of color undermining the whole point of a WOW color.
Below is an illustration of the difference painting the storm door makes. I’ve recolored the trim and shutters to a better tone for the siding color as well.
The trim color is a bit too creamy for the gray and with the white vinyl windows, white makes more sense. And this storm door has not yet been painted to match the door color leaving an impression of a front door for the very thin!
See what it would look like with white trim, charcoal shutters, and a painted storm door to match the dark red front door? The door immediately looks more generous and welcoming!
Shades of red are great for front doors. A brighter shade is a better choice for doors in the shadow of a deep front porch, like this lovely house below with the cherry red front door.
This stained wood door is a rich look on this beautifully maintained neutral colored house.
Other door colors that work really well with mid tone taupes, beiges, and warmer grays are deep teal, eggplant, various shades of green, navy blue, and black. Darker shades of neutrals need more intense hues while mid and light tone neutrals can use both strong and muted colors depending on what is going on around the door.
Blue houses,
which are plentiful in my neighborhood, also look great with red shades on the door - especially if there is red brick somewhere in the hardscape. Black shutters and doors also look terrific on blue houses.
This blue house has an elegantly appointed black front door surrounded by white trim
Black doors are almost never wrong.
City townhouses in brick or stone or stucco look stately with shiny black doors, but bright colored city doors are a great way to personalize and differentiate your rowhouse or brownstone from its identical neighbors!
Brick, yellow, or white houses
Back to suburbia…brick houses, yellow houses (and please use a muted or warmer yellow - at least in the light in the northeast - lemony acid yellow just looks unhappy), and white houses look classic with…black (of course!) or a very dark black-green.
Deep forest green door with brick
This nearly 100 year old cottage looks perfect painted yellow with black-green doors!
Brown houses are quite tricky and few house styles look good in brown (so PLEASE don’t put a brown roof on just ANY style house), but this saltbox next door to me is a lovely example of a very well done brown house. The orange-red door is perfect for it! For cabin-in-the-woods type brown houses, forest green is another viable door color.
Brown saltbox with cream trim and a perfect red door
Remember when I said black doors are almost always appropriate? Doors, yes, trim details? Not so much! There are some, though very few, houses where black trim works, but outlining fake ornamentation in black is generally inadvisable.
We’ll not even talk about whatever the builders might have been thinking when they slapped a classic broken pediment over the entry door of a 70’s split level, but adding insult to injury, someone has added what can best be categorized as eyeliner?!
A word about location and light
The colors below all work well for the style of homes and common house colors found in New England and areas with similar climates and light. In more tropical and subtropical climates where the light is more intense, brighter and clearer colors can be appropriate. Pay attention to the location, light, and style when choosing exterior colors!
If you would still like some professional guidance selecting your paint colors, we now offer virtual paint consultations! Click HERE for more information