What Color Do I paint my Front Door (or my house for that matter)?

If you just want to see photos you can go directly to my photobucket album.  I saved some photos off the Internet but I also took a lot of photos myself while I am working out in the field in Durham, NC historic districts.  The houses are being painted all sorts of colors and when one house is painted pretty much the rest on the block usually follow suite (keeping up with the Jones’?).  Most of the photos in Durham were taken in the historic districts.  There are many different styles of houses and  interesting color treatments.  You may think some of the colors are wild but the trend is now to be bold with at least the door. I also did a little experiment.  I took photos of the same model houses in a subdivision with different color schemes so you can get a feel for the impact of how different colors look on the same type of house.  Anyway read the post then click the view all button to see my library.  If you like you can subscribe to the album and then you will be notified when I add new photos. Please note I just posted the photos and that does not mean I agree with each color combo 

Your house colors and the feel it gives the looker is one of the main factors in curb appeal.

I have heard that a red door is the color to use if you are trying to sell your house.  My friend Sandi says she painted her door red to signify being protected by the blood of Jesus.  A past neighbor told me she loved purple doors because that signified royalty and one chick I know painted her door money green for good luck….Its all a matter of personal taste  mixed with emotions and  superstitions (yes I said superstitions).  My mother always hated black on anything especially a door because she said it was bad luck.  I like black, I think it looks elegant but it really is over done on doors and I think some other colors can be just as elegant or dramatic.

 

So here are the newest color trends.  I know some of them might be hard to imagine but if you check out the album you will see some of them really do work, depending on your taste:

• Green house: Purple door,  red door,  or try turquoise if you’re really edgy!

• Blue house. Red door,  dark blue or Lime green if you’re artsy!

• Pink color houses . Black door or a punchy color if you dare!

• Gray house. Red door or you can try the newest trend with yellow or orange.

• Brown or tan house. Green or yellow door or  Blue for a little excitement.

• Yellow house. In my opinion any color door matches AND looks good on a yellow house.  I love love love yellow houses but a real estate agent told me that yellow houses are the HARDEST houses to sell.  I don’t know why or if it is the general rule.  I would buy a yellow house!!

I have photos of most of these combos in my photobucket photo album which is updated regularly click here to view it

House and Window trim color: Okay this is an area I am not the best at…  I have heard that if you have a small house paint the trim the same color as the house or you can paint it a shade lighter but if you want it to look more contemporary paint it two shades darker than the house color.  The old rules were that you trim the house in white or beige but these days people are getting away from tradition.  We all know that color brightens up our lives and we all crave for some free excitement (don’t we?).

To keep the windows looking as large as possible, paint the trim around the windows the same as the window frames, either white or cream or black. Matching the trim to the actual windows will make them look bigger than if you break up the color by painting a dark trim around a white window or a white trim around a dark window.

Don’t be scared!!!

Garage door color: Traditionally people paint their garage doors the same color as their house but the trend is to now paint it the same color as your front door or use and entirely different color

Shutter color: The old way was to match your shutters to the roof color because it makes it look like you planned your roof color as part of the overall house palette. The new way is to not even use shutters. In fact a lot of people are using them INSIDE the house rather than outside…  Anyway looking around I have not seen that rule enforced (shutters matching the roof) so I don’t know if there really is still a rule to follow

What about brick?  I love love love painted brick!!

 

 

 

So where do you start?  I think you can look around you for a color palette especially your garden or in a piece of your favorite fabric.  Behr paint has a web browser plug in called chipit.  You can use this to take a photo and extract all the colors out of the photo.  It is really cool because when you see a photo of something that you like you can match the colors or use it to find a color pallet that appeals to your senses.  It is really easy to use.  You can check it out here 

I collected a bunch of photos in my photobucket account and I  update it regularly.  Here is a slide show but feel free to go to the site and check it out…it is my goal to post every color combo I see whether I like them or not.

Please feel free to give feedback below.  I get 30+ hits on this page alone each day and I have only a small sampling of comments.   If you are  finding this helpful or totally unhelpful please let me know by feedback.  I don’t care if you agree or disagree, I just want to know what you are thinking!

Thanks.