In every home that I’ve ever lived in, the decision to repaint the front door has been super worthwhile. If you need tips and more inspiration, learn how to paint a front door in my full tutorial.
A change in color can match a change in your own personality, such as to say “am I a sunny yellow, or feeling more mellow?” Door decorating–be it with a great wreath or paint–is an opportunity to refresh the appearance of your home in the eyes of everyday passers by, a slam dunk in the “Yes, I want my home to have wonderful curb appeal!” category. It shows pride, and love-of-home. Just look at this before:
And the after!
I love a transformation!
I’ve been toying with different door color ideas for a few years, knowing that I wanted to choose a color that tied to a midcentury color palette; something colorful that wasn’t expected, something fresh, but classic and not out of place. I began by searching for paint swatches and palettes from the ’50′s (I like the O’Brien palette from 1953). Using a photo editing software, I over-layed the palette colors onto an actual photo of our white front door to test out which might work best for our home when flanked with the white storm door trim, blue-gray flagstone, and gray vinyl siding. This is a similar color selection process that I used when we painted our kitchen cabinets, and it worked perfectly for that project, so my hopes were high for this application as well.
I’ve never found color selection to be a very easy process, and I didn’t even have a color in mind when I began to narrow it down. As most indecisive people would report, I liked a lot of the colors we sampled, almost all of them in fact, but managed to bring the overall number of swatches down from 48 to 5. My husband and I agreed that the light pinks probably weren’t right, nor were the sky blues and lemony yellows. He gravitated towards the reds and dark oranges, I leaned towards the purples. We both liked the dark blues and a range of mossy greens, so we decided to commit to those shades, and pick up a bunch of paint samples.
It’s best to review paint chips in the intended setting, because the amount of natural lighting can change the way colors look in reality. Some might suggest painting swatches of each color you like onto the door, but in a small space like on a door, I find looking at the paper swatches close to accurate if you can use your imagination.
Stepping back into the yard is what made the decision easier. Most colors looked nice with the roof, siding, and stonework, but the flagstone walkway and steps have a patina of mossy green that we knew would look great to incorporate. It wasn’t until we noticed this that we ruled out the dark blues, and started paying closer attention to the three colors on the bottom row, shown in the photos above and below.
The swatch we chose is the one in the center of the bottom row. Edamame green from Sherwin-Williams. The paint in the can is an exact match of the chip, but in actuality, it looks a bit different than the swatch on the SW website (literally more like the yummy appetizer, less like a sandy green-brown). I suspect natural lighting and the surrounding greenery on plants plays a part in this.
Repainting the door lends new appeal to our home, and if that weren’t impacting enough, I also upgraded the hardware to improve the overall design of our entryway. If you like the clean lines of the deadbolt and knob I purchased for this entry, be sure to check out EMTEK. (Side note: Isn’t it crazy how a slightly different light can make the green in the photo above look grassy, but below look mossy! A true range that looks great in any light.)
Inspired by this front door makeover? See how I redesigned the inside of the door with wallpaper!
If you’re looking for a range of inviting front door colors, check out this gallery.
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