How to choose a front door paint color.

The upsides of a bold color like coral or canary yellow is that they are often cheerier and make a stronger welcoming statement to guests. Relatively speaking, your front door is also small real estate. Painting it a striking color won’t feel as overwhelming as if you painted your entire exterior in that hue. A grape front door? Beautiful and unique, yet restrained. Grape siding everywhere? That’s probably a bit much.

There are two schools of thought for what you should paint your front door when you’re selling your house. On one hand, a neutral color will appeal to a wider range of prospective buyers.

Consider complementary colors.

We hinted at this already. When choosing a front door color, make sure it goes with the other hues on your home. That doesn’t mean you have to match them exactly, though. Deep contrast, such as with a bright blue door on a white home, can be especially attractive. Consider how a new door color will go with trim, window shutters and a screen door as well as the home’s overall exterior.

Many paint companies create complementary color palettes on their websites. Try picking a color that matches your home’s exterior and see which hues they suggest to match.

Play up your curb appeal.

A refreshed front door can do wonders for your curb appeal, but only if your new color works well with the landscaping and hardscaping you already have. Some color experts shy away from green front doors because of the amount of green we typically have in our gardens. Similarly, you might not want a red door if it clashes with the brick pavers. Navy blue might be the better choice in that case.

Consider door hardware finishes at this stage, too. If you have existing hardware you plan to keep, choose a paint color that complements that finish. For example, Matte Black often looks great with bold yellows, while Satin Nickel is ideal for darker blues.

Test it outside.

Once you think you’ve found a good match, go look at it outside. If you can get a large swatch to take home, tape it to your front door and see how it looks at different times of day. What looks beautiful in the bright morning sun might look dull at dusk. What was gorgeous in the store could look less enticing in the sunlight. And on the flip side, what you were unsure of in the store might turn out to be perfect once you get out from under the florescent lighting.

This is a good time to consider how bright your porch is, too. If you have a covered patio, that will affect how bright the front door color seems. A darker color could feel overbearing in the shade of a porch.

Send the right message.

Your front door makes a first impression on every guest who enters, whether it’s a longtime friend or a prospective homebuyer. You can use this as an opportunity to set the tone for what they’ll find inside. If your interior décor is filled with bright colors, pick a front door paint color that’s also uplifting and happy. If you lean toward monochromatic minimalism, your front door should reflect that as well. More of a Mid-Century Modern fan? That style has some characteristic colors – mustard, turquoise, chocolatey brown – so you can start to tease the aesthetic from the first step.