Picking the Right Front Door Color: Before and After Case Studies

We bought a house with a pink front door. Seriously!

pink front door

While our real estate agent fiddled with the lock box, we couldn’t help but notice the pink paint, worn out welcome mat and the dirty lights. We were skeptical of the house before we even step foot inside. And yes, the inside of the door was pink as well.

Since moving in, we painted the door blue with white trim, updated the welcome mat, cleaned the lights and added a potted plant. We also painted the gray shutters black for a little more pop.

blue front door

Simple projects with a simple price tag of just $50 plus paint and time.

During my project, I was inspired by reading about before and after front door projects on other blogs. Here are a few that really stood out:

White to Green

Here’s a great transformation of a bungalow from www.urbannestblog.com – they too painted their shutters black, but opted for a fabulous pop of green for their door. Really gives their house a crisp finish with lots of personality (wait – am I talking about a fine wine?).

green front door from urbannestblog

White to Black

Here’s a blogger who made a dramatic update while her husband was out – the “ask for forgiveness not permission” approach. Ditching the screen door was smart! She is my idol!

320 Sycamore front door

Read more at 320 Sycamore:

Red to Blue

Now here’s a blogger who loved her red door, but decided to go blue for a change, just because! The door looks fabulous both ways!

On Sutton Place Red and Blue Door

Read more about it at On Sutton Place.

Natural to Black

I really love this example – I hear many men say “you don’t paint real wood, ya know” – but this is a great example of why you SHOULD!

A Meek Perspective - Front door update

Read more about it at A Meek Perspective

Staging Your Front Door

Thinking about selling? Start with the front door! Here’s a fun before and after with an insanely small budget – can you find the differences?

staged front door

  • Swept the steps, cleaned off the door mat
  • Hosed down the area to clean out the cobwebs and gunk out ($0)
  • Painted the wood trim around the door ($0 – homeowner had paint in the bsmt)
  • Added house numbers over the door ($5)
  • Spray painted the urns ($3 for can of Kryon)
  • Added “live” plants ($2 – incredible deal at IGA)
  • Replaced the flag with a new (albeit cheap) one from Michaels ($5)

That’s a whopping grand total of $15!

If you are getting your house ready to sell, check out these practical design tips for staging your front door.

Need more help finding the right color for your front door? Check out these popular front door colors from House Beautiful.

What color is your door? Are you thinking about painting it? What color?

 

21 comments
  1. Thanks for the great info, i’m currently thinking of painting my front door beige door black. I have a red almost brown brick on my house, any other color that would work, what do you think. Would appreciate the feedback.

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  3. We have a brown vinyl sided house with darker brown trim-what color for front door and garage doors?

  4. Howdy! Someone in my Myspace group shared this website with us so I came to check it out.
    I’m definitely loving the information. I’m bookmarking and will be tweeting this to
    my followers! Great blog and great style and design.

  5. You really make it seem so easy with your presentation but I find this matter to be actually something that I think I
    would never understand. It seems too complex and very broad for me.
    I’m looking forward for your next post, I’ll try to get the hang
    of it!

  6. We are having a new home built and the front door will be blue. Wish I could remember the shade of blue but it’s very pretty! Our shutters will be a lighter wedgewood blue. I look forward to seeing it all come together….Mary

  7. My first instinct is to say black or red. But wouldn’t mustard be unexpectedly wonderful!?!? Let me know what you pick!

  8. I’m painting my house dark green, what color should I paint my front door?

    Please help

  9. As you already pointed out, a door can give you an impression of what’s behind it before you step in the house…so the door aspect is pretty important…that’s if you care what people think..

  10. Well I am just wondering about the pink door of your house…. however if we could learn more things on door painting…. then I guess it would helpful to us….

  11. The front door appeal is critical and the first impression potentail buyers gain from the outside is hard to shake. If the prospect doesn’t like the house from the outside, they probably won’t inquire at all. These are some great examples of what sellers can do to create that front door appeal!

  12. My spring project was painting the front door green and that is the PERFECT green! My house is the same taupe and black shutters, white trim and front porch. The color is perfect!! Do you have any idea the name of paint??

    Thanks!

  13. Hi Megan,

    How timely – I just found the color swatch yesterday (in office cleaning mode)! It was Valspar Fairmont Penthouse Mosaic Blue (4009-6) from their National Trust for Historic Preservation collection.

    Big name, huh? 😉

  14. I am planning on painting my front door and leaning towards blue…love the blue you used…could you share the paint color you used? Thanks!

  15. It was PINK?! That’s something you don’t see every day. I have to say, I think the blue is a much better choice. 🙂

    Love seeing these before and afters. I’ve been debating my own door-color change. It’s a dark green now, which is fine, but I’d love to have something kind of bright and fun, like yellow. Thanks for the inspiration!

  16. The door is a light blue and I’ll just add some matching accents to make that shade of blue feel more at home.

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