Selecting a front door shade with Ruth...
With the right paint colour, your front door can be a smile on the front of your home that brightens your mood each day. While there are so many options to choose from, updating your front door is a fabulous chance to explore shades that will complement your home exterior and reflect your personal style.
Read guidance and inspiration from our Creative Director, Ruth, as she shares her expert tips for selecting a front door colour, including a few of her top choices from the Little Greene palette…
Elegant front door colours for traditional exteriors…
Many homes are period properties with traditional exteriors that could feature beautiful light stonework or classic redbrick. It can often work well to embrace the style of these homes with a confident shade that blends harmoniously with its surroundings for a coherent finish.
Ruth writes: “You should always take into consideration the look that you would like to achieve. For a smart townhouse, use sophisticated darker tones such as Basalt or Lamp Black. Or for something more rustic, create a country cottage feel with delicate pastel shades like Celestial Blue, Dorchester Pink – Mid or Normandy Grey. Finally, for accompanying red brickwork, impactful, bold greens like Harley Green and Ho Ho Green pair really well with warm red tones.”
Find inspiration from a selection of our favourite traditional front doors…
@amanda_louise_homeandgarden Normandy Grey
Door: Ho Ho Green
Door and window frame: Celestial Blue, Bench: French Grey, Bird house: Shirting,Watering can: Slaked Lime
Door: Dorchester Pink - Mid
Neutral front door inspiration...
Soft and serene, neutrals are a timeless choice for painting your front door, especially if you want your entrance to offer beautiful yet understated design flair. Read Ruth’s advice for choosing a neutral front door colour, including the option to go a little bolder with sumptuous chocolate browns from our ‘Sweet Treats’ palette…
“Many homes are stone-based tones, and warm neutrals work well with these. Avoid selecting bright white shades which may be too harsh on the eye, and ensure that you select a shade that complements your brickwork or render. We would always advise testing a sample pot to make sure you find the perfect shade for your project before you begin.”
For an alternative to pure white, @project.no61 chose Slaked Lime – Dark, which provides a warm welcome alongside the patterned floor tiles and redbrick exterior.
“The trend for front doors this year really has been the bolder the better. Traditionally, colours used on front doors have been quite subtle and sophisticated, so this shift has seen more high impact tones being used.”
For an inviting blend of luxury, elegance and impact, consider an indulgent dark brown such as Ganache – seen here on @houseofbertie’s entrance. Alternatively, the authentic Georgian shade, Chocolate Colour, has a real timeless quality, believed to have been used to paint the London front doors of George Frideric Handel and Benjamin Franklin.
Shades to make an impact…
Ruth writes: “Your front door is the first glimpse of your personality that visitors will receive, so it’s the perfect place for bold colour. To inject a little personality into your outdoor scheme, use bright, impactful shades that will make a statement and put a smile on the face of your guests and passers-by.”
@charlottebucciero.interiors shows how a colour like Atomic Red can create a strong visual statement on the front of your home, drawing the eye to a gorgeous pop of colour!
“At the moment, we are seeing a trend for really using your front door as a projection of your personal style. Your front door is the perfect place to use vibrant, bold shades that may not sit as comfortably in your interior scheme. Confetti is one of the most popular choices for front doors, complemented by gold accessories.”
@collins_consultation embraced our playful pink, Confetti, on this front door, where it creates an enticing colour contrast alongside the surrounding greenery.