The Most Common Mistake People Make When Choosing A Paint Color For Their Front Door

Your front door is one of the first things that people see when they see your home, so it's important to choose a paint color that you love. However, there is a common mistake made when choosing a hue: only viewing the paint under artificial lighting. Instead of selecting paint while sitting in your home or a store, you need to look at the paint under natural light. 

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Natural light is the most accurate representation of how your paint color will look once it's applied to your door. Artificial light can cast different tones and shadows, making it difficult to get a true sense of the color.

Natural light also reveals the true undertones of paint colors. Every paint color has an undertone, which is a subtle tinge that underlies the main color. Undertones can be warm, cool, or neutral. Warm undertones include yellow, orange, and red. Cool undertones include blue, green, and purple. Neutral undertones don't have a warm or cool hue. And in artificial light, undertones can be distorted or hidden altogether.

How to capture the best natural light to look at paint

Not using paint swatches is one of the biggest mistakes everyone makes when buying paint, so look at the paint swatches on your front door. If possible, tape them on a white poster board so your eyes don't take in any of the surrounding colors. This will give you the most accurate idea of how the color will look if you decide to paint your entire door with it. 

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You can also get samples of different paint colors and paint them on the poster board. This will allow you to see how the colors look in different lighting conditions. It will also ensure that you're happy with the color before you commit to it.

In addition, look at the paint swatches at different times. The lighting in your yard will change throughout the day, depending on the sun's position, and consequently, the color of the paint will change depending on the intensity of the sunlight and the angle at which it is hitting the door. Natural light will give you a good idea of how your paint color will look in both direct sunlight and indirect sunlight.

Consider the colors around your door

Natural light will help you to see how the paint color will look in the context of your overall home, which makes it easier to choose a paint color that will complement your house's exterior. But another thing you'll want to be aware of is the surrounding colors of the house under sunlight. The hues of your home's accessories can all affect the way that the front door paint color looks. The paint color of your front door should complement the other colors on your home's exterior, such as the siding, trim, and roof. The color of a front door can either blend in with the color scheme of the roof and siding, or it can be starkly different and stand out. 

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Viewing colors under natural light will also enable you to compare different paint colors accurately. If you're considering two or more different paint colors for your front door, or if you're revamping more than just the hue of your door, it's important to examine them under the lighting you'll be seeing them in every day. This will help you to see how the colors stack up against each other and help you choose the color that you like best for your perfect front door.

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