3 Colors To Avoid Painting Your Front Door And 3 Better Alternatives To Consider

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First impressions matter, and updating your front door is a simple way to improve your home's curb appeal. Although you could upgrade your existing door with new hardware or swap it for one with enhanced security features, a new coat of paint is often the easiest and least expensive option. Picking the right color is often the trickiest part, and it should be driven by your goals. Do you want to try something new and trendy that sets your home apart from the neighbors? Is it important to enhance the energy coming into your house to invite not just guests but prosperity and luck? Or are you looking for front door paint colors that will boost your resale value? Experts agree that you should avoid both dull hues, like cement grays and dusky pinks, in favor of impactful colors like inky blacks and rich purples.

There are several things to consider while determining the best color to paint your front door. You should think about how your new front door color will complement existing colors, including your home's exterior walls, trim, shutters, gutters, and even roof. Analogous colors will look more harmonious and calming, while complementary colors will add punchy contrast that stands out. Your home's overall style and the surrounding area should also influence your choice. Contemporary homes that already look striking can often carry off a bold front door better than traditional homes, where a rich color will feel more appropriate. Meanwhile, warm, nature-inspired hues are ideal for cottage-style homes with wood cladding or stone exteriors, while cool pastels may fit best if you live in a coastal neighborhood.

Whatever you do, it's a good idea to avoid painting your front door a color that will lower your home's value. According to the experts at Zillow, although gray has been extremely popular for interiors in recent years, prospective buyers are likely to offer $3,365 less for a home when this color is used on the front door. If your home has a gray exterior, ditch the analogous look for inky black or earthy greens, like EVOLVE Environment-friendly Seafoam Paint & Primer from Amazon. These are better choices that will provide just the right amount of contrast.

When it comes to both beauty and return on investment, we can't overstate the benefits of painting your front door black. Classic, sophisticated, and timeless, black front doors look right at home whether you've got a classic Cape Cod or a super modern bungalow. With tons of black hues out there, from perennial favorites like Sherwin-Williams Tricorn Black to Farrow & Ball's Liquorice, getting this color right means carefully studying the undertones of your home's exterior, surrounding landscaping, and the paint color itself. We highly recommend doing a few swatch tests before committing.

You may be less concerned with a front door color that increases your home's value and more focused on picking one that improves the overall energy and flow. There are a lot of ways to bring good vibes into your home using Feng Shui, and both the overall position and color of your front door can dramatically impact your success. But there is one color that's considered unlucky, sterile, and represents mourning and grief in Chinese culture: white. Along with being an inauspicious choice, painting your front door white is a bad idea because it offers no visually appealing contrast while also being more likely to show dirt and scuff marks.

Along with opting for a door made of strong, durable materials, consider picking a front door color guided by the five Feng Shui elements and the direction your door faces. Natural colors that echo earth, water, wind, fire, and metals come in a wide range of hues, but ones with a purple undertone are thought to be especially lucky by Taoists, who believe the color represents the idea that good times are ahead. Try colors like Behr's Strong Iris for north- or south-facing doors associated with water or fire, Sherwin-Williams' Plum Brown for east-facing doors associated with wood, or Benjamin Moore's Violet Stone for west-facing doors associated with metal.

There are plenty of common mistakes to avoid when painting your front door, but one of the worst ones you can make is picking a color that's too trendy. From gender-blurring muted millennial pinks to the brief but brilliant Barbiecore era, pink has certainly been a la mode in recent years. But according to Zillow research, prospective buyers find pale pink front doors "kind of shabby looking." This negative impression results in those surveyed willing to pay $6,516 less than they would for homes with more classic front door colors.

With thousands of paint colors to choose from, what's really "best" for your front door is subjective. It's important to pick a color that feels inviting to you, whether it's a classic hue or something more splashy. According to the color experts at Sherwin-Williams, vivid colors like Parakeet and Decisive Yellow can make your home feel welcoming, especially when paired with white trim and neutral exterior walls for contrast that heightens the drama. Make sure to pair vibrant front doors with substantial hardware that doesn't get lost among the shock of color.