The color of your front door is the first impression of your home.
The front door, or main door, of your home should be noticeable. Even a small home needs a welcoming statement at the threshold, and the door color makes a powerful statement. You can coordinate the front door color with existing and immutable exterior colors, like brick walls or gray shingles. But a door that stands out is no problem, so don't feel you have to match the colors that are already present.
Reds and Related Shades
Red doors are eye-catching and vivacious. On a small facade, a red door hints that a certain fearlessness in decor awaits inside. Chinese custom holds that a front door painted red will attract fame and fortune, and nothing is reclusive and retiring about a lipstick red door. Red is an engaged color, but if the brightest, shiniest red is too extroverted for you, look for cinnabar paint --- a nice, dark red with a touch of orange and a shadow of umber. Cinnabar is a non-fire-engine-red but still stylish and daring. Back away from a strong statement without disappearing by choosing pumpkin, which is still in the warm family but is just a little muted and off -- a good, rich shade that acts like a neutral around other colors but is impossible to ignore.
Sophisticated and Storybook Blues
Blue is a fairytale color for a small cottage door. A mid-range blue echoes the morning glory vine curving over the eyebrow arch and pops against the potted geraniums. On a beach bungalow, a surf blue, deep sky blue or cadet blue door sets off white trim and faded shingles. A backyard playhouse door with a heart cut-out window and creamy yellow walls should be the color of bluebirds --- with fuschia or faded red shutters. A narrow townhouse or mews house gets an inky blue door, a color so dark that it looks black at night. In bright afternoon sun, the color is sophisticated deep blue, unexpected but decidedly urban. Turquoise blue might work for a modest adobe house. The color would provide a friendly contrast to the clay walls, especially if your entryway is paved in terracotta tile. Turquoise is generally too frivolous to use on most front doors because a main entrance should be strongly defined.
Chi-friendly Color Picks
Even the tiniest house benefits from Feng Shui treatment of the auspicious main door. The best color depends on the direction your door is facing. For a north facing door, choose white, blue or black. If the door faces the northeast, pick from orange, purple or yellow. East or southeast facing gets green, blue or turquoise. South facing benefits from red, pink or purple. Southwest facing should be apricot, orange or yellow. West and northwest facing doors need yellow or gold, magenta, or white or silver. Feng Shui principles hold that the correct placement and color at the main entrance to your home welcome the positive chi energy that brings all good things to your front door.
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