Your front door is a combined reflection of your environment, unique personality and the natural energies that some believe are all around us. Choosing the front door color that harmonizes all of these considerations is what this section is all about.

Today, there are three common, though greatly differing, approaches for selecting a front entry door color, each providing a unique avenue for creative self-expression.

The first is to pick a color that blends with and complements your home’s style, features and surroundings. The second is using the Feng Shui method, an ancient practice in which door color helps balance your home’s positive energy. The third is simply to select a color that (based on color theory) uniquely expresses something about your individual personality.

Choosing Based on Home Style, Features and Surroundings

Home style usually influences door type and color. Your home probably has a unique architectural style, such as a modest dormered Cape Cod or heavily textured Spanish Colonial. Perhaps it’s a sleek modern Contemporary. Whichever the style, the home’s original door probably complemented it beautifully, so when upgrading your door and color, you’ll want to do the same.

Identifying Your Color Palette

Your home’s color palette or color scheme is simply the range of colors that are visible from top to bottom on the exterior, including the dominant and secondary colors. The easiest way to identify a color for your front door is to look for the dominant color of your home’s exterior features. Start by looking closely at your roof. Even if it’s a dull gray, you will likely discover faint hints of blues, greens or perhaps other hues. We call this the ‘dominant color’ in your home’s color palette.

Identify a Secondary Color

Next, identify the secondary color. Work your way down to the body (siding) of the house. If you have a deck or patio, consider them, as well. Ideally, the secondary color will complement the roof. For example, if your roof is dark brown, a cream or light brown would be good secondary colors.

Matching the Door and Trim

Now it’s time to bring it all together. Taking what you’ve observed, start thinking of a color for your door and trim that works well with both the dominant (roof color) and secondary (siding color). This process will help you save time and quickly narrow down the most harmonious and expressive front door colors.

Working With Your Natural Surroundings

We’ve talked about how to select a door color using your home’s style, features and exterior colors. Now let’s briefly cover the connection between door color and the surrounding environment.

The homes around you might all have a distinct thematic style, such as Mediterranean, Spanish or Old English. The same can be true for communities and even entire cities.

Most homes in Orange County and Southern California tend to have warm colors, probably due to prominent role that year-round sunshine plays in the local lifestyle. Natural surroundings are mostly brown based and yellow toned, with a desert type environment consisting of sand and dry grass. Because of this, many homeowners choose front door colors that also tend to be warm and earthy.

Selecting Front Door Color Using Feng Shui

Feng Shui is an ancient Chinese art and science of balancing the energies within a given space to ensure good health and fortune to its inhabitants. Good Feng Shui means being fortunate (or having good luck) and bad Feng Shui means misfortune (or bad luck).

Practitioners believe that the front door is an essential element of your home’s Feng Shui. It’s through the front entry that the strongest Chi (universal energy) flows into the home. The front door is referred to as the ‘Mouth of the Chi.’ Having good Feng Shui for your front door attracts strong positive (called ‘clean’) energy that nourishes and sustains good health, provides happy relationships and supports professional success.

Two factors that influence Feng Shui energies are the direction your entry door faces and its color. It is believed, for example if the front door faces South, red, purple, deep orange or strong yellow colored doors are best. The Feng Shui Element for the South is Fire and a balanced Fire energy will increase passion and energy and help bring you fame and status.

There are 7 other directions used in Feng Shui analysis. If your door faces;

• Southwest or Northeast: A light yellow or any earthy color is suggested. A strong Earth energy increases love and creates harmony.

• West or Northwest: A white or gray colored door will help increase the precision and efficiency of activity in your home.

• North: A front door color of blue or black is believed to promote a successful career and increase personal wealth.

• East or Southeast: Doors facing this way should be green or brown, according to Feng Shui, and may help improve health and prosperity.

Matching Door Color and Personality

A third interesting but less well known method of selecting a front door hue is choosing one that color theory proponents say reflects something different or unique about your personality.

They believe that certain colors reveal certain characteristics. For example a black entry door says that you enjoy the finer things in life but that you are also reserved, self-disciplined and sometimes prone to seriousness.

A yellow door says that you are highly imaginative yet logical, while a red entry door suggests that you are passionate and expressive. A brown door may indicate that you are a down to earth person who loves life simple pleasures. Green reveals a bent toward traditional values and being active in the community. A blue door signifies that while you don’t care about popularity, people may still find you mysteriously attractive.

Our advice: do a little research, and if you’re drawn toward Fung Shui or color theory, have some fun with them, and give us a call when you’re ready to make a choice.

The Finishing Touch

OK, you’ve chosen your front door color. Congratulations! Now it’s time to choose the finish that brings your choice to life. Whether you want to paint or stain will determine which finish, paint or stain, is best.

For example, if you want the rich, textured look of Mahogany or Oak, staining is recommended because it helps bring out the beautiful grain. If you’re drawn to a single, solid color (maybe one that reveals something about you…?) painting, not staining, a smooth un-textured door is the best way to go.

Lastly, what if you want the inside door color to be different from the outside? Not a problem. That’s called a ‘split finish,’ and we do them for customers all the time. Our door systems consultant can explain the benefits and options.