I’ve been collecting color swatches for the new paint job, and over and over I’m being attracted to the brightest ones.
My partner’s not feeling it, though — the rest of our house will stay pretty low-key, but she’s worried that a too-bright front door will be an affront to future buyers.
So help me, Homies: Would a brightly-painted front door affect your decision to buy a certain house? -Sami
Weigh in, guys! I could totally see this dilemma coming up in my future. I know, you could always repaint in case of sale, thought it’s just one more thing to think about when putting your house on the market. What would you do?
Working tirelessly to bring you stimulating content day after day, our team of Offbeat Editors will not sleep until you've gotten your offbeat fix.
Comments on Do or don’t: Bright front doors and painter’s remorse
Actually, in my city, and the surrounding areas, a bright door is a selling point. If the front has some character, buyers think the inside will have some uniqueness too it as well. Most houses nowadays all looks the same, as builders and developers design a few houses, and then just build areas. So neighbourhoods are increasingly beginning to look all the same.
Having a bright door adds character without being too IN YOUR FACE. In fact, in the neighbourhood where I grew up, all the houses were built in the 70s, so there was lots of character…but my mom wanted more character…so she painted our front door fire-engine red! Then by the time summer was over, another 10 houses ended up painting their doors too! There were purples and oranges, reds and blues! Everyone who came to our door said, ‘Hi I’m so-and-so with blah-charity…by the way I love your door!’
So I say paint the door! You’ll be surprised how many people compliment it!
I guess it also depends on how long you plan on staying there. If you’re planning to move within a year or two it might not be worth the effort, but if you’re staying awhile then go bright! What’s the flavor of your neighborhood? A bright door might draw people in when it’s time to leave.
My house is Tardis blue, butter yellow trim, a white-yellow-white-yellow alternating paint on the rail, and a bright cayenne colored door. I have no room to speak! My house, she looks like crayola barfed. It’s good! Paint can usually be painted over, anyhow. Unless it’s that awful blackboard paint…
Tardis blue would be an awesome color choice for a door. It would make you feel like you lived in the Tardis! If I did that I would turn my living room into the comand station.
a) describing something as “Tardis blue” = win
b) Phrase “My house, she looks like Crayola barfed” = uber-win
c)Pics of the Crayola-barf house, please!
I only speak the truth, realized just this morn! I’m in the process of painting asbestos style shingles the blue, and it’s taking forevvverrr. Pictures by 2016 at this rate!
And thanks, heehee.
I know it’s not exactly the advice you’re looking for, but from experience I would say don’t let the “what will people want to see when we eventually sell this house” question get too much in the way of what you want your house to look like while you live in it. Especially something this small (pretty simple to repaint the door when the selling time comes) shoudln’t get in the way of how your house feels to you when you come home to it every day. Unless you plan on selling pretty quickly, make it YOUR PLACE for now (which includes your partner, and I have no advice there) and you can worry about making it fit for someone else when you do sell it. But it’s your home right now! My partner and I needed to hear that this first year in our house…
I’m with Lauren. A bright front door will help your home stand out in the real estate market AND make it *so* much more fun to come home every day! I’d go for bright without going BRIGHT, though — the orange above versus neon yellow, say.
Incidentally, depending on what your door is made of, consider having it painted at a body shop. Good sheen, smooth finish, more durable.
Here’s what I say: if you live anything like I do, you’re going to want to paint the door before a sale, anyway. I’m always dinging up the door. Trying to sell a house with a dented, scratched door is going to be a difficulty, anyway. So just do it, and enjoy it as a part of YOUR home.
Do it! It’s a quick project, and if you end up hating the color or needing to change it for whatever reason, it’s not hard or very expensive. But be careful with your color selection. I wanted my door a bright, vibrant red and ended up with a bright, UGLY magenta. Thankfully, I had enough paint left to get it adjusted to the right color without having to pay any more. I love my door and get a lot of compliments on it.
I realize this isn’t straight to the point of your question, but is there any way you can experiment with a bright color in say a screen door that is essentially trim and keep the main door a more sedate color? Use it as a color introduction; if you and your partner don’t like it after a month it’s very little repainting, and if you love it you can go ahead and take the next step.
Actually,at the moment, the opinion is the exact opposite of what you might think. When you talk to a realtor about how to sell your home faster, and quick/cheap ways to increase the resale value, painting doors bright colors is one of the first things they mention…
If she’s really worried, you could paint it a bright color that works well as a primer for a more muted color, bright red while you live there, but brick red when you’re ready to sell. The same works with greens and blues. And if the house is a light color, I love a black door as a bold statement. It’s still traditional and not wild-child, but it’s definitely not an average door color.
Linked! An FYI if you want to learn some code, you can link using [a href=LINK] — just replace the brackets with < brackets and insert your link. Orrrrrr ask me to link, cause that's fine too :p
Depends on the neighbourhood and the colour you choose. I live in a quirky neighbourhood that includes pink and purple houses and all sorts of fun stuff. So it wouldn’t be out of place at all. A mural door is going to be harder to deal with later but a nice, bright door in a pleasant shade that compliments the rest of your house? Awesome. If your partner isn’t totally sure about a bright door, then I’d say go over the options and see what looks nicest wtih the rest of your house. My mum choose a periwinkle blue years ago and I was pretty frustrated with her because against our reddish bricks it looked weird. We lived in the country but she was too afraid to try something wild. It’s just paint. You can always change it.
Just be sure you do a good job of the painting and sand that door nicely before you start.
Personally I think a bright door is a selling point. If the rest of your house is muted, a bright door screams “Come on in! This is a friendly house!” My mother’s door is a bright, wonderful red. I’ve been eyeballing a house on my way to work every day, and I know now it’s because of it’s wonderful purple door. A door is a simple way to make a fantastic statement. If your partner thinks the color will stand out too much, might I suggest planting flowers in the same shade? How pretty would that look!
I’ve been wanting to paint my door purple since we moved in 4 years ago. Unfortunately I can’t seem to find a shade that works with the bricks (they’re kind of pinky brown) and the just slightly greenish beige the front of the house above the door is now. Painting the whole front would require scaffolding which means we’ll have to hire someone so at this point I’m just waiting until it all needs to be repainted anyway; probably in a year or two.
Wouldn’t affect my decision to buy just as the color of a room wouldn’t affect my decision to buy. It’s paint! You can change the color!! I say paint away!
We’re house-hunting and seeing a lot of boring/blah ranch houses. If one has a bright door, it stands out to me as one we need to check out further. Do it! 🙂
When we bought our house repaintng the front door was the second improvement thing we did! I just couldn’t keep entering my home through a drab dark teal green. Life was immediately better after we put in a new toilet AND I painted the front door bright leaf green!
My grandfather painted our front door a bright purple, so that if we ever had to call 911, the emergency responders could find “the house with the purple door” with ease.
So call your colored door a safety feature when selling a home!
As someone who works in public safety, having a unique house feature makes things a lot easier, especially if the person calling 911 is a visitor of yours who might not recall your house number in a panic. But also keep your house numbers big, visible, and easily readable. I hate the scrolling cursive numbers that spell it out, “Four hundred and ninety-two.” Don’t do that. Plain block numbers in a contrasting that we can see at a distance! But yes, a bright colored door or mailbox helps a lot too.
There’s a beautiful bright red door near where in live in DC, and I always notice it and think that the house is beautiful. I say go for it, repainting it isn’t difficult later.
I had a friend growing up who absolutely loved her bright door. She lived in a cookie-cutter neighborhood, but no one ever had a hard time finding her house, “It’s the one with the bright blue door!”
I agree with what others have said to do it now and enjoy your house NOW. It is your home and you should be enjoying the moment now, not worrying about doing things to it to make it sell easier (unless you like the changes) and it doesn’t sound like you are trying to “flip” the house.
My other opinion is this: I love uniquely colored houses and/or doors. It makes giving directions so much easier. Especially if you live in a “beige-ist” neighborhood (thank you Billy Connolly). It makes it so easy to say “We are the ones who live in the purple house” or “we live two doors up from the green house with the red door”. Whether you live in it or not, color on houses is awesome!
Posted by
Actually, in my city, and the surrounding areas, a bright door is a selling point. If the front has some character, buyers think the inside will have some uniqueness too it as well. Most houses nowadays all looks the same, as builders and developers design a few houses, and then just build areas. So neighbourhoods are increasingly beginning to look all the same.
Having a bright door adds character without being too IN YOUR FACE. In fact, in the neighbourhood where I grew up, all the houses were built in the 70s, so there was lots of character…but my mom wanted more character…so she painted our front door fire-engine red! Then by the time summer was over, another 10 houses ended up painting their doors too! There were purples and oranges, reds and blues! Everyone who came to our door said, ‘Hi I’m so-and-so with blah-charity…by the way I love your door!’
So I say paint the door! You’ll be surprised how many people compliment it!
I guess it also depends on how long you plan on staying there. If you’re planning to move within a year or two it might not be worth the effort, but if you’re staying awhile then go bright! What’s the flavor of your neighborhood? A bright door might draw people in when it’s time to leave.
My house is Tardis blue, butter yellow trim, a white-yellow-white-yellow alternating paint on the rail, and a bright cayenne colored door. I have no room to speak! My house, she looks like crayola barfed. It’s good! Paint can usually be painted over, anyhow. Unless it’s that awful blackboard paint…
Tardis blue would be an awesome color choice for a door. It would make you feel like you lived in the Tardis! If I did that I would turn my living room into the comand station.
Or dig down and literally make it bigger on the inside 🙂 I’d also always have to have a notice on the front!
a) describing something as “Tardis blue” = win
b) Phrase “My house, she looks like Crayola barfed” = uber-win
c)Pics of the Crayola-barf house, please!
I only speak the truth, realized just this morn! I’m in the process of painting asbestos style shingles the blue, and it’s taking forevvverrr. Pictures by 2016 at this rate!
And thanks, heehee.
I know it’s not exactly the advice you’re looking for, but from experience I would say don’t let the “what will people want to see when we eventually sell this house” question get too much in the way of what you want your house to look like while you live in it. Especially something this small (pretty simple to repaint the door when the selling time comes) shoudln’t get in the way of how your house feels to you when you come home to it every day. Unless you plan on selling pretty quickly, make it YOUR PLACE for now (which includes your partner, and I have no advice there) and you can worry about making it fit for someone else when you do sell it. But it’s your home right now! My partner and I needed to hear that this first year in our house…
I’m with Lauren. A bright front door will help your home stand out in the real estate market AND make it *so* much more fun to come home every day! I’d go for bright without going BRIGHT, though — the orange above versus neon yellow, say.
Incidentally, depending on what your door is made of, consider having it painted at a body shop. Good sheen, smooth finish, more durable.
Here’s what I say: if you live anything like I do, you’re going to want to paint the door before a sale, anyway. I’m always dinging up the door. Trying to sell a house with a dented, scratched door is going to be a difficulty, anyway. So just do it, and enjoy it as a part of YOUR home.
Do it! It’s a quick project, and if you end up hating the color or needing to change it for whatever reason, it’s not hard or very expensive. But be careful with your color selection. I wanted my door a bright, vibrant red and ended up with a bright, UGLY magenta. Thankfully, I had enough paint left to get it adjusted to the right color without having to pay any more. I love my door and get a lot of compliments on it.
I realize this isn’t straight to the point of your question, but is there any way you can experiment with a bright color in say a screen door that is essentially trim and keep the main door a more sedate color? Use it as a color introduction; if you and your partner don’t like it after a month it’s very little repainting, and if you love it you can go ahead and take the next step.
Actually,at the moment, the opinion is the exact opposite of what you might think. When you talk to a realtor about how to sell your home faster, and quick/cheap ways to increase the resale value, painting doors bright colors is one of the first things they mention…
If she’s really worried, you could paint it a bright color that works well as a primer for a more muted color, bright red while you live there, but brick red when you’re ready to sell. The same works with greens and blues. And if the house is a light color, I love a black door as a bold statement. It’s still traditional and not wild-child, but it’s definitely not an average door color.
Ooh. Paint it so it’s ready to go should you ever need to change it. Smart!
Live in The Now! Throw caution to The Wind! March to the beat of your Own Drum!
We recently painted our our front door bright red (I’ve always wanted a red door) and I love it. I highly recommend Cat’s spray painting tutorial.
Linked! An FYI if you want to learn some code, you can link using [a href=LINK] — just replace the brackets with < brackets and insert your link. Orrrrrr ask me to link, cause that's fine too :p
Thanks Cat! I’ll be linking all kinds of shit now.
Depends on the neighbourhood and the colour you choose. I live in a quirky neighbourhood that includes pink and purple houses and all sorts of fun stuff. So it wouldn’t be out of place at all. A mural door is going to be harder to deal with later but a nice, bright door in a pleasant shade that compliments the rest of your house? Awesome. If your partner isn’t totally sure about a bright door, then I’d say go over the options and see what looks nicest wtih the rest of your house. My mum choose a periwinkle blue years ago and I was pretty frustrated with her because against our reddish bricks it looked weird. We lived in the country but she was too afraid to try something wild. It’s just paint. You can always change it.
Just be sure you do a good job of the painting and sand that door nicely before you start.
Easily changed cosmetic things would not dissuade me from buying an otherwise awesome house. Chances are, I’d want to do some repainting anyway.
We are planning on buying a house and the first thing I want to do is paint the front door an obnoxious red!
Bright doors are a selling point to me and paint is easily changed!
Paint IT!
Personally I think a bright door is a selling point. If the rest of your house is muted, a bright door screams “Come on in! This is a friendly house!” My mother’s door is a bright, wonderful red. I’ve been eyeballing a house on my way to work every day, and I know now it’s because of it’s wonderful purple door. A door is a simple way to make a fantastic statement. If your partner thinks the color will stand out too much, might I suggest planting flowers in the same shade? How pretty would that look!
I’ve been wanting to paint my door purple since we moved in 4 years ago. Unfortunately I can’t seem to find a shade that works with the bricks (they’re kind of pinky brown) and the just slightly greenish beige the front of the house above the door is now. Painting the whole front would require scaffolding which means we’ll have to hire someone so at this point I’m just waiting until it all needs to be repainted anyway; probably in a year or two.
Wouldn’t affect my decision to buy just as the color of a room wouldn’t affect my decision to buy. It’s paint! You can change the color!! I say paint away!
We’re house-hunting and seeing a lot of boring/blah ranch houses. If one has a bright door, it stands out to me as one we need to check out further. Do it! 🙂
When we bought our house repaintng the front door was the second improvement thing we did! I just couldn’t keep entering my home through a drab dark teal green. Life was immediately better after we put in a new toilet AND I painted the front door bright leaf green!
DO IT!
If y’all decide to sell, you can always paint it a more demure color again. I say go for it!
Our door used to be a boring, chipped, grimy magnolia. We painted it bright red and it looks a hundred times better. We love it to bits.
I’m painting our front door orange this year and adding orange accents like flowers and planters to bring it together. Rock the bright!
My grandfather painted our front door a bright purple, so that if we ever had to call 911, the emergency responders could find “the house with the purple door” with ease.
So call your colored door a safety feature when selling a home!
As someone who works in public safety, having a unique house feature makes things a lot easier, especially if the person calling 911 is a visitor of yours who might not recall your house number in a panic. But also keep your house numbers big, visible, and easily readable. I hate the scrolling cursive numbers that spell it out, “Four hundred and ninety-two.” Don’t do that. Plain block numbers in a contrasting that we can see at a distance! But yes, a bright colored door or mailbox helps a lot too.
There’s a beautiful bright red door near where in live in DC, and I always notice it and think that the house is beautiful. I say go for it, repainting it isn’t difficult later.
I love the idea behind this. 🙂
Bright doors are awesome. I say, go for it. You can always paint it again when you decide to sell : )
I had a friend growing up who absolutely loved her bright door. She lived in a cookie-cutter neighborhood, but no one ever had a hard time finding her house, “It’s the one with the bright blue door!”
I agree with what others have said to do it now and enjoy your house NOW. It is your home and you should be enjoying the moment now, not worrying about doing things to it to make it sell easier (unless you like the changes) and it doesn’t sound like you are trying to “flip” the house.
My other opinion is this: I love uniquely colored houses and/or doors. It makes giving directions so much easier. Especially if you live in a “beige-ist” neighborhood (thank you Billy Connolly). It makes it so easy to say “We are the ones who live in the purple house” or “we live two doors up from the green house with the red door”. Whether you live in it or not, color on houses is awesome!