Choosing Paint Colors for House Trim and Doors

The front door is the focal point of your house and it can make a big splash (as Tony Blair did by changing his 10 Downing Street door color from conservative black to Labour Party red as seen in this photo from the Daily Mail). Doubtful that changing your own front door color will create as much of a stir in the neighborhood, but you’ll want to give it considerable thought anyway.

But first, what about the trim color?

House trim color: If you have a small house and you want it to look bigger, consider painting the edge trim the same color as the house or just a shade lighter. This will blend the corners of the house in with the body and draw your eye to color — hopefully, the front door. If you want to show off the trim in a more contemporary way, consider painting the edge trim two shades darker than the house color. To accent your trim in a traditional way, choose contrast by using either white or cream. If you have a stone house, the grout color is a great trim color.

The message here is to avoid too many different hues (different colors) when painting the house, trim, doors and shutters. Unless you have an architectural masterpiece, I would avoid choosing trim colors that are unrelated to the house color (for example, painting a gray house with navy blue trim, red shutters and red garage doors). Not only will you draw attention to all the different colors themselves and away from the front door (regardless of what color IT is), but you will have visual chaos!

Exception: If you have an old Victorian home, you may want to accent all the different architectural elements with paint in many different colors.

Trim around windows: To keep the windows looking as large as possible, paint the trim around the windows the same as the window frames, either white or cream or whatever color the window frames are. Matching the trim to the actual windows will make them look bigger than if you break up the color by painting a dark trim around a white window or a white trim around a dark window.

Garage door color: As for garage doors, they should usually be painted the color of the house, not the trim color and not white. You can paint the trim color on the moulding around the garage doors, but the doors themselves should be the house color. Why? Unless you want to broadcast to your neighbors that you have a three-car garage, you probably don’t want to highlight your garage doors. Plus, by painting the garage doors the house color, your house will look bigger and less chopped up. The focus is reserved for the front door.

Exceptions: Garage doors associated with brick homes are often painted either the trim color, the grout color, or the shutter color — black or dark green, for example. No need to try and match a paint color to the brick. The other exception is with the new carriage garage doors, which are a focal point on the front of a home. If you have fancy garage doors, it’s okay to show them off!

Shutter color: For a traditional look, match your shutters to the roof color. If you have a dark gray or black roof, black shutters look terrific. It’s like adding a touch of black to a living room to dress it up a bit. Matching the shutters to the roof makes it look like you planned your roof color as part of the overall house palette. Dark brown shutters with a brown roof color give a similar, traditional look as black shutters with a gray/black roof. And brown is supposedly the new black. But for a classic home, black will never go out of style.

If you have lots of really small windows or don’t want dark shutters, consider choosing a color that blends with the house color. Here’s one strategy: choose your house color in the medium range. Then go lighter for the trim and a shade or two darker for the shutters (or remove the shutters altogether). And choose a completely different hue for the front door. This contemporary look focuses attention on the front door. There are no distracting colors anywhere else on the house. 

Front door color: It’s time to create your focal point, the front door. This is the area you want guests to find when they pull in the driveway. Color is the way to do it although a shiny black door with a brass kickplate, brass door handle, and big colorful wreath is a classic. If you don’t want black, consider a rich dark red in a semi-gloss finish. Dark red (not cherry) seems to work with almost all house colors.

Here are a few other ideas:

• Light green house: Dark purple door (especially nice if you have lilacs and other purple flowers in your landscape) and white door trim
• Dark green house: Rust red door or natural wood door and cream door trim
• Light blue house: Dark red door or navy blue door with white door trim
• Dark blue house: Maroon door (play up the nautical look) with cream door trim
• Red house (or brick): Black door with brass accents  (classic) and white door trim
• Brick house: Dark purple door (contemporary look) with light grout color door trim
• Pink house: In the North, a black door. In the South, anything punchy. White door trim
• Gray house: Navy blue door (maroon works okay too) with white door trim
• Brown or tan house: Cream, rust, or black door with cream door trim
• Yellow house: Black door, black shutters, white door trim (a classic look)
• White house: Black, red or other dark rich color. In Florida, pick any color that’s bright and cheerful. White trim everywhere

One woman I read about paints her front door for every season. It might be cranberry red during the winter, purple in the spring, raspberry during the summer, and rust during the fall. Every year it’s different.

Don’t forget the roof: Consider the roof color when you’re making your house color choices and if you’re getting a new roof, choose something that coordinates with your house color. There are many choices in roof colors these days particularly in the brown family– many more choices than just slate gray or black. Don’t pass up the opportunity to finish the job with a well-coordinated roof.

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