How To Pick A Front Door Color For A Brick Home

An eye-catching or sophisticated front door influences the first impressions visitors have of your home. To make the task of choosing a color rather daunting, paint comes in hundreds of hues. In a way, picking a front door color for a home made of brick can be easier because the color of the brick naturally limits the choices available to you.

Step 1

Study the architecture and style of your home. Choose conservative colors like black, gray and white to reinforce the traditional nature of an historical home. Expand the palette options to add a lively look to a more contemporary home.

Step 2

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Avoid colors that clash with the brick. For example, don't pick a pink door for a red brick home. Don't worry too much about looking for colors that actually match the color of the brick. Most people see brick as a material and not a color — eliminating any point of matching the door color precisely to the brick.

Step 3

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Consider the color of the trim or shutters of the house and match the color of the door to these elements. Alternatively, look at colors in the home's surrounding environment. In a wooded setting, an earthy color such as green or brown seems right. Choose tan to match the surrounding landscape in a desert area, or paint the door to mirror the color of the cloudless sky.

Step 4

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Look at colors that contrast with the color of the brick for a dramatic effect. Contrasting colors sit opposite one another on the color wheel. Green contrasts with red brick. Blue contrasts with orange brick. A contrasting color draws iimmediate attention to your front door.

Step 5

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Purchase samples of your three or four favorite paint colors and paint a large square of each on your front door. The square should be large enough to give you a good sense of what it will look like on your home — approximately 2 feet by 2 feet. If you don't want to paint on your actual front door, paint a square of scrap wood. Don't skip this important step as the paint swatches often look far different than the actual paint.