Do you have a bright front door? Here’s how to complement it

Painting your front door a bright, bold colour is one of the easiest ways to change the look of your home and create a welcoming first impression. But once you’ve chosen a vivid shade of red, orange, lime or purple, it can be tricky to know what other exterior colours work well with it. Nail your entryway style with paint colours and garden plants that complement a bright door, as shown by these eight fresh, colourful examples.

Colour strategies

Balance a bright front door with exterior paint and window trim in neutral colours that will complement and enhance the door colour. Flowering plants, evergreen shrubs and potted plants placed by the entryway provide another opportunity to complement a bold front door. Pull a bright paint colour into the landscape with flowers and bright berries in a similar hue, or use dark green and blue-green foliage plants to balance a bold door.

Aqua

Wake up a home’s entryway with an unexpected splash of light turquoise paint. The bright, spring-like colour looks equally fresh on traditional and contemporary homes, and pairs well with white or light grey exterior paint.

Robin’s egg blue looks particularly charming with mixed cottage-style perennial beds planted with pastel-coloured blooms such as coreopsis, dahlias, foxgloves, delphiniums and lavender. For landscapes that favour foliage over flowers, pair a blue-green door with silvery lamb’s ears (Stachys byzantina) and medium-green evergreen shrubs like boxwood or pittosporum.

Coral

Peachy medium orange-pink paint feels cheerful, inviting and also a little daring to use on a front door. Emphasise bold coral with exterior paint in charcoal or medium grey.

In spring and summer, coral mixes well with lush foliage and tropical blooms, like creamy yellow angel’s trumpet (Brugmansia spp.) and peachy-petaled rose of Sharon (Hibiscus spp.). In winter, coral acts as a welcome bright spot in a darker, sparser landscape.

Chartreuse

Lime green is a popular colour choice for bright front doors, particularly those on contemporary-style homes. It feels fresh and modern without looking like you’re trying too hard. Plus, it works well with a range of exterior paint colours, such as white, grey, beige, black, brown and navy.

Pull the lime colour into garden beds with a few accents of chartreuse plants such as Mediterranean spurge (Euphorbia characias ssp. wulfenii) or coral bells ‘Key Lime Pie’ (Huechera hybrid). For more drama, pair chartreuse with dark plum-coloured plants like purple smoke bush (Cotinus coggygria).

Meyer lemon

As fresh as a bowl of citrus, a zingy yellow door feels at once carefree and contemporary. Yellow works equally well with traditional-style homes – picture it with light grey cladding and white trim – as it does with more modern architecture. For this home, the designer used yellow with a stark white-and-black colour palette for a contemporary look.

Dark green or variegated foliage shrubs would make great entryway plants for this look, as would flowers like yellow-centred, white-petaled Marguerite daisy (Argyranthemum spp.). Draw some of the lemon yellow into the landscape with a citrus tree in the front yard. All citrus fruits ripen in winter, providing a welcome jolt of colour in a more subdued landscape.

Cherry red

Like a bright red flower that draws in the bees, there’s something about a red door that seems to pull you in. The colour complements just about every home style, from traditional to contemporary. Keep the door colour as the centre of attention with neutral paint colours, such as white, grey or beige, on the home’s exterior.

Look for other ways to pull red into the entryway and garden, such as placing a box on the porch in a red delicious hue or using plants with red berries as foundation plants. Evergreens with deep green foliage, like tea plant (Camellia sinensis), also mix well with cherry red and add year-round interest.

Periwinkle

Purple hues are rarer choices for front doors and make a home stand out on the block. In this home, a bright periwinkle door works well with a sage green and natural wood exterior. The vivid colour makes the entryway stand out beneath the shade of an overhang.

Rambling ‘Rozanne’ cranesbill (Geranium ‘Rozanne’) and Spanish lavender (Lavandula stoechas) bring the violet colour into the front planting. The silver-grey leaves of the evergreen olive tree complement the purple door and sage green exterior.

Poppy

A splash of punchy orange on the door immediately draws attention to the entryway from the sidewalk. Bright shades of orange – such as tangerine and poppy – work well with contemporary or mid-century-style homes with clean lines and neutral or cool-toned colour palettes.

Keep plantings contemporary by choosing plants for form rather than flowers, such as upright horsetail reed (Equisetum hyemale) or clipped evergreen hedges. A potted kumquat tree placed to the left of the door would pick up the bright orange paint colour in decorative clusters of tangy fruit.

This article was originally published on Houzz.com.au. Read the original article here.

For more ideas to dress up your home’s exterior take a look at these front yard projects to up your home’s style and upgrade your kerb appeal for under $5k.

Written by:
Lauren Dunec Hoang is a Houzz Contributor. Landscape designer, a former garden editor for Sunset Magazine and in-house designer for Sunset’s Editorial Test Garden. Her garden designs have been featured in the Sunset Western Garden Book of Landscaping, Sunset Western Garden Book of Easy-Care Plantings (cover), Inhabitat, and POPSUGAR.