Last updated on February 21st, 2020 at 12:56 pm

The front door is among the most important items in the modern home. As well as serving a critical security and energy-saving function (i.e. that of keeping warm air inside and would-be intruders outside), your front door is also a great chance to make a visual impact on the street, and tell all of your visitors what to expect from your home and the people who live in it.

The truth is that most of us play it safe with our front door. We’ll either go for white uPVC or a safe shade of blue or grey. Some of us might go for natural stained timber. But if you’re looking to go bold and brash, it’s difficult to beat a bright red front door. Here, let’s look at three of the reasons that red should be the colour of choice for your front door.

1. Welcome Guests & Bring Good Luck

Many cultures around the world consider the colour red to be a sign of prosperity and good fortune. 

According to Chinese Feng Shui philosophy, the front door is considered a bit like the ‘mouth’ of the home. And there are few luckier colours for your door than red. Other western traditions also associate red with good times, although for different reasons. Red is thought to be a sign that the homeowner has got out of debt (i.e. ‘the red’). The colour is also thought to act as a ward for evil spirits and ghosts.

There are also biblical reasons that many choose to paint their doors red, most of which stem from Exodus. While the Israelites were in Egypt, they had to come up with a way to indicate to the angel of death that their houses were to be ‘passed over’. Few people today would smear lamb’s blood all over their front porch, but a red door provides a subtle way to represent safety and security.

2. Make a White, Grey or Brick House ‘Pop’

A bright red front door also provides a nice contrast with other colours, which makes it a great way to bring the best from the surrounding brickwork of your house.

A red front door on a brick house might seem a little bit too close to matching colours, but in practice, the door will be a much brighter, glossy shade that will convincingly ‘pop’ from its surroundings. A red front door on a white or grey house, however, will take things a stage further: it will make the rest of the building seem that little bit paler, and make the entranceway distinctive even from the other end of the street.

If the front of your house is looking a little bit on the drab side, then the addition of a single red front door can provide a natural focal point that’ll come across brilliantly in photos. It’ll help to perk things up during winter time, when the weather is a bit gloomy. At the same time, it won’t dominate when the sun’s out, as the rest of the building will be glowing slightly under the sunshine.

The context should be considered critical when you’re thinking about the way your door will look. That means you’ll need to think hard not only about your personal taste but about the existing building. Fortunately, this is one area where red is a safe choice: it goes with just about everything, without being drab and monochrome in the same way that more popular black and white doors are.

3. Feel Love, Warmth and Comfort as you Arrive Home

As well as the symbolic and visual impact of red, we should also consider what effect the colour has on our unconscious minds. It’s almost always considered an attention-grabbing, passionate colour. Just think of the way that it’s used in traffic lights, magazines and television. It’s used to represent love, comfort and warmth and can help evoke a warm, cosy feeling. Red is the colour of blood and fire, and of all of the things that go with those things. When filmmakers want to ‘warm up’ an image, they usually do so by adjusting the reds up slightly. 

Red is so powerful, in fact, that it can sometimes be overwhelming. You wouldn’t want to spend too much time, for example, in a room that’s been painted entire red. But the great thing about a red front door is that you aren’t going to spend too much time looking at it. It will have its impact, and then you’ll be inside the home. That way, you get just a short dose of this most vibrant of colours. 

In Conclusion

Your choice of front door is a chance to make a statement and distinguish your home from the rest of your neighbourhood. But the colour you choose should reflect your own individual taste and personality. Fortunately, there’s an entire rainbow of colours to choose from – and you can go as dark or light as you want. 

There’s another practical virtue that we haven’t mentioned here, and that’s the ease with which you’ll be able to direct your guests to your house. ‘It’s the one with the bright red door’ is an instruction that can’t easily be misunderstood. But then, you’ll need to make sure that there aren’t any other bright red doors on your street.

If you’ve already got a wooden front door in place, you can brighten it up with a change of colour. If you’re in the market for a new one, then why not opt for something red?