“The door is the smile of the house.”
John says things like that—little quirky pronouncements that somehow stick. He also once mused that “the mustache is the bacon of the face, and bacon is the mustache of breakfast.” But back to the front door. Our first house had a red door. Our second house had a yellow door. And our new house now has a cheerful blue door.
It’s a happy, peacock-leaning teal with a hint of gray to keep it from going neon in bright sun. The color looks rich in natural light and more subdued in shade—exactly the balance we wanted.
To pick the right hue we taped up swatches across the color spectrum—reds, greens, several blues, plum, orange, navy and charcoal. We stepped back about ten feet, noted our favorites, then stepped back farther to confirm the choices at a distance. We repeated that process throughout the day and into the evening so we could see how direct sunlight, shade and porch lighting affected each option.
Before settling on a door color we painted the sidelights white to match the rest of the trim. The creamy-yellow they originally were could have skewed our perception of the door color, so I cleaned them with a magic eraser, painted them with the same white exterior paint the contractors left behind, and scraped any excess paint from the glass panes with a razor.
That narrowed our choices to four Benjamin Moore contenders: Spirit In The Sky, Blue Lake, Peacock Blue, and Tranquil Blue. Honestly, many colors would have looked good against the white trim and natural brick, so we simply went with the one we liked best.
After our previous siding-color misadventure, I didn’t trust tiny paint chips. Instead I painted large rectangles of each sample right on the door to get a true feel for how the colors read at full scale. I painted four raised panels—one color each—giving them generous, even coats so the hues were clear without being drippy. Colors often darken as they dry, so we lived with the swatches throughout the day. The top left is Blue Lake, top right Spirit In The Sky, bottom left Tranquil Blue, and bottom right Peacock Blue.
Blue Lake won. The other samples read either too muted or too bright under different lighting conditions, while Blue Lake kept a pleasing balance of color and depth. Once rolled and brushed to a glossy finish, the door looked polished and welcoming.
It only took about half a day to paint. We used Benjamin Moore’s exterior door paint called MooreGlo in Soft Gloss (their semi-gloss option). It’s self-priming, so no separate primer was necessary, and a quart was plenty for the whole front door—an affordable refresh after a month spent tackling larger, more expensive inspection items.
My preferred approach to painting entry doors is to start early so it can stay open and dry all day. I paint with an angled brush, which gives clean lines and control—John prefers foam rollers, so everyone has their own method. For me the sequence matters: paint the frames around each raised rectangle first, then fill in the panel interiors. Next paint the flat planks and the vertical and horizontal slats, always brushing in the direction of the grain to reduce visible strokes. Finally, finish by dragging the brush top-to-bottom on the outer vertical sections.
Let the first coat dry for an hour or two (longer if it’s humid), then apply a second coat in the same order. We removed the hardware before painting and reattached it once the door was dry so the finish stayed clean. We also updated the door knocker and doorbell, which involved a bit of drilling, painting and a small manhunt for the perfect pieces—details on that coming soon.
I painted the sides of the door to match, but left the back alone for now; it still matches the foyer trim until we replace the wallpaper and repaint the interior trim white. Eventually I’d love to paint the door’s interior face the same cheerful blue once the foyer updates are complete.
One quart of paint and one morning gave our house a friendlier entrance. Honestly, taking photos and waiting for the right light took longer than the painting did—thanks to a streak of rainy days—but the result was worth the effort. The doorknocker and doorbell swaps actually took more fiddly time than the painting itself.
If you’ve been hesitating about painting your front door, consider this a nudge: it’s a quick, high-impact update that dramatically improves curb appeal. Instead of a neutral, indifferent welcome, your home will greet you with enthusiasm.
Compare the new look to how the portico appeared when we first bought the house—complete with an old wreath on a broken screen door (which we removed immediately). Remember when the steps were green before we power-washed them? Small improvements add up.
And yes—during one photoshoot a deer casually strolled across the yard, stopped to nibble in front of my camera, and photobombed the whole session. I couldn’t stop laughing; apparently the smiling door is welcoming to wildlife too.
UPDATE: I snapped a quick phone photo on our evening walk that captures the green undertone in the teal much better—funny how a cellphone sometimes shows the true color more accurately than a DSLR. #nofilter
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