Your front door—and, more specifically, the color it’s painted—can have a major effect on your home’s curb appeal. For instance, a red door might symbolize luck for some buyers. A jet black or charcoal black door could net you an extra $6,271 should you sell, according to a study from Zillow.
But what color should you never, ever paint your front door? We posed this question to a couple dozen real estate agents, and, well, let’s just say when it comes to front door colors, they’re not exactly tickled pink.
“I don’t know if there’s a right or wrong answer, so let’s go with hot pink,” says broker Brad Pauly, owner of Pauly Presley Realty in Austin, Texas. “For the sake of resale, it’s a good idea to stick with neutral or more popular colors.” Any colors in the neon family are tough to pull off on a front door, he says.
Los Angeles real estate agent Chantay Bridges agrees, saying a hot pink door will inevitably stick out like a sore thumb, “lessening curb appeal and not complimenting your nearby neighbors’ hues.”
If you plan to paint your front door something other than black or white, “avoid a polarizing color like pink,” cautions Susan Isaak, a realtor with Houlihan Lawrence in Riverside, Conn.
Swooping in to defend hot pink is New York City broker Gerard Splendore of Warburg Realty, who has childhood memories of driving past a house in the woods on the East Coast near Arlington, Va., and being charmed.
“Just off a winding, hilly road was an older brick house set in a wooded area with a hot pink front door,” he says. “The contrast of the leafy trees with the pink door always made me want to live in that house. I imagine the homeowner was very happy when they got to enter their home through their pink door.”
Splendore likes the idea of painting a door a “commanding color” because it sends the clear message: “Enter here.”
“While some houses in either city or suburbs may have more than one front entry, the main entry, ideally, can be indicated by lighting and color,” he says.
The colors that you can get away with on your front door of course depend on where you live. Got an HOA? You might be stuck with approved neutrals.
Jennifer Keenan, a realtor with 4Squares Residential Group in Cambridge, Mass., says she doesn’t rule out any colors, explaining the buyers shopping just outside of Boston love a good statement door.
“We have homes of all shapes and colors, and many with cool and funky front doors—especially those with old hardware and stained glass,” says Keenan, who also works in nearby Somerville and Medford. “I’ve seen doors in every color of the rainbow and, when coordinated with the exterior color of the home, can really pop and make a statement.”
Different (paint) strokes for different folks, right?
Here are a few more firm curb appeal mistakes to keep in mind if you’re indeed looking to sell, according to real estate agents: