Front Door Ideas & Inspiration

Frame the view

This rich red-painted door stands out in its own right, but giving it a floral frame with an arched arbour for climbing plants, takes this frontage to the next level of country cottage cuteness.

You’ll need at least a small front garden and a gate leading into it for this idea. If you don’t have either you could create a comparable arch-like effect by growing plants up and over your door instead.

You can’t go wrong with something floral, and for a classic country style you could try a climbing or rambling rose.

Accentuate a feature

Choosing monochrome for the exterior of this house, especially that gleaming jet-black classic front door, is of course no random choice. With a traditional chequered pathway like this one, why wouldn’t you want to highlight it with a complementary colour scheme?

If you’re considering repainting your door, look around the front of your house for features whose colours you already like and which could be used to influence the shade for the new paint job. It’s a time-consuming task painting an exterior door, so try some tester pots to give you a clearer idea of the impact before you commit.

Let a classic shine inside…

When you’re lucky enough to have a period beauty with stunning stained glass, you’ll want to show it off to best advantage. Although bright white may not be the most obvious choice to everyone in an antique setting, it has a special talent for really letting old details shine. Just think of how lovely a battered wooden chair can look against a crisp, bleached-out backdrop.

This hallway hasn’t just been painted in white, it has white artwork, which is in a white frame, and white built-in storage, since coats and shoes with their colourful input are as much a part of a colour scheme as any paintwork.

…and complement it outside

A crisp white inside can generally be done far more wholeheartedly than on the outside, where architectural details come in a mixture of surfaces and shades. Often there are things you won’t want to paint, such as this beautiful bare brickwork.

Celebrate the exterior of your door with eye-catching paint. It’s a space where you can afford to decorate boldly. This modern gunmetal grey is a cool foil to the stained-glass panels. It also ties in with the grey in the hall floor tiles.

If you’re painting your door a different colour inside from the colour outside, the general rule is that the edge with the lock in it (and the top, if you’re painting it) should be the colour of the door on the inside. The side of the door with hinges should be the same colour as the front of the door, as you’ll see this area when the door is open.

Pick up on surrounding colours

This dinky cottage door looks all the cuter because it matches the scale of the little nearby windows. It’s always good to think carefully of the visual implications before altering or modernising external proportions.

To ensure the door complemented this house even more, the owners have chosen to use a soft grey-green shade that picks up some of the tones in their beautiful stone walls.

We offer a wide selection of paint colours which could be used to finish your door.

Protect with a porch

Porches come in as many shapes and sizes as front doors. If it’s raining, you have protection at the door, but also you gain a designated zone for casting off wellies muddy from a countryside walk. The owners of this house have also made good use of the low wall and column forming the porch for storing logs, a function that also ramps up the rustic appeal.

If you live in a very old building, you’ll want to take care of your exterior, including the porch. In the chocolate-box pretty Cotswolds, the local council even encourage homeowners to learn about the architectural history of this type of construction.

Consider glass door frames

Glass frames can make for a luxuriously light-filled hallway when installed around your front door, as seen here by one of our customers.

If you live on a busy city road, however, you may value privacy over light. In this case we’d recommend  highly detailed stained glass or simple etched glass panels.

We can craft bespoke door frames to suit both contemporary or traditional properties, as well as the glass to match, be sure to get in touch.

Keep an eye on our website for more tips, tricks and inspirational ideas.