The Front Door is the Window to a Home’s Soul
Opinion Advocates for ideas and draws conclusions based on the author/producer’s interpretation of facts and data.
By Bill Primavera
With every listing I’ve ever taken as a realtor, I follow a checklist of musts to recommend to seller clients as they prepare their homes for sale.
First among these recommendations is consideration of the front door. A couple of weeks ago, just when I thought I had finished my checklist of things my clients had to do prior to the listing of their home and before the brokers’ open house, the husband mentioned that he would paint the front door, which he thought was in need of refreshing. I said, oh yes, embarrassed that it was one item I hadn’t thought was really needed. But then, my client is even more a perfectionist than I.
But, wait, what color would he paint it, I asked? White, he responded, the same color it already was.
Then it dawned on me. Why hadn’t I thought of it?
Color pundits and feng shui consultants say that a front door should never, ever be painted white. It’s a cardinal rule. The theory is that the door should relate to the landscape in some way, and pure white is rarely found in nature. Who ever thought about that?
Would you consider making a big change with that, I asked?
I suggested a color that I always recommend to my clients: red and a specific red, Benjamin Moore Burgundy. I’ve done much research on the psychology and the feng shui of painting a front door red that could take several articles to relate, but let me give you the rundown here in abbreviated form.
The psychology of the color red is that it conveys passion, interest, vitality and welcomeness. There is a long-forgotten tradition in early American travel that bears this out. When lodging was sparse in the days of the horse and carriage, families who were willing to welcome traveling families into their homes to spend the night would signify that message by painting their doors red.
In Biblical times, the Hebrew slaves were instructed to smear blood of a lamb on their front doors to protect their firstborn from the angel of death. And in early Catholic churches, doors were painted red to represent the blood of Christ; passing through the door meant that you were on holy ground.
In Scotland, homeowners paint their front door red to signify that they had paid off their mortgage. And someplace I read that a study revealed that people who live behind a red door are the happiest. (Is that skewed in my mind in some way to those who had paid off their mortgage, I wonder?)
Of course, all this reflection about a front door’s color is only academic if the door itself is not in good condition.
The front door can be the key to a home’s personality, either reflecting the condition of the space within or contradicting it. A beautiful, sturdy door with quality hardware greets the visitor with a confident hello; a weathered door, perhaps out of alignment, with old or poorly functioning hardware, conveys something quite different about the house, something unappealing.
Just as a person is judged within a few seconds of a first meeting, a house is judged in great part by the condition, functionality and look of its front door. When showing properties to prospective buyers, I’m always surprised to find when owners have upgraded an older home, but have not paid proper attention to the front door and its hardware.
If the door is warped and if the hardware is tarnished and in poor working order, the entire house can seem outdated. Just slapping a fresh coat of paint on it won’t solve the problem. So consider the door first, then the color.
While the front door serves to withstand the elements and help provide energy efficiency and protection for the home, visitors react to it aesthetically, or even psychologically. If the door is attractive and in good shape, that perception extends to the entire household – and to its owner as well.
For those of you with a bent toward feng shui, you know that the front door is the main source of a house’s energy. But practically and simply put for both curb appeal and resale value, spruce up the front door and, in a sense, you have a new home. Paint it red, and you’ve hit a home run on every level.
Bill Primavera is a realtor associated with William Raveis Real Estate and founder of Primavera Public Relations, Inc., the longest-running public relations agency in Westchester (www.PrimaveraPR.com), specializing in lifestyles, real estate and development. To engage the services of The Home Guru and his team to market your home for sale, call 914-522-2076.
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