My Obsession with the Appearance of the Front Door Still Rages

By Bill Primavera

Since I started as a realtor, I have suggested to seller clients how they might better improve their home’s appeal to prospective buyers. I have always harped on the importance of first impressions.

That can be referred to as curb appeal, which includes the condition of the front door.

Improving curb appeal can be a daunting task, depending on the upkeep of landscaping and the condition of the roof and siding.

The front door narrows one’s concern to a few square feet. However, they are definitely a most important few square feet!

Whenever a seller asks me for advice about what color should be used in refreshing a front door, I always recommend red, specifically Benjamin Moore’s Burgundy. Actually, there are several colors I could recommend, but I never, ever recommend painting the front door white, as color pundits and feng shui consultants hold as 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.

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 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 horse and carriage days, families who were willing to welcome travelers 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 the blood of a lamb on their front doors to protect their first born 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 somewhere 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 protect a home’s inhabitants from the elements, help with energy efficiency and provide protection, 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 have a home run on every level.

Full disclosure: While I recommend never painting a front door white because it doesn’t relate to nature, my front door is white. As a condo, there is nothing I can do about it. But then, my white front door doesn’t open to nature, but rather to a hallway that I share with my neighbors.

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). To engage the services of The Home Guru and his team to market your home for sale, call 914-522-2076.