Best red paint color for front door sherwin williams

Crimson, salmon, burgundy, scarlet, ruby: With its hundreds of shades and hues, red is a color full of drama. It can offer playful energy or traditional elegance, draw a striking contrast, or complement your existing color scheme. Regardless of the shade, red is a widely popular choice that can make an otherwise bland exterior pop. This quick and easy update can add a big boost of curb appeal to your home. If you've decided to refresh your home's facade, picking a shade that works with your exterior is the next step. Follow these tips to choose the right red for your front door.

Understand the Different Shades of Red

In general, different shades of the color red are made by adjusting the amounts of white and black, as well as by varying the intensities of bases. For example, a deep, rich burgundy has much more black in it than a soft pastel shade of red. On the home above, a muted shade of red incorporates more white for a soft salmon appearance that complements crisp the white trim and architectural details.

Suggested Paint Color: 100 Mph P170-7, Behr

Whatever your home's architectural style, red can serve to complement that design and establish a mood that's apparent from the street. A deep, rich, red creates soothing and solid feelings. On the other hand, a brighter, more electric hue will convey much more energy and excitement. Decide on what you want your exterior to say, and select a red paint that provokes that feeling in you.

Suggested Paint Color: Stop SW 6869, Sherwin-Williams

Match Your Red Door with Your Home's Color and Style

A red front door can serve as a complement or a contrast with the rest of your home's exterior, as well as provide an accent to its particular style. For example, a dark-colored siding or brick on the exterior might need the pop of a brighter red. A lighter shade of siding might benefit from a darker hue of red. Both choices will help draw attention to the door and offer an attractive contrast.

Suggested Paint Color: Red 2000-10, Benjamin Moore

Your home's style can provide guidelines for the best shades of red for your front door. A traditionally styled door might call for a more classic hue. A cottage or contemporary styled home might offer more design and color flexibility, with options like a quirky candy-apple red or a sophisticated ruby shade. However, design rules can always be broken, so you should choose a color you love.

If you have a few samples of red that you're trying to choose from, test them out. Paint swatches a few inches apart, as well as close to the surrounding door frame, then step back to see how they look. Make sure to view them from various angles and distances, including from the driveway and the street. When it comes to sheens, high-gloss red paint adds elegance and complements a traditional home, but also shows the most blemishes. Semi-gloss paint will give you a red door you love, while hiding imperfections.

Suggested Paint Color: Red Gumball PPG1187-7, PPG

Red is my favorite color, and I love a red house, such as this one with Sherwin-Williams Rustic Red as the main color.  Learn all about Sherwin-Williams Rustic Red in this color review (Sample Here).  This dark muted red paint color is a gorgeous option for exteriors with red brick or warm stone colors.  It looks much brighter outside than on the page.  

It is an unexpected color for a house in the woods, but it really works!

SW Rustic Red is a dark muted red that almost looks like a brown.  Keep in mind as you select a red color for your house that you need to pick a color that is darker and more muted than you expect.  Colors look much lighter and more colorful outside than you expect.

Please note that all the photos in this post are from a Color Concierge project.

LRV of Rustic Red

The LRV of Rustic Red is 6, which makes it a dark red that is almost brown and will look much more colorful outside than inside. LRV (Light Reflectance Value) is a measurement used to identify how light or dark a color is.  The scale goes from 1 (pure black) to 100 (pure white) and indicates how dark or light a color is.

Rustic Red for Exteriors

Exterior Before and After, Rustic Red

This is what the house looked like.  Even though it isn’t an earth color such as dark green or gray or brown, it still looks harmonious.  I love that the homeowners added red Adirondack chairs to match!  This is also a gorgeous front door color.  Our homeowner was really brave to trust us with this transformation and the house looked amazing.

Before the house was painted, local residents used to call it the Mushroom House. The white color had a high contrast with the woods, which emphasized the shape. Once we picked a darker color, the outline became less pronounced, and “Mushroom House” disappeared.

The Rustic Red Color Scheme

Use Sherwin-Williams Rustic Red as an exterior paint color, with a warmer white trim color for a traditional house.  This warm and lovely house in the woods was completely transformed with SW Rustic Red for the siding and SW SW Grecian Ivory for the trim.  

Rustic Red (Sherwin-Williams):  Siding, Stucco, Soffits, Downspouts

Grecian Ivory (Sherwin-Williams):  Fascia, Gutters, Window Trim, Door Trim, Tudow Beams

Turkish Coffee (Sherwin-Williams): Deck, Roofline beams

The Deck with Rustic Red

You can see how well the red paint color pairs with the warm stone. 

What are the Best Exterior White Trim Colors for Rustic Red?

For a siding color this dark and rich, I would stick with warm light beige or greige colors with an LRV between 60 and 70.  We used SW Grecian Ivory (LRV=63) for the trim here, but we also could have used Gossamer Veil or Oyster White.  A very light white would have been too stark a contrast.

To learn more about Exterior White Trim Colors, link here.

TIP:  When using dark paint colors consider a warmer white or light greige so that the contrast doesn’t look too stark.  

Rustic Red for Interiors

Red paint colors are not widely used today as interior paint colors, although Rustic Red could make a very nice accent wall.  If you decide to paint a room SW Rustic Red, make sure that the room has tons of natural or artificial light.  If you don’t have enough light, it will look too heavy.  Don’t use as an interior front door – it will reflect like a projector on the opposite wall.

When To Avoid Rustic Red

For interiors, avoid in rooms with low light unless you have LOTS of artificial lighting.  For exteriors it’s pretty versatile, but as always you should always test your paint color.

Can I use Rustic Red for Cabinets?

We are seeing lots of kitchens with different colors today, but my sense would be to keep it as an Island or lower cabinet color.  Otherwise, it might be too much.

What is the easiest way to test Rustic Red?

We always recommend that you test paint colors in your house because lighting can change a color completely. 

In the old days, this meant we painted a large poster board with sample pots and a huge mess.

Now we have SAMPLIZE, 9X14″ Pre-Painted peel-and-stick paint samples.  Check out the SAMPLIZE website HERE.

Which Benjamin Moore Colors are like Sherwin-Williams Rustic Red?

Benjamin Moore Sundried Tomato is very close.  We never recommend paint matching unless you are willing to spend a lot of time testing the paint color.

Learn more about matching paint colors here.

The Verdict

Sherwin-Williams Rustic Red is a rich warm dark red paint color, beautiful for exteriors. For interiors, I’d stick with this color as an accent wall or lower cabinet color.  

No matter what, don’t forget to test your paint colors.  It’s a standard best practice.  Whenever I test my paint colors, they are perfect, and when I don’t test they turn out wrong. We love to test with SAMPLIZE peel-and-stick samples.  Check out the SAMPLIZE website HERE.

NEVER, EVER use paint matches from a different brand than the one specified.  Results are poor and there are no standards for the sheens.  Even though your painter may truly believe it can be done, don’t do it. See results from paint matching here.

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We love your comments! Please note that the blog is meant as general advice, and it is not possible to give out specific answers to your paint questions.  If you want more specific advice, please consider purchasing a color consultation. Thank you for your understanding.

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