Alistair at Secret Design Studio: Posted on Wednesday, 8 August 2012 3:09 PM

This is a typical query Secret Design Studio gets on a daily basis, and I thought I would post it, and my response:

“Hi Alistair,
Thanks for your email.  We have decided to keep the colour of our house the same as many houses in Beaumaris are the same colour (a dark charcoal).  I have been looking at your postings and they are fantastic and inspirational.  I was just wondering if you could suggest a paint colour for the front door? I want an orange that is often seen in mid century homes.  If you can’t recommend, is there a site I can go too?

I completely understand if you can’t help.
Kind regards,
M from Beaumaris”

Hi M from Beaumaris,
Thanks for your enquiry.

I don’t like to recommend sites for paint colours, only for inspiration.  The way we perceive colours often depends on the environment and time of day.  A snapshot of a coloured door is a moment in time, and your perception can be affected by lighting, the camera and even the adjustment of your computer monitor.  If you look at the same image on a laptop, then an iPad, then a computer monitor there will be variations in the colours of the same image.

Most people don’t know that the colours on the paint cards that you see at Bunnings are only the most popular 5% to 10% of each manufacturers range.  Design professionals buy fan decks from the paint manufacturers, which have thousands of colours, and these are often the colours that you see in design magazines.

I actually have an orange front door for my mid-century home.  The way I chose the colour was to select the ten best oranges from my fan decks, then through my contacts at Dulux, ordered ten A4 sized brush out samples.  Once they arrived I taped them to the brickwork in the porch, adjacent to the front door.  Over a couple of weeks  I narrowed the A4 orange samples down until I had the perfect orange for my house, with its south facing front door, white trim and cream brick.  Your house will need a different colour due to the dark charcoal and the orientation.

The best source for inspiration for front door colours is Secret Design Studio’s Pinterest board called “Mid Century Modern front doors”, found here:
http://pinterest.com/secretdesign/mid-century-modern-front-doors/

If you need assistance with the colour selection, such as a site visit with Secret Design Studio’s original Mid-Century Modern paint cards and fan decks I would be happy to help on an hourly rate arrangement.  For larger jobs, beyond colour selections I would prepare a fee proposal that would explain all of our design services.
Regards,
Alistair McLean
Principal
Secret Design Studio
www.secretdesignstudio.com
0448 579 707