A New Exterior Door Color (Plus, What Color Should The Portico Be?)

As you know from previous posts, I decided to go with a different door color this time. I still really liked the previous door color — Benjamin Moore Bird of Paradise — but I’ve had this door color for several years now, and I decided I wanted a change. In the years since I selected this door color, my decorating has leaned more into pinks than corals. So I decided to retire the coral and find a color that leaned more towards pink instead. But this coral is still at the top of my list of favorite exterior door colors.

Bird of Paradise is a really saturated coral color that leans heavily towards orange. If you’re looking for a coral color for your front door, I highly recommend it.

But just be aware that if your door gets direct sunlight, it’ll probably need a fresh coat of paint every year (or at minimum, every two years) because it will definitely fade. My side studio door gets direct sunlight almost all day every day, and that beautiful, saturated coral had turned almost a pastel version of itself.

The front door doesn’t get nearly as much direct sunlight, so it doesn’t fade nearly as much as the studio door. But it still fades a bit after a couple of years. I don’t have a recent picture showing just the front door, but you can see in this recent photo from the post about planting beds from last week that the color isn’t nearly as vibrant as it was when it was freshly painted. Even faded, it’s still a pretty color, though.

But like I said, my coral era is over. As of last night, my doors are decidedly more pink. The new color is Benjamin Moore Rosy Blush. It’s a very saturated reddish pink color.

I used Benjamin Moore Advance paint in a satin finish, and this paint is amazing. I love painting. I find it so relaxing and satisfying, especially if I’m using a high-quality paint that goes on smoothly. And this paint definitely fit the bill. It’s a bit shinier than what I wanted. It’s labeled “satin”, but I would consider this more of a semi-gloss.

And here’s the front door in its new paint color. You’ll just have to imagine the front porch with its new coat of paint and everything cleaned up. 😀 We’re just getting through our rainy/humid season, so everything is coated in dirt and grime. It’s time to get the pressure washer out and get it all cleaned up. And of course, I’ll also be painting the front porch soon, so the faded porch boards will soon be a deep, dark brown color.

But a pretty front door is a good start. Along with painting the porch boards, finishing the skirting, and cleaning off all of the white trim (and possibly giving some of that a fresh coat of paint), I’m also planning on swapping out the lights by the front door. I think larger lights would look better here, so I’m going to swap these lights out for larger ones and then use these smaller ones on my workshop.

While we’re talking about exterior paint finishes, do you remember what the ceiling of my front porch used to look like? I had knots all over the ceiling that had bled through the paint.

So I used Zinsser B-I-N shellac-based primer (my absolute favorite primer) on the ceiling and then gave it a fresh coat of paint.

I did this just over three years ago. Here’s what the ceiling looked like with its new paint three years ago.

And here it is three years later. It needs to be cleaned (again, the constant humidity leaves a grimy film of dirt and yuck on everything), and I do think the paint color has faded some, but three years later, there are still no knots bleeding through.

But that brings me back to the portico above the side studio door. As I was painting that door, I was reminded again that the ceiling of that little portico doesn’t match the other exterior ceilings. The porch ceiling and the carport ceiling are both painted in a light blue.

But the portico ceiling is white. I think they should all match, right? Y’all know how much I like consistency, so it seems to me that this little ceiling needs to match the other two. But I do tend to overthink things, so you can tell me what you think. Should I paint it the light blue to match the other two, or should this one stay white?

While you’re contemplating the color of my little portico ceiling, I’ll leave you with a good view of my new door color. I already know a lot of you will still prefer my coral door color, and that’s okay. 🙂 But I was ready for a change, and I love this new color. And painting is so quick and easy! So maybe I’ll go back to coral in the future. But for now, I’m in my pink era. 😀