I Spent $40 to Boost My Home Value By $6,000 w/ This Simple Paint Upgrade
Painting your front door may boost your home value by $6,000… really! 😱
Looking for an easy way to boost your home value and make a great first impression? 🚪
Painting your front door black is an easy home upgrade. The advice from home improvement experts Drew and Jonathan Scott is to switch out your front door for a modern door. “A modern front door updates everything.” said Drew in a previous Property Brothers episode. A new door will also add tremendous value to your home and likely add thousands of dollars to your resale profit.
Or you can take the DIY route like I did by changing the color of your existing entrance for a BIG payoff!
Last year, I was inspired by this article I read that stated black front doors can boost your home’s value by $6,000!
Crazy, right?! According to a recent Zillow analysis, statistics showed that front doors painted black can increase your home’s value by 2.9%. After comparing more than 135,000 photos from sold homes around the country, they also determined the paint colors have a big impact on your sellability!
It sounded like such an easy way to improve my home so I took the advice and decided to paint my front door black. It was actually a huge project as the door had to be taken off the hinges, but with a bit of paint and patience, I completely transformed my entryway and it only cost me $40! 🤩
I love the finished product and the time and money spent are totally worth the profit increase I’ll likely get if I decide to sell at some point. 🙌🏻
And doesn’t it look so much better in black?! 😍
Not interested in painting your front door black? Here are 3 highly-rated doors we love (and they all come in black!):
1. Jeld-Wen Lite Craftsman Black Painted Steel Prehung Front Door
Buy it at The Home Depot – $770.20+
Since this door is already black, you won’t have to tackle a painting project like me! This high-quality door is made with AuraLast pine wood and galvanized steel, making it resistant to rust and rot over time. The windowpanes let in the perfect amount of natural sunlight to brighten up your home, while still providing the privacy you need.
2. MP Doors 4-Lite Frosted Fiberglass Prehung Front Door
Buy it at The Home Depot – $970.67
Go for the modern look with MP Doors 4-Lite door. The sleek design will add elegance to your front porch and take your curb appeal to the next level. This door is also ENERGY STAR qualified and will help keep your home at the ideal temperature year-round.
3. Cheyenne 2-Panel Primed Smooth Fiberglass Prehung Front Door
Buy it at The Home Depot – $688.06
Sometimes less is more. This simple 2-panel door design will complement any traditional, craftsman, or cottage house. Plus, it comes in the most colors out of all the doors we shared so there’s bound to be the perfect match for your exterior goals.
Front doors are the focal point of a home.
Your home’s entryway is one of the first things onlookers notice. Updating your front door is a small investment that will make a huge impact on not only your curb appeal but your home’s value overall.
Whether you paint your current door black like I did, or replace it altogether for an updated style, you’ll impress neighbors and visitors alike, and catch the attention of potential buyers when you sell your home.
Decorate your front porch for less than $30 with these fall finds at Hobby Lobby!
I’m not sure how much value our black door added to the home, but it certainly looks amazing. We had ours painted black a few months ago. Along with other cosmetic renovations, our home sold for $25k (5%) more than any homes in our neighborhood.
Thank you! Congrats on your recent home sale, Linda!
The black door looks great! Love it! You did a great job.
Thanks Joan! 🙂
Calling HGTV host wannabes: Does anyone know what the correct way to accent the front of the house is? Do you just accent paint the front door or do you also do the garage door? I think it’s front door, but my hubby thinks garage door also. If I don’t accent the garage door, what color do you do that? The same as the house color to fade in (nothing spectacular about it, it’s a standard single garage) Thanks for any advice!
I believe it’s just the front door for that pop. The garage door color probably depends on your exterior color. We painted our front door and shutters black. Our facade is brick so the garage door remained white which is the same as the rest of the house trim. Black would have been too harsh.
Thanks. So should shutters match the door? I should start driving around and see what others do! I’ve been stuck at him for so long, I could use a drive! 🙂
A lot of the homes in our neighborhood have their front door match with their shutters. I think it looks really good!
All my doors are black as well as the shutters around the house. Trimmings white. Garage door I kept white but the trimmings around it is black. my exterior paint is a Grayish-Blue
So we hired a painter company that came with a paint consult. Basically making sure the colors we picked were complimentary and making small changes. Our garage was detached but 10ft away from the front door. She recommended we painted the trim of the garage the same as the shutters (our accent color) but keep the door white.
Our home looked a lot bigger because the garage became apart of the house.
She said she would normally not recommend this is the garage was attached. Instead she tells people to only paint the front door and make sure there is a line of sight from the street (no bushes or big trees).
I also did my garage door and front porch posts black. I love it.
Our garage door is painted the color of the trim, but not the color of the front door- that is an accent color.
Just a caution to ‘changing out your old front door’. We live in a mid-century modern neighborhood with homes built in the 50s & 60s. Over the years the people who ‘updated’ their old front doors that had original hardware and carvings have diminished the value of their properties. Think about the design of your home. Everything eventually comes back in style. There are some very questionable choices made in the name of modernization that are costing sellers thousands in design mistakes of not honoring the style of the home. So think before you remake.
I’m in that boat…. historical home. No black doors in our neighborhood and I think it would not fit in. There are a lot of nice darker front doors though. Ours is a lovely shade of burgundy.
I’ve always preferred homes to have a front door that has a color that pops more like burgundy. I can’t even imagine painting my front door black. It would look so dark and ugly, ofc I do have a security door over it that’s black anyway so oh well I guess, lol
Mine is hunter green, which pops against my red brick exterior. I bought mine in that color…sadly I live in a house with non standard sized door frames so I had to get custom doors.
Jen S. Do you know the brand and exact color of your Burgundy? My favorite color and i known it will be hard to get the right shade. Thanks!
SW Sommelier. It still looks great 5 years later… especially next to the dwarf Japanese Maples that turn the same color.
I have a Japanese maple tree on the left side of my house and a dwarf Japanese maple in the front, your door must look amazing!! I’m stuck on white and to scared to change my door color
I also live in a historical neighborhood and the original solid wood doors are preferred to a new door. Black would not look right on any house in neighborhood. I do see a lot of bright colored doors, some I really like, some not so much.
I agree. Also our contractor told us that is very herd to fit a new door on an older home because it settles and a new door rarely fits right. He said we would have to replace our entire front door area including the sidelights which would be thousands.
I agree with this I live in a neighborhood that has 100 plus year old homes and most have the indoor wood painted white. My home has the natural wood and I get so many compliments, that’s what sold me was the historical charm of the home.
Everyone has loved our decorating schemes when we stopped being trendy and instead looked at our surroundings. In our home in CO we did a lot of cabin like colors: red, green, and brown. We went bold on the outside but more muted inside. The house looked like it fit.
We are now further north and our new home looks like it belong on the beach, not on the plains. So we are working to bring it to a more fitting decor.
It’s all relative. I’d never modernize a time-period door, it’s a design disconnect. So yes, as far as “update your front door” it is not a one-size-fits-all!
Exactly. I have seen so many homes that were gutted and “modernized” in the 80s-90s that now look very dated and if they had been left alone with their original layout would be so much more attractive. My own home is a victim of “updating” and I’m trying to come up with the money to un-do half of what the previous owners did.
Wow! Your house looked lovely before, but the paint did step it up a bit more. I have an enclosed front porch with a very old metal door that I’d love to have replaced some day.
Thank you! Hope you are able to replace your door someday soon!
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We painted our front door bright blue. It looks gorgeous. Sets our house apart on the block. And now other houses have painted their doors different blue. I still like ours the best.
I bet that looks so pretty! I love it when people paint their front doors bright inviting colors that stand out 🙂
Ours is yellow! It makes me smile every time I see it. 😁
I love your door! Quick question… I noticed you don’t have a screen door. Our screen doors mostly a cold-weather climate thing? Or maybe they’re more of an old-fashioned kind of thing? We’ve always had one, but I’m noticing a lot of Houses don’t anymore.
“Are” not “our”. Oops! 😬
We don’t have one and live in a state that gets cold.
I’ve always wondered this too. When I googled it before, I think it said it keeps dust and dirt away from your main door and you can possibly use it as a screen (if your storm door has a screen). Mostly it just gets in the way for us for deliveries as it opens towards the outside.
I would think screen doors are a warm climate thing. I always thought they were so you could open the door for a breeze but not let all the bugs in.
We have a storm door for the sole reason of letting light in and being able to use a suction cup to secure our wreaths! 😂
I grew up in WV, where everyone had a screen door. Been in FL a decade now, in different parts of the state, no screen doors. So I don’t know 😂. Makes sense to me to have them where there are 4 true seasons, wouldn’t use them a lot here. Also wouldn’t feel as comfortable, security-wise, using them here. I do miss them though!☺️
Our 1947 era house in Oregon has a storm door for winter & a screen door for summer breezes.
I’m from South Florida. All the houses used to have them, so you could open the front door and let the breeze in. Remember that central air conditioning is relatively new. My current house does not have a front screen door, but we have a screened lanai and use that to get a breeze when it’s nice out. Many houses in our area have an extra screen garage door, so you can sit in your garage with the door up and not get bugs. You can also screen in your front porch, so you can open your front door and have a locking screen door with a nice dolphin, flamingo, or palm tree metal figure on the locking screen door.
I’m in central, and also have a screened lanai but no screen door. The extra screen for garage sounds amazing, we work out in ours & even with fans it’s sooo hot! Too many bugs & nosey neighbors to keep it open 😂
Any suggestions on a light blue house, dark blue shutters? Currently the door is white but I don’t think black would look right.
That’s our color combo and the front door is navy blue. I’ve also noticed that aqua is a popular door color in the subdivision.
You could do a burgundy door for a nice pop of color 🙂
You can use a deep blue color. It’ll look black from a few feet away. Our contractor warned against going full black due to lighting. He recommended a dark blue color (I can’t remember the exact name by Dunn Edward), and it turned out amazing.
I think dark charcoal gray would look amazing with your blue on blue scheme!!
We did a burgundy door & shutters With white garage & accents but wanted to paint both black. Our neighbor had the same blue color house across the street with a black door and shutters. Looked fabulous. My 1st choice. We purchased our light blue house with royal blue accents, trim & shutters. It was an awful Blue’s Clues color house. If house wasn’t in such a good location I would have kept looking. New owners painted door brown. Looks great with the blue.
You are describing my house, we have a light blue gray colored home, dark blue gray shutter and pretty light blue front door, love it!
I love the black door! I’ve been wanting to change our blue door to black, however, did you do the interior of the door black as well? That sets off a whole chain of problems for my interior decor 😱
Also, we have a screen door. We’re in Michigan, pretty common. I’ve always had one in all the houses I’ve lived and I love it for the extra light and breeze. In fact I look forward to when we open the interior door all cold winter!!
Keep interior door any desired color. We have a green outside door per condo regulations & white on the interior
Hi Juliee! I actually painted the interior of my front door the same black color. I am really loving how it pops on the inside against the white molding and gray walls!
Hmmm… my wheels are spinning. My entryway is also grey with white trim. Decisions, decisions…
Looks great! What a difference! Hubby was just talking about painting our door, not sure on the color though. We have a tan, textured, typical Florida home. Any ideas?🤔
It looks better because the door now matches the side window casings. Black won’t work for every house.
We just painted our black door white. Our front door faces south and we got tired of burning our hands on a black door.
We have a small house only 1000 sq feet so a black front door would not look good at all. Any suggestions for our little homes front facade?
I ❤️❤️❤️the door color. It really looks nice and has just enough ‘pop’. 👏👏
Thank you!!
Can you please tell me what color of black this is? It looks awesome!
Hi Shelly! I used Sherwin Williams Tricorn Black. https://www.sherwin-williams.com/homeowners/products/SW6258-tricorn-black
Thanks for the kind words! 🙂
We recently replaced our old, drafty burgundy door with a new black door and black shutters. The issue we ran into with the burgundy was trying to match a new burgundy door to to old burgundy shutters. Over time, both had faded considerably. Even with many paint swatches, we just couldn’t get a decent “red” to match. That’s why we opted to get rid of the burgundy entirely and replace it with black. I never thought about the black possibly increasing the value of my house though!
If you can take a sample in, stores like sherwin williams can match it. They did that for us on a few things and the colors are almost exactly the same, you can’t tell the different. They did it with wood stain too.
We were trying to purchase a new door from Home Depot, not paint an old door. Their doors only came in the Behr paint colors. Behr had no factory painted doors that matched our burgundy shutters. We ended up purchasing a new black door and black shutters from a local remodeling company in the end.
Did you paint the interior as well?
Yes, I did paint the interior of the door black as well and I am loving it!
I repainted the door to our garage (our garage is not connected to our house) and left it on the hinges since it didn’t matter if I left it propped open for a few days. Once the heat and humidity die down (I live in MS), I am going to do my french back doors. What did you put up to cover the door opening while you let your paint dry and cure?
When I painted my front door I taped thick plastic sheeting over the opening.
I was very intentional about the day we chose to paint the door. It was a perfect temperate outside (in the 70s) so I just hung a black trash bag from the front door to give us a little privacy.
what is the color of your house and trim? my house colors are similar and I’m looking to repaint.
The main color of the house is a brownish/green with a cream colored trim.
The door looks great but why did it have to be taken off to paint?? I’m going to paint mine soon and thought I could just paint it without taking it off the hinges.
I am sure it would work just fine to paint it while on the hinges but it made it so easy for me to paint to have it laying across the sawhorses in our garage. I would also be more worried about drips if you are to paint it while it is hanging.
Of course you can. I’ve painted mine twice and am puzzled why anyone would go to the extra trouble of removing and rehanging a heavy front door.
I see a red door and I want it painted Black
No colors anymore,
I want them to turn black
Ha ha, I get it 🙂
So my front door is painted black as well, black modern shutters and the base of the front porch post are painted black Our garage door windows only are painted black then the small casing around the garage doors are painted black! It looks amazing and 1 of the prettiest classy house in our neighborhood. house color is a taupe, with cream color trim so the black makes an look!
Sounds so beautiful!
I really like it. It does improve the look.
Thanks Sue!
Where did you find your magnolia wreath? Is it real or faux? It looks great!
It is faux! Bryn got it from the Magnolia Market here.
I live in a 100 year old white block/ red tin roof farm house with 2 wooden glass panel front doors. Both doors have old timey metal storm doors in front of them. How should I paint these?
I recently painted my front door red,Really made it look a lot better I did not paint it black because the storm door is black,It wouldn’t have jumped out like the red does.I think a good looking front door definitely increases the home value but saying that black particularly does it is quite arbitrary.And Zillow is only a guesstimate they are often quite off base with some of their numbers.
If you live in an HOA make sure and check first! Black is a huge No-No here. Also, our shutters and door have to match. Oh well, the Vegas housing market increased our value (and taxes lol) $107,000 by not doing anything this year!
I think hoa would tell me no too on the black door 🙁
Yes! Whatever you do don’t paint it teal, or fuscia. I see so many people doing real doors now and it ruins the house for me! Black, stick with black people. Or at least normal colors. The likelihood that the person you sell to is going to like your tacky teal door as much as you is slim to none.
Eh, paint it what you want! A door is easy to paint. When you go to sell it, you can paint it a more neutral color. At our former house, I painted the door lime green. It was the perfect color to compliment the house color. It gave me joy every time I looked at it!
Any suggestions on a door color, for a ranch style house built in the 70s pale yellow, and the attached garage is white?
Black!
I’m not keen on a black door but I wouldn’t mind a dark charcoal grey… wonder if it would have the same effect?! 🤔
The only drawback I see is it’s hard to see your wreath.
I can’t vouch that painted your front door black adds value as long as the front of your house is color coordinating it will look nice and the appearance will add value in the buyers eyes.
I just painted our front door and sidelights a true olive green. The door has a Craftsman stained glass center, so it’s basically the frame of the door. I’ve not seen anyone else’s this color
Does anyone know if a fiberglass door gets really hot in the sun? We have a steel door and want to paint it black. But steel gets so hot with a west facing house. So I’m thinking of just buying a whole new fiberglass door. Experience?
We painted our double garage door black with silver carriage door handles and it looks amazing!
What is the best paint for this? Need something super durable as these are in the south side of our home. Also what sheen?? Flat? Semi gloss? Thanks!
Hey Lindsay! I checked with Bryn on this, and she shared that she used the Sherwin Williams “Tricorn Black” in a gloss finish. You might check with your local paint stores, or Sherwin Williams for tips on durability. Hoping this might be helpful! ❤️