If you’re ready to give your red brick home a major curb appeal boost, you are in exactly the right spot! A new front door color is one of the easiest ways to completely transform your exterior.
From moody and dramatic to bright and cheerful, we’ve got some gorgeous ideas that will make your entryway a total showstopper.
Maroon
Maroon is this gorgeous brownish-crimson color, almost like a richer, more intense version of the brick itself. I love that its name comes from the French word for chestnut, “marron,” which totally captures that deep reddish-brown vibe.
Back in Colonial times, the color options were pretty limited to modest earth tones, and maroon was the one that really made a statement.
So if you have a red brick Colonial home, a maroon door is a sophisticated choice that feels completely true to the times. It’s a total win!
Gray
Gray is such a smart and stylish choice, and it’s also an incredibly practical pick for an exterior paint color. It’s a lighter neutral that pairs so well with a red brick house.
While I love a white front door, it can show dirt and scuffs over time. A gray door, on the other hand, is amazing at camouflaging any grime that might build up.
Around the beginning of the twentieth century, Bungalow style homes started popping up everywhere. These one-story houses had charming features like dormer windows and a gently sloping roof.
These homes were often built with natural materials like red brick, which was paired with trim in organic colors like moss green or natural gray.
A gray front door on a Bungalow just strikes that perfect balance of being practical while staying authentic to the era.
Black
I’m a huge fan of a classic black door. It’s a dark and dramatic color that can bring either elegance or a bit of edginess to your home for a modern feel.
It’s a timeless choice that has this strong, moody energy that so many people, including me, are drawn to.
Sometimes, red brick can feel a little rustic or old-fashioned. But adding a touch of black instantly gives it an urban, updated vibe.
A black front door paired with black steel windows can completely transform a dated red brick house into something so much more contemporary and cool.
Blue-Gray
Blue-gray is one of those versatile and trendy colors that you get when you mix blue and gray pigments together. This light shade has a chic look that will complement a brick house beautifully for a fresh and flattering combination.
You can combine the blue and gray in different amounts to create the exact style you’re going for. Gray on its own can feel a little safe, but adding that hint of blue gives it a playful and welcoming vibe.
If you’re out shopping for paint, you might see Wedgewood blue, which is a famous shade named after the color found in classic English china.
This color became super popular as an exterior paint in the 18th century and became closely associated with the Federal architectural style. A blue-gray door and matching trim can look so stately and sophisticated on a brick home.
Sage Green
Sage green is a beautiful mix of gray and green, and it gets its name because it looks just like dried sage leaves. What I love about this color is that it’s muted enough to almost be a neutral, but it’s still striking enough to make a real visual impact.
This color is so soft and serene, making it a total staple for cottage-style homes. If you pair it with white and a pale blue, you get this lovely coastal cottage look.
But when you put it next to red brick, it creates a vibe that is pure country cottage.
Yellow
Yellow is just such a cheerful and lively color that can add so much personality and flair to your home’s exterior. This primary color has a huge range of shades, from something pale and buttery to a bold and bright tone.
When you’re picking a yellow for your front door, it’s a good idea to think about your home’s architecture along with your own color tastes.
A midcentury modern home, for example, would look amazing with a more saturated yellow like mustard or ochre.
For a more stately and symmetrical Georgian home, you could go for a creamy Colonial hue. No matter the intensity, yellows that have beige or brown undertones usually work best with red brick homes.
Dark Green
Dark green is such a vibrant, verdant color that makes you think of shady forests and rolling green fields. This lush and fertile shade is a perfect match for the Craftsman style of architecture, which uses an autumnal color palette heavily inspired by nature.
The Craftsman style came about in America in the early twentieth century as a reaction to the mass-produced feeling of the Victorian era.
It marked a return to custom, handmade building techniques that celebrated the beauty and simplicity of natural materials.
While Craftsman homes often had a lot of woodworking, it wasn’t uncommon for them to be built with materials like brick or stone.
And because green and red are contrasting colors, a dark green door becomes the perfect focal point on a red brick Craftsman home.
Red
Red is a bold and brash color that’s often used to create contrast and grab attention. But on a red brick house, this primary hue can look surprisingly understated because the shades are so similar.
Earthier tones like Barnwood or Moroccan red work really well with the brown undertones you find in red bricks.
A red front door can feel incredibly welcoming, and that feeling goes much deeper than just the warmth of the color. Red doors have a pretty significant history.
During the Civil War era, a red door meant that a home was part of the Underground Railroad, a safe place for enslaved people seeking refuge.
In Colonial times, red doors were a signal to tired travelers that they were welcome to stop for a meal and a place to sleep. Putting a red door on a red brick Colonial house is a sweet and subtle way to honor that tradition.
Navy
Navy is an elegant and timeless color that always gives homes a chic and sophisticated look. As a cool color, navy creates a lovely balance to the warmer undertones in red bricks.
I think a navy front door can be such an elegant choice for a traditional red brick home.
In traditional-style homes, you often see details from different historic architectural styles blended with more contemporary design elements.
Because navy can feel classic or modern depending on how it’s used, it’s a perfect fit for the timeless style of traditional architecture.
If your home has shutters, painting them the same navy as your front door will give the whole facade a nice sense of continuity.
You’ll probably want to paint any other trim white to make those navy elements really pop.
Teal
Teal is a dark greenish-blue color that you could describe as a deeper, more saturated version of turquoise. You won’t find teal on many historically-accurate homes, since it was first used as a color name pretty recently, in the early 1900s.
I think it’s cool that the name actually comes from the bright bluish-green feathers on the head of the Eurasian teal duck.
Teal eventually found its home in the midcentury modern color palette, where it provides a slightly cooler contrast to brighter colors like ochre and orange.
A teal front door adds so much curb appeal to a red brick midcentury home. It’s a total showstopper!
Pink
Pink is a feisty and feminine color that can add a ton of pop and pizzazz to the outside of a home. There’s this idea that red and pink automatically clash, but the right shades can actually go together surprisingly well.
A muted pink like rouge or mauve plays beautifully with the brown undertones in red bricks.
In the 1960s, people in San Francisco started painting their Victorian and Edwardian homes in bright pastel colors, including light pink, to liven them up. These homes, known as the “Painted Ladies,” have become iconic.
Painting your whole house pink is a big commitment, but adding a pink door to a red brick Victorian house is a thoughtful way to give a nod to those famous, colorful homes.
Burnt Orange
Burnt orange is such a striking color choice for a front door and will definitely draw attention to your home with a playful and energetic look. It falls somewhere between orange and brown and has this cozy, autumnal vibe.
This rich, rusty color is more muted than a true orange, which I think makes it feel more appealing and accessible for homeowners.
Darker colors were super popular in the late 19th century, starting around the 1870s. At that time, American architecture was all about the Queen Anne style, which is pretty much the classic Victorian look.
These buildings were eclectic and highly decorative, with features like gingerbread trim and elaborate wood spindlework.
When Queen Anne homes were at their most popular, it wasn’t rare to see them with three or more colors. If you want to replicate that look, you can dress up a red brick house with a burnt orange door, olive green shingles, and maroon trim.
Brown
Brown is a solid and dependable color that gives off an earthy, grounded vibe. Just like red, brown can be a great match for a red brick home because their shared brown undertones create a sense of cohesion.
Brown also plays a huge role, along with cream and white, in the exterior color palette for Tudor-style homes.
Tudor homes are usually built from natural materials like stone, stucco, or red brick, and these neutral colors really enhance the home’s rustic feel. You rarely see a Tudor home made completely of red brick.
Instead, you might find a red brick first story with a white stone second story that’s accented with brown trim. Painting the front door the same brown as the trim pieces gives a Tudor-style home a more cohesive look.
Beige
Beige is an elegant neutral color that falls somewhere between gray and tan. Beige and brick red are an excellent pair because of the brown tones they both share.
Beige has always been a popular base color for interior design, but this timeless shade can also work wonderfully as an exterior accent.
A beige door with matching shutters will give a red brick ranch house a classic feel, especially if you pair it with white trim.
White
White is a vibrant and versatile color that can work with any architectural style. This bright and airy neutral has a clean, crisp quality that contrasts beautifully against the muddy earthiness of red bricks.
The color white was very popular during the Greek Revival movement, which shaped American and European architecture in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
The Greek Revival style took a lot of inspiration from ancient Greek and Roman architecture and had features like an elaborate front entrance framed by columns and pilasters.
While Greek Revival homes were typically all white, you can find some examples of red brick homes with this signature style. Painting the front door white to match the columns and trim will really enhance any embellishments.
White is also a classic front door color for a beautiful ranch-style home.
Purple
Purple is a swanky and sumptuous color that adds a sense of luxury to a home. Since they’re neighbors on the color wheel, red and purple are a seamless combination that just makes sense visually.
For centuries, purple dye was incredibly rare and expensive, so it was only available to the wealthiest people. Because of that, purple can still have a very elite and exclusive feel.
As a bold and dramatic color, purple can look impressive on a more ornate style of home. Gothic Revival architecture gets its inspiration from the medieval era, with details like large windows and decorative gables.
Brick Gothic is a style that pairs these elements with stone and brick facades. Adding an aubergine door and matching decorative trim to a red brick house is a fun way to call back to the Brick Gothic style.
Blue
Blue is a cool and calm color that will absolutely take your curb appeal to a new level. This soothing and serene shade is always popular as an exterior paint color because it works so well with lots of different building materials.
During the Victorian era, lighter shades of blue like cornflower and duck egg were trendy for both interior and exterior paint.
While the Queen Anne style is the most famous example of Victorian architecture, there were several other home styles popular during that time.
Italianate architecture, for instance, was inspired by medieval Italian farmhouses and had details like tall, narrow windows.
To add some historical character to a red brick Italianate house, you can paint the front door and shutters baby blue and use a bright white to highlight the rest of the trim.
