Red front doors in New England (salary, living in, prices)

[buck naked]

I'm with you there re: paint choices. Son-in-law is a professional painter and he recommends brown as an undercoat for red paint. I painted a wall red a couple years ago. It took 10 coats or a whole gallon to do 12 feet of wall with two windows and a door.

[GraniteStater]

Originally Posted by Robhu

I saw a movie one time years ago called "Behind the Green Door"
It was some kind of a porno movie.
When I bought my house I painted the doors red.
I didn't want that kind of stuff going on in my house with a bunch of people I didn't know. No green doors here.

What in the heck. My door is a northwoods darker green. I guess I could always paint it a different color LOL

[Valerie C]

We did an undercoat of deep grey, the same color as you see above the door. I was afraid that such a dark color underneath would result in a deep blood red, but this shade is exactly what I was going for, a very bright and cheery red A fire-engine red kitchen sounds WONDERFUL!

Originally Posted by BF66389

...I'm now laughing so hard I'm almost crying.

That said- Val- your door looks great. So do the pink under-layers help make the red brighter without requiring a million coats? (Our kitchen is now fire-engine red and we have 5 coats up...but I suspect we'll be moving on to coat 6 soon since I see some lighter spots...I know red is hard color- but I will NEVER use paint from Lowes or Home Depot again- Benjamin Moore or Sherwin Williams for me...and I REALLY like BM's new Aura paints)...

[notdancingqueen]

Originally Posted by BF66389

...I'm now laughing so hard I'm almost crying.

That said- Val- your door looks great. So do the pink under-layers help make the red brighter without requiring a million coats? (Our kitchen is now fire-engine red and we have 5 coats up...but I suspect we'll be moving on to coat 6 soon since I see some lighter spots...I know red is hard color- but I will NEVER use paint from Lowes or Home Depot again- Benjamin Moore or Sherwin Williams for me...and I REALLY like BM's new Aura paints)...

Another vote for BM paint -- just did our new great room in Richmond Grey and have paint chips stuck up all around my house... BF, yet another similarity between us -- my kitchen is on its way to being red, too. Mexicana red or something like that.

My house is yellow so I am not sure how a red door would look, but I have always wanted one. Val, we're all about the wood filler, too -- the dryness finally put a hairline crack in my door this winter. Wish we had sidelights, though -- but my next $3k is going to a driveway, not a door! I'll post some pics of my "driveway" in a bit so you all can see why...

Jackie

[notdancingqueen]

Originally Posted by buck naked

I'm with you there re: paint choices. Son-in-law is a professional painter and he recommends brown as an undercoat for red paint. I painted a wall red a couple years ago. It took 10 coats or a whole gallon to do 12 feet of wall with two windows and a door.

Tinted primer under dark colors makes a real difference. Same concept as the brown paint, I think. I wonder which is cheaper...

[BF66389]

Originally Posted by notdancingqueen

Tinted primer under dark colors makes a real difference. Same concept as the brown paint, I think. I wonder which is cheaper...

Primer...all that prep-work really pays off when it comes to long term durability.

Unfortunately the prior owners and I did not share the same opinion on that...

[notdancingqueen]

I never realized that primer or no primer affects the actual color of the dried paint!! In my hardware store, there are examples of wood and sheetrock with four versions of the same paint color: 1 coat, 2 coats, 1 coat with primer, 2 coats with primer. The end result was dramatically different not just in terms of coverage/finish but in terms of the color itself! Like, whether the paint dried as PINK versus RED.

[WannaComeHome]

wow. I'd love to see a display like that. I"m afraid I'm very lazy when it comes to painting. Sure, I'll prime over raw wallboard or wood before I paint, but....

[sswaring]

Hey, my realtor told me that in New England a red door means your home is PAID for, not the other way around. I do remember it because I had mentioned that it was good Feng Shui and we agreed that either way it was a good thing.

So I wonder now which is correct? Red means paid or not paid for?

[Snafu]

Oh, oh.... my door is PINK... what does THAT mean? After 4 years of home ownership in NH, I finally got to the "make the OUTSIDE of the house look like mine" item on my to-do list... from a drab brown, no shutters, and plain wood doors, it went to a deep teal-gray-blue with fuscia doors! As the home design books call it.... "lipstick"!

Since my house is not readily visible from the roads, it can offend no one, but just driving up to see the fuscia doors (actually called "iced raspberry") puts a huge smile on my face. I even took down one of the birdhouses and painted it to match the house colors.

Thank goodness I, too, am one of the HOA refugees! My last place was bland light blue with blank cream doors... you fell asleep just walking up the front steps!