Ugly house decorating dilemma

[PigUglyHouse]

I live in a house that, from the outside, is best described as pig ugly. Pebble-dashed, square, kind of out of proportion. You name it, and I’ve got it!

I actually don’t mind the ugliness of the house, but it does give me an interesting decorating dilemma...

We are about to replace our UPVC front door (and side window), with a simple, Edwardian style hard wood door and I just can’t make up my mind about what colour to paint it in.

Would you A) try to draw as little attention as possible to the front of the house by painting the door a softer, more natural colour, such as a sage green, or a pale sky blue.

OR, B) fully embrace the ugliness of the house and paint the door in a bright, in-your- face colour, such as an egg yoke yellow, or orange?

The front door area is quite shaded, so I don’t think “safer” choices such as black, dark blue or green would work that well.

Any thoughts? Long term, we’re planning to put a trellis above the front door to hide those ugly pipes, so the door should be surrounded by greenery in a few years time

Paint it whatever colour will make you smile when you come home! What’s your favourite colour?

I would paint it a colour you love. Then add some climbing plants that complement the door colour and some deep window boxes. This is an example of a house like you describe, with a nicer door, painted neutrally and wisteria rambling over it. I think it looks good.

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I'd go for a bright cheerful colour.

we stayed once in a holiday house in the outer hebrides where all the houses were pebble dash & the weather was pretty grey too. but the holiday house was painted in various shades of yellow & orange, and always seemed warm & cheerful.

I'd avoid bright yellow as it attracts masses of insects but other than that go with whatever makes you happy. When we were choosing our door I walked round local streets and looked at lots of similar houses to see which styles appealed and suited the houses.

They've also added a porch roof which could look good. Or a whole porch. Some plain houses near us have been transformed with wooden beam porches. One person did it and everyone else copied. The whole street now looks much prettier. They all have pots of lavender or climbing plants up the beams.

This sort of thing, but scaled down to fit your house.
Also, here's a pic of a very bright painted pebbledash house with porch roof that looks really cottagey and eye catching if you want to avoid neutrals.

We painted the pebble dash on one house we had - was v simple - go for a whole coordinated look top to toe.

I would paint it a gorgeous shade of purple. I love a purple door.

www.backtofrontexteriordesign.com/before-after

Have a look at the way this company does exterior renovations - their colour schemes are classic and timeless IMHO. Do your research decide on a master plan and then just sequence it with whatever you can afford each year.

While you wait for your climbers to grow and hide the pipes, you could add some drainpipe planters wit trailing plants:

www.elho.com/en/collection/product/8711904273545/corsica-drainpipe-clicker-24-vint-blue/

They have a range of colours, maybe you can match your front door to the pots

Some really good ideas here!

The more I think about it, the more I’m leaning towards a colour with personality. The inside of the house actually has some character and I think the front door should reflect that.

Now that yellow is out of the window (thanks for the tip off about it attracting insects! 😬), I’m planning something along the lines of F&B Rangwali, inspired by
@Aquamarine1029 ‘s suggestion of purple! It’s not a colour I’d ever considered before, but I think it will actually work really well, especially when surrounded with some more greenery 😊

Personally I’d go for a muted colour like griege or safe green. And I’d grow some wisteria up and around to make it look pretty as the pp suggested

Going for an in your face colour will just enhance the ugly ness in my view and make it worse.

Google "purple front doors" for inspiration. Loads of gorgeous examples, and yes, the purple is beautiful with greenery.

I would paint it lovely pastel pink and hang a large twig heart on the door.
Two trellis on both sides with some pretty blooming climbers and some door mat.

Something like this.

I think the more you do to it that makes you happy, the more you'll put into making it lovely. Honestly, that door alone is pretty hideous (sorry!) with the enormous cat flap and dirty white plastic so the fact you're replacing it at all will go a long way! Even just replacing the doormat with maybe a nice cast iron type one, pressure washing the path to clean it up etc. Is your guttering plastic? If not could you have it painted? The colour of it isn't helping either I don't think. Often ugly houses are ugly because they're not especially beautiful, so people make no effort and they get worse and worse.

Charcoal grey. Nice and dark. I like the pebble dash

Frenchic paint the one you have in a cheerful shade and see if you can live with it before buying a new door