Front Entrance Colors for a Tudor-Style Home

Light

• Many Tudor entranceways have a decorative window to allow natural light to stream in during daylight hours. This may be the only source light in the space, since the heavy arched wooden entrance doors usually do not have a window. Stone, brick or tile floors and plaster walls complete the architectural elements of the space, with an effect of cool strength. The natural colors are cool and neutral.

Paint

• The least expensive and most effective strategy to warm up a Tudor entrance space is to paint the walls. The best color choices will be light, warm tones, whether they are subtle neutrals or tints of a more intense hue. For example, warm neutral colors such as dove gray, taupe, khaki, mocha or French vanilla quietly suggest friendliness and hospitality. Tints of more intense warm colors such as pale gold, creamy peach, light brick or butter yellow set an even more convivial tone. The color selected for the entryway is most successful when it relates to the color just inside in the main hallway and to those colors flowing throughout the first floor of the home. A simple strategy to unify this flow of color is to use various tints and shades of a single color in each of the spaces.

Fabric

• Fabric in a small space has a big color impact. A fabric window treatment in a Tudor entryway can create a more intimate, hospitable ambiance, even when the walls and floors are neutral. Rich and luxurious fabric in luminous colors on a tailored valance or on simple brief drapery panels flanking an entry window will accent the architectural feature and energize the space. Luminous colors are deep, strong colors that seem to be lit from within. Examples are jewel tones such as sapphire blue, emerald green, ruby red or topaz.

Floors

• The cool luxury of stone, tile or brick floors will become more inviting with a small, richly patterned wool rug. When the first floor color palette guides the color selection for the rug, the result is a harmonious pathway into the home. For example, if the walls, floors and furnishings of the first floor spaces are various tones of gold and green, a rug featuring those colors will be attractive and appropriate. Or if the color palette consists of pastel tones of pink, gray and blue, an entry rug repeating these shades is suitable.