Front Door Choices

Style

• Your stone castle needs a Gothic arch-shaped door, but your funky farmhouse will look better wearing a Dutch door, with a glazed glass top that opens independently of the solid wood bottom half. Begin with a door that matches the architectural design of your home, but don't stop there. Just as you personalize your interior decor, view that all-important front door as a potential canvas to display the aesthetic sense of the residents inside. A Mediterranean-tiled entry invites a solid wood door -- consider a door that's hand-carved and buffed to a high-gloss finish with a wrought-iron door knocker. If your apartment door is unadorned, boring, painted metal, add a wide kickplate at the bottom in burnished copper for a bit of gleam. A generous front entry gets a style makeover when you split the broad front door into double doors with identical brass handles.

Color

• Color is the quickest way to captivating curb appeal; basic black and stained mahogany are classic defaults, but an expanded palette could be a revelation. Red enamel is as juicy as a ripe apple and provides a shot of high-energy at the entryway. Yellow is mellow when it's a subdued maize but sends a jolt of happiness across the threshold if it's the color of a field of buttercups in the sun. Cool customers will prefer inky blue or rich pewter tones against a silver-shingled cottage or red brick. Pumpkin or russet complement a white, gray or blue row house and distinguish it from its peers. Green plays as many roles as it has shades; chalky cactus green balances white or terra-cotta stucco. Lime or spring green is playful against taupe, blue or yellow siding; deep forest is solid and dignified almost anywhere.

Material

• Front doors are investments that keep as much out as they let in, so choose yours with durability and security in mind. Wood is the traditional choice, and different grades are made for staining or painting. Let the grain shine through a solid mahogany, maple, oak, cherry or walnut door, but be prepared to pay handsomely for the privilege. Less-expensive pine, hemlock or wood veneer over a composite wood core won't set you back as much, and composite doors are manufactured to prevent warping. Steel doors protect your stronghold, come with solid or filled cores and baked-on finishes and can be painted to match your decor. Aluminum doors are pricey -- nearly as expensive as hardwood -- and have baked-on finishes that never need painting because there is no danger of the door rusting. Fiberglass doors are extremely low-maintenance with finishes that mimic wood grain.

Curb Appeal

• Conventional or eye-candy -- your front door announces your taste to the world. Go for conservative if you are putting the four-square on the market, but give in to your flights of fancy for your fairy-tale cottage or recycled beachfront pad. A paneled door on a Victorian lady matches the period in triadic colors -- hues evenly spaced around the color wheel -- like pumpkin, violet and teal or dark red, yellow and turquoise. A rough-hewn stone facade can handle wrought-iron trim on a vivid blue door, while a stained and faded Venetian stucco home retains its old-world charm with uneven, color-washed cerulean paint on a door with carved panels and ornate glass insets. Your gray clapboard with sharp white trim could stand up to a high-gloss candy pink door with a shiny brass mail slot and house numbers. Deliberately crazed, cracked and faded paint on the ocean-view vacation home door needs the invisible protection of a clear matte polyurethane finish.