Thursday, August 29, 2013

Our purple door


I grew up in Minnesota, home of the Vikings, the mighty Purple People Eaters of my childhood years. Football was a big family affair when I was growing up, so I suppose it's no surprise the purple  has been my favorite color for as long as I can remember. 

When Niels and I started brainstorming our wishlist for the dream house. One of the aesthetic items on my list was a purple front door. Niels was on board after we say this gray house in our city which served as inspiration in many ways. (We introduced ourselves to the owners so they wouldn't be freaked out by all our drive-bys!)


When we were building the house, we left the front door white, in part because I couldn't decide on the right purple. I wanted it to be dark with more gray tones than blue. It also needed to work with the stone on our house. 

As summer turns to fall, we felt the pressure to get the door painted before winter. We landed on Quixotic Plum from Sherwin Williams. (For those who prefer Benjamin Moore paints,Shadow is the closest match).
Thanks to Google and Pinterest I found this house on Spruce Interiors and was sold.

SW quixotic plum for the front door

 Dirty Diaper Laundry also uses Quixotic Purple, but included the sidelights as well.

After looking at the above photo, I decided I wanted to keep the white trim to provide a little contrast and to blend with the white trim piece above our door. I used Sherwin Williams Color Visualizer to confirm that I liked this idea better than covering the entire door with the purple paint. I did, so I printed off the photo, and then accidentally deleted the picture. Oops. At least, I'm more than happy with the real thing!

When the painter arrived, I showed him the picture and got right to work. 

I am so happy with the color. Choosing paint was the hardest part of the whole build process for us, and it's so hard to determine what a little chip will look like on a bigger scale, but I loved the color and am so happy that we kept the trim white. 


Voila! Our new purple door!

It's really interesting how the color changes depending on the time of day and how cloudy it is. At times it looks nearly black from the road.

Bye bye white...hello purple!


Updated:
Over Labor Day weekend, Niels and I cleaned out our garage and were so happy to find our long lost name plate. 


This was a wedding gift from Niels' family. We had it up at our old house, took it down when we listed that house for sale, and it was packed in a box...with lawn care items. Ahem. 

We put it up with Command Strips, and so far it's holding up really well. We also splurged on a new welcome mat. 

Front porch: done!

Linked to:
30 Homemade Days * DIY ShowoffHouse of Hepworths * Liz Marie BlogPractically Functional * And Sew We CraftSew Much CraftingTatertots & Jello * Thrifty Decor Chick

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8 comments:

  1. What a gorgeous shade of purple ( I'm pinning that for " one day " )
    Our neighbors just painted their front door purples also -
    And that first house you showed - all purple?
    Gorgeous also!
    Thanks for sharing!
    hugs,

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. My "one day" took almost 4 years! We drooled over that first house for a long time. I think why that door works for me is that it does have some white trim as well.

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  2. Stunning! My husband finally agreed this summer that I could paint the front door (after years of nagging) and I've been trying to find the perfect shade os purple (my favourite!) while waiting for it to cool off. I love the colour you used and may copy it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Always nice to find another lover of purple! Feel free to copy away!

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  3. It looks great. One day I would love to repaint the outside of our house a darker gray shade and have a sea foam or mint painted door. Great job on the door makeover :)

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  4. Gorgeous color choice! If you get a chance, please link up to my link party: http://suburbsmama.blogspot.com/2013/08/sunday-linky-23.html

    ReplyDelete
  5. Jen!! I Love, Love, Love your front door!!! The purple looks great and is perfect on your house.

    xoxo
    Denyse

    ReplyDelete
  6. Love the color! Fantastic. Thanks for the inspiration! Coming by from Inspire Me (you did) Link party. Best of days ~ Sharon and Denise
    BeBetsy BRAG ABOUT IT Link and Hop

    Follow us:
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