Chris and I were really inspired by my dad and Wendy’s front doors at their house

Those orange doors POPPED and they get a lot of compliments from folks around the neighborhood

Remember how boring it was before?

We really loved that huge, bright pop of color. And we wanted to replicate it for our house.

Originally I thought about having a bright blue front door, but as I thought about things more and more I wasn’t super excited about it. It seemed really safe to me, and not the fun impact that we wanted to have. Then I thought about a BRIGHT Citron or Chartreuse. I Pinned colors I liked and inspirational images like this one

It just made me happy. Chris was a little on the fence about it, but also really wanted that bright impact that we loved about my dad and Wendy’s doors, so he was willing to let me try it. So week or two ago with a list of far too many paint colors, the girls and I made our way to HD to get samples

And I brought out my sheet of plywood and started painting on the samples

After one coat I knew two wouldn’t be enough

The colors were so similar to the plywood and light that to get good coverage that gave a better example of the brightness of each color I needed to use 3 coats. And when it was done it was soooooo pretty

From left to right, top to bottom the colors are:

1. Benjamin Moore Yew Green
2. Benjamin Moore Chamomile
3. Dunn Edwards Citrus Leaf (I wanted to try something a little more green but I hated this the second it went on the plywood)
4. Benjamin Moore Chartreuse
5. Sherwin Williams Hep Green
6. Benjamin Moore Exotic Lime
7. Benjamin Moore Citron
8. Benjamin Moore Eccentric Lime

Then I moved the board around the house to see what kind of impact it got. I really liked painting samples like this on plywood and then moving it around because it gives the best idea of how the color will look. Some people don’t buy sample colors and they just move the fan deck or sample swatch around. I feel like that little piece of paper isn’t ever really a true representation of the color. It also isn’t big enough for me. I wanted a larger slice of what it’s actually going to look like

Oh, and did you catch that deeeeeeeep base color on the house!? Yes, that means the house is painted too! I know, I know, I should share that with you too, but it is so fucking impactful that I really just can’t bare to tease it 🙂 I want everything to be DONE before I show it to you. But, don’t fear, it’s coming soon. We just need some finishing touches – stain in the porch, sealer on the bricks, lights hung up, front doors installed (they should be arriving soon]), succulent garden planted… okay, that actually sounds like more work than I thought. But I promise, it should go quickly! 🙂

Anyways! The most important picture was the one of the sample board in front of the front door

I texted the picture to Chris to see what he thought. I had a CLEAR FAVORITE, but of course it’s a joint decision 🙂 Luckily, his favorite was mine too! The top left corner: Benjamin Moore Yew Green

Hooray!

It is a bright, big impact. But I LOVE IT. And I really just love how happy my dad and Wendy’s doors make me every time we go to their house and I hope this color makes me happy every time we walk in the door.

The painters will paint alllllll of our exterior doors this color. And we have a lot: the front double doors, the side garage door, the side basement door, the door from Zoe’s room off the back, the double doors from the living room out onto the deck and the double doors from the big room downstairs out on to the backyard. That’s a lot of Yew Green 🙂 We won’t be painting the front doors yet because we need to wait for the new ones to be installed, but we’ll be getting a really good feel for how those doors will be looking soon 🙂