Revealed: the face of britain’s front doors

Here at Harvey Water Softeners, we want to help homeowners across the UK to feel as comfortable as possible in their property with softened water at the heart of the home – whether that’s for a more luxurious bubble bath, shinier appliances or the feeling of water soft on your skin after a shower!

To support our efforts of helping to create the most comfy home – we have been on the hunt to find out what other elements of a property can make residents and visitors feel a sense of relaxation and solace when they step foot inside.

How do colours affect our first impression?

When choosing a colour for your front door, Elinor Pitt, co-founder at curtain and blinds specialist Stitched has provided the following guide to how colours can create certain auras when entering a property:

• Orange: Warm, sociable, lively
• Yellow: Radiant, cheerful, optimistic
• Blue: Cool, calming, meditative
• Red: Bold, powerful, confident
• Pink: Gentle, delicate, soft
• Purple: inventive, imaginative, mysterious
• Neutrals / Grey: Quiet, Elegant, Urban
• Neutrals / Oatmeal: Warmth, organic, rustic

Knowing this, we wanted to uncover the trends and colour tones for the hard water towns and cities where we operate across the UK. Would there be any clear differences between the coastal properties of Brighton and the heart of our home county, Surrey? The results certainly make for some interesting reading!

Researching the impact of door colour choices on your home

To work this out, we analysed more than 1,500 properties from online property website Rightmove, to take a sample of 100 homes in 17 different locations to establish which colours proved to be the most popular when it came to choosing a front door. To paint a fair reflection of each location, each property chosen fell within 10% of the average property price for that area.

All of the results were then collated to create a series of doors that showcase the most popular colour choices for each area. For example, the larger the proportion of red in Cambridge’s door compared to Peterborough means there was a higher percentage of red front doors in Cambridge than Peterborough.

The results

While black and white were ever present across all of the regions featured in the research, the variety and spread of other colours varies drastically between locations, with the coastal locations of Brighton and Eastbourne, and Hampshire’s Basingstoke and Winchester displaying a diverse array of colours when it comes to front door design.

Looking at the results for Brighton for example, the breakdown of colours was as follows:

• Black – 14%
• Red – 22%
• Blue – 8%
• Green – 22%
• Yellow – 12%
• Pink – 4%
• Brown – 4%
• White – 8%
• Purple – 6%

You can see the full spread of door colour choices by region in the graphic below:

Front door colours by region

The following breaks down the front door colour choices by region:

Bournemouth

• Black – 12%
• Red – 10%
• Blue – 6%
• Green – 4%
• Brown – 12%
• White – 42%
• Purple – 6%
• Yellow – 8%

Southampton

• Black – 16%
• Red – 4%
• Blue – 10%
• Green – 10%
• Yellow – 4%
• Brown – 8%
• Orange – 8%
• White – 40%

Portsmouth

• Black – 14%
• Red – 16%
• Blue – 30%
• Green – 10%
• Yellow – 2%
• Brown – 6%
• Orange – 2%
• White – 20%

Brighton

• Black – 14%
• Red – 22% ​
• Blue – 8%
• Green – 22%
• Yellow – 12%
• Pink – 4%
• Brown – 4%
• White – 8%
• Purple – 6%

Winchester

• Black – 28%
• Red – 10%
• Blue – 10%
• Green – 12%
• Yellow – 4%
• Brown – 4%
• White – 14%
• Grey – 14%
• Purple – 4%

Basingstoke

• Black – 20%
• Red – 18%
• Blue – 8%
• Green – 4%
• Orange – 8%
• Brown – 16%
• White – 14%
• Grey – 12%

Reading

• Black – 18%
• Red – 14%
• Blue – 10%
• Green – 16%
• Orange – 2%
• Brown – 2%
• White – 30%
• Grey – 8%

Eastbourne

• Black – 16%
• Red – 6%
• Blue – 20%
• Green – 8%
• Orange – 6%
• Brown – 2%
• White – 26%
• Yellow – 10%
• Pink – 4%

Oxford

• Black – 20%
• Red – 16%
• Blue – 14%
• Orange – 2%
• Brown – 4%
• White – 44%

Northampton

• Black – 36%
• Blue – 8%
• Green – 4%
• Brown – 12%
• White – 40%

Bedford

• Black – 44%
• Red – 4%
• Blue – 20%
• Green – 8%
• Orange – 2%
• White – 12%
• Grey – 10%

Luton

• Black – 26%
• Red – 10%
• Green – 8%
• Brown – 4%
• White – 52%

Stevenage

• Black – 16%
• Blue – 32%
• Green – 8%
• Brown – 8%
• White – 36%

Cambridge

• Black – 10%
• Red – 26%
• Blue – 20%
• Green – 16%
• White – 14%
• Grey – 14%

Peterborough

• Black – 18%
• Blue – 16%
• Green – 18%
• Brown – 4%
• White – 32%
• Red – 12%

Leicester

• Black – 16%
• Blue – 12%
• Green – 36%
• Red – 8%
• White – 24%
• Grey – 4%

Milton Keynes

• Black – 22%
• Blue – 6%
• Green – 20%
• Red – 8%
• White – 30%
• Grey – 14%