The Doors: rainbow colours under a cloudless sky

Houses come in all shapes and sizes, but they share a common means of getting in and out: the humble front door. These portals can be personalised to a modest degree through the incorporation of glass or wooden panels, bespoke handles, or fancy locks. But when it comes to choice of colour, homeowners free of planning constraints can let rip with a palette that is almost limitless. Are people daring enough to use the full rainbow scope of options, though? Read on to find out.

The doors of Europe

Cities are jam-packed with stuff: people, cars, homes, restaurants, and noise. They are also full of doors. On a trip to some of Europe’s most celebrated locations last year, I stumbled upon a handful that took my fancy and which I photographed. Something about their shape, colour, ornamentation, or accompanying potted plants — stationed on either side like sentinels — appealed to my aesthetic sensibilities.

The doors of New England

This also happened on a trip to New England several weeks ago. The town of Marblehead, Massachusetts, is dotted with homes dating from the 17th century. Their brightly coloured doors jump out at you from their sedate, clapboard facades. Here are a few examples.

So, upon my return, I began to pay more attention to the doors I encountered on my daily walks around the city in which I live. An additional motivation for what turned into a door-survey project was to practise taking photos with a rangefinder camera. I plan to share more about this recent acquisition in a future article. The sharply defined uprights of doors and their frames proved an ideal subject for aligning the rangefinder focus mechanism.

The doors of Coronado

Lo and behold, I soon began to accumulate a small collection of ‘front door photographs’. I found red and blue to be the most popular choices, with yellow and green making an occasional showing. Being of a scientific and systematic bent, I wondered whether I could find examples covering the entire rainbow spectrum. So, over several weeks and many accumulated miles, I roamed the streets and avenues, hunting the missing colours for my rainbow collection.

I set myself a few ground rules since I wanted to capture the entire door, not just part of it. First, the door had to be visible from the sidewalk (pavement). I had no intention of sneaking into people’s front yards, unannounced, to photograph their door. Second, as far as possible, the door would not be obscured by walls, balconies, plants etc. These requirements ruled out many fascinating portals that were partially hidden or did not directly face the street. Nevertheless, the ubiquity of doors meant there were still many that fell within my self-imposed guidelines.

I took photographs at different times of day of doors that faced all points of the compass. This meant some were completely in shadow, some in full sun, and some part shadowed. I did not plan to revisit doors a second time, seeking optimum conditions, so I declared shadows to be OK.

The colour purple

I assumed some poetic licence when it came to how rigorously my collection complied with the ROYGBIV rainbow scheme. Bold as Coronado residents might be, I assumed the chances of finding many indigo or violet front doors were slim. The best I could hope for would be examples of ‘purplish’. As a compromise, I, therefore, allowed the inclusion of two different shades of blue to make up my seven color rainbow. I also allowed the interpretation of orange to include terracotta or ‘pinkish’.

I was able to find enough colour diversity to assemble the three ‘rainbow sets’  illustrated in this article. As I suspected, I had countless red and blue examples to choose from. But the likelihood of encountering green, yellow, and orange doors dropped precipitously in that order. Despite a diligent search, I only found three doors in a shade of purple.

I saw huge numbers of natural wood-finished doors, as well as many painted in black, white, and various shades of grey. Boring!

Doors and people

My short project has increased my appreciation of front doors; they resemble people in so many ways. As illustrated, they come in a multitude of colours. They possess pseudo-bilateral symmetry: draw a vertical line down the centre, and the left side mirrors the right. Like people, they can have open or closed personalities and sometimes come across as a bit wooden. But you usually get a response if you rap them a few times with your knuckles. As they get older or spend too much time in the sun, their exterior can get a bit wrinkly and flaky. Occasionally, they even become unhinged. 

I am neither the first nor the only person to have conducted a photographic study of front doors. Any reasonably-sized city is likely to offer a sufficient diversity of front doors to snag the interest of local photographers. It has led me to wonder whether the paucity of purple doors is a global phenomenon, hampering everyone’s efforts to make a door rainbow. What do you think? 

Let us know in the comments below what your favourite front-door colour is and whether you have seen a purple one recently.

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