A shade ahead
Dan Sullivan, MD of Doorco, talks door colour, and shares the latest developments from the composite door manufacturer’s colour portfolio.
Colour is still a hot topic in the composite door market and, despite everything, this isn’t going to change. Around 45% of all the doors supplied by Doorco are painted to order, whether from a premium colour range or bespoke, and ‘special RALs’ are appearing more and more.
The ability to deliver colour is fundamental; offering choice, on a fast turnaround, is now the norm. The desire is growing for something different too, like Doorco’s recently launched unique Patina colour range for the Monza II door, which has proved to be hugely popular both in the industry and with the more aspirational followers on our Instagram channel.
During the lockdown period, we took the opportunity to do some research on our colour range. In a recent customer poll, Doorco invited its customers to vote on the next standard colour for Doorco to consider adding as a standard colour offer. This would mean making it available for next day delivery and reducing additional paint charges, which makes commercial sense for us and our customers.
Out of the four top colours offered, Slate was voted in because, unanimously, it is the most requested shade and now outsells standard red and green. We will look to add this colour later this year.
When it comes to colour choices, greys and blues are the current favourites. Collectively, Doorco has 19 shades in the current collection. Many colour experts agree and have included blue, in particular, in most of their 2020 colour collections. So, as a homeowner, what if you could just look to these collections and say, “I want my door to be that colour” and, without paying the earth and waiting a long time for the exact match, get it? Doorco’s new paint product can do exactly that.
Many suppliers boast a colour matching service, and most of them work well, but delivery time is often delayed, and the cost can sometimes rocket as the product is shipped out to specialists to paint. With an in-house offering, ‘any colour, your choice’ has been a motto Doorco has worked to for ages. But we are now taking this a shade further, with the launch of a new paint product that opens up all sorts of colour opportunities for the market.
Water-based, highly durable and low-VOC, Doorco’s new paint offering is going to transform the colour match revolution.
Doorco has teamed up with Teknos and adopted its new Hydrapur paint that offers an advanced single layer coating, which is highly weather resistant and lightfast (meaning the colour will not alter when exposed to light), with long-term elasticity. Maintenance is minimal, and scratches are simple to rectify. Plus, from a health and safety point of view, it is better for our team to work with.
Initially, and purely for easy transmission, we will be launching the new paint in line with our current colour range, and the majority are an identical match or as close as possible.
Where this is the case, we believe the colour has more vibrancy/density; exact matches are pretty hard to achieve but we are matching as closely as we can and are updating our brochure and colour swatches for the future. Disclaimer: some shades may not match the printed catalogue entirely.
We will soon be expanding the offering with more shades from the current top 100 list, which includes colours taking inspiration from designer coating specialists like Farrow & Ball, and beyond. We’ve opted for generic RAL/BSI colours and codes because it is widely recognised in this industry and the main way colours are specified by architects, etc.
Thanks to work by Teknos on the science of colour, we are not limited to RAL and will be able to match any colour, be it your favourite flower or your garden fence, and vice-versa. We can tell the customer the exact colour and identification so they can buy paint to co-ordinate their windows, facias, fences, garage doors etc, without any issue.
The future for premium, bespoke, luxury, heritage colour ranges is looking bleak.
