Guy Hubble, joint managing director at RegaLead, offers advice on how you can help your customers negotiate the ‘agony of choice’…

When it comes to colour, consumers are now completely spoilt for choice. There’s a massive range available, and as well as foiled finishes, the option of spraying has literally created an unlimited palette.

While this is obviously a good thing for homeowners, it can also have a negative side. This paradox of choice can almost provide too many options and hamper the ability to make a decision.

This is where you come in. As well as being a salesman and installer, you also need to fulfil a consultative role with your customers to help lead them down the right path. Not only will this assist them in making a decision and secure the sale, but it will also satisfy your own professional pride.

As we all know, you can’t go five minutes in a car with a fitter without them pointing out a property with the well known phrase “that’s one of mine” – so it’s important that you give the right advice and help your customers choose a colour that is going to improve their property.

Is that RAL you want?

It’s important to remember that there is much more to the world of colour than just RAL. While that is a 216 shade system designed for a lot of industrial applications, RAL colours tend to be strong, deep colours, not offering as much choice when it comes to more muted, interesting tones.

It might make life easier all round if you restrict your available colour options. At RegaLead, we have created a range comprising 270 promoted products, including RAL and Renolit, as well as our own designed colours, covering a broad spectrum of choice.

Timeless classics

Style never goes out of fashion and the old favourites are still an excellent option.

Deep tones of red, blue, green, and black are classic front door colours and have been popular since the Georgian era, making a real statement.

There’s plenty of variation in those colours. Red, blue, and green are still the predominant colour palette, but there’s a wide range of hues and tones across that spectrum to satisfy even the most fussy customer.

Bright can be right

Bright coloured doors are very much in vogue at the moment and can really add that wow factor that many homeowners are looking for. Lime green, yellow, and orange all make bold statements, but if they prove to be a little too extreme then you could recommend darker versions of colours such as olive, mustard, or ochre.

Pinks and lilacs have also come to the fore in recent years, along with darker or more muted shades of these, such as our popular Miami Sky (a more dusky pink) and Mulholland Drive (a classy lilac alternative).

Complementary style

The appearance of the home, as well as the door style, can help to dictate what colour would suit best, so it’s important to be as sympathetic to the property as possible.

A modern exterior may lend itself to a bright colour or something out of the ordinary, such as lime green. But a more traditional house would tend to suit more traditional colours.

Matching windows and frames

Too often these days we see Anthracite Grey windows with a matching door, which can sometimes lead to overkill. Matching your door colour to your window frames can just create an ocean of the same shade and can just be too much, particularly with colours like Chartwell Green.

A door is a standalone statement. While grey is the go-to choice for windows, adding a real pop of colour with the door choice can beautifully complement the windows, rather than trying to match with them, and massively transform the front of a property.

For example, white is a classic tone, but it can be made to really pop when matched with a juxtaposing hue. A cool-coloured door can be given a warmer tone with a rich brown frame.

Interestingly, when it comes to door frames, matching the colour with the door can create the illusion of a much larger entranceway. You should have examples to show your customers to help them see the different options.

A door colour isn’t for life

Whatever colour your customers finally choose for their composite, they don’t have to worry that they will be stuck with it for the lifetime of the door.

Such as has long been the case with traditional timber doors, we are now in a world where composite doors can be repainted. So if a customer decides to go bold, it doesn’t matter if they change their minds after a few years and opt for something more muted or traditional.

See it in situ

One of the best ways to help a customer fully understand how a particular colour will look on their own home is to use door designer software so they can see it in situ. It will also allow them to choose door style, glass, hardware, and to superimpose the finished look onto an image of their house.

Also, show them colour swatches and samples in a showroom, rather than relying on print interpretations. Let them take a sample home so they can see the real thing and what it will look like – there’s no substitute for that.