Best Front Door Paint in the UK [2023]

Choosing the best front door paint gives you the option to totally transform the look and feel of your entire home.

A good front door paint will be long lasting, weatherproof (especially useful in the UK) and ultimately look great. However, pick the wrong paint and you risk a finish that’s prone to cracking, peeling, and potentially setting in a colour that’s different to what you thought you were getting.

Fortunately, we’ve painted many exterior doors over the years and with that experience we’ve been able to try and test some of the best paints for front doors currently on the market.

We’ve combined our own knowledge with thousands of customer reviews to create a helpful guide that will hopefully give you the information you need to make the right paint purchase.

Best Front Door Paint Overall: Dulux Front Door Paint

This Dulux front door paint ticks all the boxes when it comes to choosing the best paint and its all-round prowess is what gives it the edge over all the other paints on the market.

It’s formulated for use on all surfaces and is thus suitable for use on wooden, metal or UPVC front doors. The paint is water-based which gives it a film that is flexible enough to avoid cracking while its anti-mould properties ensure stains are kept to a minimum.

Perhaps most importantly (especially in the UK), Dulux guarantees 6-year weather protection which means your front door paint is going to not only last longer but will continue to look great for longer too.

It’s perhaps the easiest to apply out of all the paints to make our list due to its lovely, thick consistency thus ensuring you get an even, brush-mark-free coverage.

Pros

• Offers maximum protection from the notorious British rain
• One of the quickest drying paints on the market
• Low odour and low VOC making it more eco-friendly
• Beautiful mid-sheen finish hides imperfections well
• Flexible paint film ensures it won’t crack or peel

Cons

• None

Great Alterative: Zinsser Allcoat 

Zinsser Allcoat is an exterior satin paint giving a mid-sheen finish and is perhaps one of the most convenient paints for front doors on the market.

With a drying time of just 30 minutes and being re-coatable within an hour, using Zinsser Allcoat means you won’t have to leave your door open all day to ensure it dries properly.

Once fully cured (about a week) the tough finish offers maximum protection against peeling, blistering and cracking while having a water-shedding coating makes it resistant to rain and severe weather conditions. On top of this, the paint formula contains a biocide which, when dry, offers protection against fungal degradation.

It’s incredibly easy to apply and its quality adhesion to any surface makes it perfect for wooden, metal or UPVC front doors.

Pros

• Offers 15 years of protection against weathering
• One of the quickest drying paints on the market
• Anyone will be able to get a smooth, even coverage as it’s very easy to apply
• It acts as both a primer and a topcoat
• Can be applied to previously painted surfaces without the need for sanding

Cons

• Limited colour selection

Best Exterior Wood Door Paint: Dulux Wood Sheen

Moving away from the all rounders, let’s take a look at something a bit more specific. In this case, we’ve chosen Dulux Wood Sheen as the best exterior wood door paint.

What’s so great about this paint? Well firstly, if you’re looking to restore the natural look of the wood, this is perfect. It acts as both a stain and varnish in one and is guaranteed to leave your door with a beautiful satin finish that’s both contemporary and stylish.

Secondly, the tough and durable finish gives your wooden front door the long-lasting protection it needs by sealing and hardening the surface. This ultimately makes it weatherproof as well as resistant to scuffs and scratches.

Finally, it’s relatively easy to apply. Considering it’s a stain and varnish in one, it retains the consistency of a typical paint while allowing better coverage than varnish. While it has the consistency of paint, it’s still less opaque and once applied by brush, brings fresh life to the surface but still allows the natural wood grain underneath to shine through.

Pros

• Acts as a stain and varnish in one
• Has the consistency of paint which makes it easy to apply
• Comes in a variety of natural wooden colours
• Is durable and holds up well to the British weather

Cons

• Only suitable for natural wooden finishes

Best UPVC Front Door Paint: Frenchic Al Fresco

We’ve gone for a bit of an unconventional pick for the best UPVC front door paint but bear with us and you won’t be disappointed.

While there are other all surface paints that would work well for UPVC front doors (Rust Oleum Universal comes to mind), the Frenchic Al Fresco range offers something a bit different and having tried it ourselves we can confidently say it’s definitely worth a go.

This particular paint is weatherproof (hence ‘Al Fresco’) and like most all surface paints, works wonders as a durable and hard wearing exterior paint. What sets it apart however is its highly fashionable chalk finish that can truly transform the look and feel of your entire home.

The paint has next to no odour and its low VOC content is so safe that it’s achieved an EN:71-3 certificate which means it’s safe enough to paint children’s toys with.

Frenchic Al Fresco is also easy to apply using either a brush or a paint sprayer. While a paint sprayer arguably does a better job, the self-levelling properties of the paint means you’ll be left with little to no brush marks as it flattens out. Of course, when painting an entirely flat surface like UPVC you’ll want to take extra care to ensure you’re not creating any build up of paint as it could start to run.

Pros

• It’s self-priming, self-sealing and self-levelling to ensure you’re left with an even coverage with no marks
• Can be applied using either a brush or a paint sprayer
• Low odour and low VOC making it more eco-friendly
• It’s durable and will stand up well to British weather
• It’s UV resistant so will keep its original colour for longer

Cons

• None

Best Metal Front Door Paint: Johnstone’s Weatherguard

Metal front doors are becoming more and more popular in the UK due to the fact that they’re more secure, require less maintenance than wooden doors and simply give an attractive contemporary feel to your home. If you’ve decided yours needs a new colour, we’d recommend Johnstone’s Weatherguard.

Offering a high gloss finish, Johnstone’s Weatherguard is a tough and water-resistant exterior paint that’s highly proficient at dealing with the British elements. The flexible formula also ensures your front door paint won’t be prone to peeling, cracking or blistering and outperforms typical gloss paints by around 2 years. To ensure maximum efficiency we would also recommend using Johnstone’s Weatherguard Exterior Undercoat.

It’s water-based with a nice thick consistency so is both easy to apply and easy to clean once you’re done. This paint can be bought in a range of colours including Victory Red, Brilliant White and Chocolate.

Pros

• Is durable and can be cleaned
• Offers weather protection for roughly 6 years
• Comes in a variety of interesting colours
• Resistant to cracking and peeling

Cons

• Best used in conjunction with Johnstone’s Exterior Undercoat which will add to the cost

Good Budget Option: Rustins Small Job Gloss Paint

If you’re working on a budget or only need paint for just your front door, it might be worth going for a nice budget option like Rustins Small Job Gloss Paint.

This quick drying gloss is perfect for small jobs and works suitably well on exterior wooden doors as well as metal front doors.

It’s a water-based paint and has a low VOC content making it low-odour as well as more environmentally friendly than solvent based paints. The 250ml tin should be suffice for 2 coats on your front door as it will cover 3.25 sq.m in total.

The gloss paint is highly durable and should protect your door from the elements for a good few years as well as be resistant to accidental scratches and scuffs. It also comes in a variety of vibrant colours including Oxford Blue, Buttercup and Poppy.

Pros

• Is durable and scratch resistant
• One of the quickest drying paints on the market
• Low odour and low VOC making it more environmentally friendly
• Comes in a variety of vibrant colours

Cons

• It has a rather thin consistency. Depending on the previous colour of your front door, you may need more than 2 coats

What Kind of Paint Should You Use on a Front Door?

The paint you choose for your front door all depends on the type of door you have. Generally speaking, you’ll want to choose something in the satin – gloss range. These types of paints are more durable and tend to last longer than flatter paints.

Bear in mind that more and more companies are investing money in research and development, and we’re seeing companies like Frenchic being able to produce exterior paints with an almost matt finish without sacrificing durability, hence their inclusion on our list.

Front Door Colour Guide

Choosing a front door colour can almost be as difficult as choosing the best paint and in general, we’d say this is more or a personal choice than anything. In our opinion though, certain colours work better depending on the desired look you’re after and here are some colour schemes to bear in mind.

White

White is the most popular choice in the UK and has the added benefit of letting you know when it’s time to give your front door a good clean! It’s minimalist and gives your property a simple elegance that fits in well with any style of home.

Yellow

If white is too plain for you, why not go for a cheerful yellow or bright orange? These bursts of colour are bold, friendly and welcoming.

Blue

Blue colours like Dulux’s Vast Lake or Oxford Blue tend to give a calmer look for your property and work well on older-style homes.

Grey

If you’re looking for something that looks more modern and contemporary, try lighter shades of grey.

Red

Having a red front door brings vibrance and energy to your home that might’ve been lacking previously.

There are literally hundreds of colours to choose from so ultimately the choice is yours.

P.S. If you have a garage attached to your home, we would always recommend trying to keep the colour scheme the same.

Summary

Our front doors are usually the first thing visitors notice when looking at our homes but oftentimes we strangely neglect them. Adding a fresh coat of paint is often all it takes to bring new life to your property and by choosing one of the paints on our list, you can’t go wrong.

While we would personally opt for Dulux’s Weather Shield in most situations, Zinsser’s Allcoat is a really great alternative at a cheaper price point.

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Want to learn more about different paints? Feel free to take a look at our recent “best white paint for wood” article!