I’ll admit it. I’m a sucker for a good paint name. So, when the winning color from dozens of paint chips turned out to be Benjamin Moore Amazon Green, I was disappointed. I knew it looked right, but the name was so wrong. I live in Connecticut … thousands of miles from any (non-concrete) jungle!

Let me back up to put this color selection into perspective. It was for the front door of our house (only our largest investment!). Additionally, this color would also have the not-so-small challenge of harmonizing with the awful orange-y roof we’d inherited (it’s in great shape, so we can’t get rid of it).

The Challenge

The house’s new field color — Harwood Putty — is a white that lets all the accent colors sing. In addition to working with the roof, the new front door color would need to pop alongside the new copper lanterns, and visually play nice with the landscaping and woods.

But let me back up even more. This was a NEW front door. Gone were the 1980s sidelight and lotus, prism, glass-you-can’t-see-through door.

Out it had come and in went a brand-new Jeld-Wen 15-light with glass and mullions from nearly top to bottom. (I really wanted a Dutch door I could swing wide open on summer days, but our contractor sold me on this sunshine-loving option instead.) There wasn’t much to paint on it with all the glass, so the color would need to stand out.

The new door wouldn’t fill the gap left by the sidelight, so the two sides would be patched. The plan was to put shutters on either side of the door, which would hide the patching.

This new front door really was the lynchpin to making the house look like a new person. I was GIDDY the day the old one came out.

The Choice

Which brings us back to the original problem — what color to paint the new one! In reality, I had to figure this out before it was installed because time = money .. painting would begin right away. I was hellbent on working toward a Coastal French exterior, which to me, meant a blue door. I think I pulled just about every deep blue Benjamin Moore makes. I taped a zillion chips to the front door, and stared.

And eliminated.

And stared.

And eliminated. And stared.

And then I conceded defeat. This door was not going to be a true blue. It would look dumb with the roof … a complementary color scheme gone wrong. We needed the perfect shade of spruce green with a hint of blue. Not enough blue to have a full-on conversation with the orange roof and copper lanterns .. just flirt a little. I moved the shutter into place to help envision it.

I narrowed it down to a top three (Amazon Green, Yorktowne Green and Vanderburg Blue, from top to bottom) and put them next to a piece of copper to mimic the lanterns.

The Change

The winning shade is Benjamin Moore Amazon Green. It is deep and luxe, yet neutral — even the veteran painter was shocked at how much he liked this jungle green. It just works.

I love how it gives your eyes somewhere to land and ties to the evergreens in the landscaping — the curb appeal centers on the door and sprawls outward.

I could definitely see using Benjamin Moore Amazon Green on an accent wall, in a dramatic powder room, on a great piece of furniture, or contrasting with ivory upper cabinets and brass hardware in an upscale kitchen.

Up next… the rest of the exterior eye candy: lanterns, shutters and holdbacks! Subscribe at the bottom of the page so you know when it comes out!