Short answer
Deep blues, deep greens and near-black neutrals are the most commonly recommended front-door colours against red brick. They contrast with brick in hue without competing with its warmth, which is what a second warm colour inevitably does.
Red brick is a strong, warm, mid-to-deep colour that already occupies a large area. A cool deep colour sits opposite it in hue while matching it in depth, so the two read as a considered pair rather than as a competition. A warm door colour of similar depth — a terracotta, a warm red, a rust — has to either match the brick exactly or clash with it, and matching brick exactly is effectively impossible because brick is multi-toned.
Colour suggestions below are calculated against red brick.
Close in tone to the reference colour — these keep the scheme quiet and are the safest starting point.
A safe starting point: a muted colour close to the opposite hue, which is what makes the pairing feel intentional rather than accidental. There is a clear step in lightness between them, enough to read as separate surfaces and it is the quieter of the two, which stops the pairing competing with itself.
Expect this to look slightly deeper and richer in a mid-sheen finish than in matt, and to reflect surrounding colours more.
A safe starting point: a muted colour in a clearly different hue, giving the pairing a definite edge. There is a clear step in lightness between them, enough to read as separate surfaces and it is the quieter of the two, which stops the pairing competing with itself.
Expect this to look slightly deeper and richer in a mid-sheen finish than in matt, and to reflect surrounding colours more.
A decisive contrast. These read as a choice, and need the rest of the scheme to stay calm.
A decisive choice: a saturated colour in a clearly different hue, giving the pairing a definite edge. There is a clear step in lightness between them, enough to read as separate surfaces and it carries more colour than the anchor, so use it in the smaller area.
A saturated colour like this deepens noticeably in eggshell, satin or gloss — expect it to read stronger than a matt sample suggests.
A decisive choice: a saturated colour in a clearly different hue, giving the pairing a definite edge. It sits close in lightness, so the two blend rather than separate and both carry a similar amount of colour, so neither dominates.
A saturated colour like this deepens noticeably in eggshell, satin or gloss — expect it to read stronger than a matt sample suggests.
Use bright white with care: against warm red brick it can look stark and can make the brick read as pinker than it is. An off-white or a warm-toned pale colour usually sits better if a pale door is wanted.
How to test it
Stand a painted sample board flat against the brickwork beside the door and step back to the pavement — the distance the door is actually seen from. Judging it from arm's length exaggerates the door colour and hides how the brick dominates the view.
Undertone
Red brick varies widely in undertone, from orange-red through to purplish-brown, and most brickwork contains several tones at once. Match the recommendation against your actual brick rather than a generic idea of 'red brick'.
Lighting
Brick looks noticeably different in full sun and in shade, and the mortar colour becomes much more prominent in flat light. Check the door colour against the brick at the time of day the house is most often seen.
Finish
A gloss or satin exterior finish makes a deep colour read richer and more saturated than a matt sample suggests, which generally helps here — a deep colour that looks slightly flat in matt often comes alive in satin.
Whatever a calculation or a chart says, view a physical sample in the actual location before committing to a large surface.
Colour suggestions are calculated hue, lightness and saturation relationships against red brick's reference colour; the guidance around them is Colourwise editorial judgement. See /methodology.