Hi, All. Thank you in advance for taking the time to read and respond. I am having my front door refinished and have to pick out a stain today. It was painted a rusty red color, which is a color I love for front, entry doors; however, don't like the inevitable deterioration of paint and the work required to refinish them when it becomes necessary so I have opted for stain instead. I thought I knew exactly what I wanted until I drove up into my driveway and saw both, now stripped and unfinished doors last night.

I planned to choose a dark walnut stain. It is a finish I also really like. Mahogany is not my thing, red stains are not something I have ever liked, and I don't like lighter stains outside. I love having a rustic look so... Dark walnut is what I gravitate to. Maybe a darker chocolate brown, but not necessarily as dark as dark chocolate. Odd thing is, I do like the elegance of black doors and shutters. Well, seeing the doors both unfinished, I realized there is way more red in my multicolored brick and redder stains or very warm browns may be something I need to reconsider. There is fleshy colored stucco immediately surrounding the door and front facing arched window. There is red brick to the left of that area and coming off perpendicular to the face off the house. There are very natural, cool colored dark green shutters that will be refinished to refresh and make match so I am not married to that color. Also, my neighbors have black shutters so I figured I should not go with black like I had once planned for new, updated shutters. The garage and associated trim is a clay green.

I am attaching a photo. Any thoughts or examples would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance,
Meghan