The doors of perception?

Why is it that an open gate is more inviting than a closed gate? Surely the difference must be within our own minds, maybe it's to do with our conceptions of what we find attractive or welcoming.

I noticed several of these paradoxes on the way home today:

a long garden wall, half painted white and the other half delapidated. It would be interesting to ask people which side they were most attracted to - maybe the answer is a clue to the type of person we are. What about the place where the two halves meet?

an imposing house with a friendly open gate on an adjoining wall. The house says keep out but the gate says come in.

a long wooden fence that changed in appearence every few feet. Part of it was broken, there was a tree growing out of it, there was some spray can grafitti, part of it was bowed and old looking. If I had taken photos of each section and displayed them seperately it would be hard to believe that they were of the same fence and each section would elicit it's own unique response from the viewer.

This led me to thinking about front doors. I am definitely attracted more to front doors of a certain colour. If I was pushed on it it I would say that my favourite colour for a front door is pillar box red. This is not because it's the colour of my door, mine is dark blue. I just find a red door more friendly and inviting - maybe because it's a warm colour, I don't know but I don't feel the same way about other warm colours like orange and yellow. It is not because my childhood front door was this colour (the first house we lived in had a light blue door and the second was orange (although it may have had a dark red stint).

I looked at a lot of doors on the way home. I found that:
1. Red doors were definitely the most inviting
2. Blue was probably my second choice of door colour
3. I would never paint a front door green, it just doesn't seem to look right.
4. Dark wood or dark brown feels formal and imposing and it doesn't make me feel like getting to know it's owner.
5. I quite liked the one yellow door that I saw but it is rare choice of front door colour.
6. White and black doors just leave me cold, I don't dislike them but I don't like them either.
7. Unpainted metal doors make a house loook slightly dilapidated even if they are relatively new.
8. I did not see any pink, orange or purple doors.