It’s more than just the biggest door at your house. It’s the street-facing, impression making wall that sets itself off from the rest of your arches and colors. A great garage door means curb appeal and inspiration. If you’ve got an old garage door, a few simple upgrades can make your entire house look completely different. Here are 12 garage door makeovers that will ignite your imagination:
1. Arches and Frames
Traditionally, garage doors are set just a few inches or a foot back into the frame of the house. It’s pretty much flush with the wall that it is surrounded by, and there is not a lot of depth. Traditionally, the way that designers will pull dimension out of the garage door is to make it a different color. If the door is lighter, it recedes back into the house, while if it is darker, it pops outward.
But there’s another way to get a sense of depth from your garage door—build an arch or frame around the door that extends outward. If your door doesn’t have concrete that extends too wide, and you have access to dirt, you can build an archway with designs on top that provides a bit more depth to the house. The archway or frame could even have some ivy hanging on it for added color and privacy.
2. A Fresh Coat of Paint
Simply changing the color on your garage door can be enough to upgrade. Again, keep in mind how lighter and darker colors will emphasize different aspects of the depth. If you have a garage that is already in front of the front door (which is pretty typical), then having a lighter garage door will bring the design together. Having a darker door will put an emphasis on the garage.
3. Frosted Glass with Lights
Not the right design for every layout, but it can be great for a garage that is off to the side or even detached. Clear glass is popular right now in the garage door world, but you can also get a lightly frosted glass for a bit more privacy. With the frosted glass, you can put up lights inside the garage that will add a glow to the glass without showing all your neighbors the exact location of your holiday decorations.
4. Go with Wood
Wooden garage doors can be made of lighter or darker wood for different effects. Wood can be heavy, so many garage doors that use wood will actually just use a faux wood stain. But real wood doors add a level of style and class that you can’t replicate with a stain. Keep in mind that they can be more expensive and require more intense maintenance—but it’s also a style that is truly impossible to replicate.
5. Accents
Minimalist garage doors are certainly popular right now, but maximalist garage doors seem to be coming back around as well. Modern garage doors can have finished steel handles or faux hinges, windows up top, and a variety of colors. If you’ve had a basic beige garage door for a while, try something with white paint that uses steel hinges. You’ll get far more depth and dimension.
6. Complex Framing with Multiple Colors
The modern garage door is not a blob of color. It can have multiple colors, painted and framed in interesting ways. Garage doors with complex frames generally have a background color and then a color overlayed on the framing itself. The result is that you get boxes of color patterned out over the frame. It’s a much more interesting look than a monochrome design.
7. Arched Windows
If you’re not ready for the full glass garage door trend, you can compromise with arched windows at the top. Opt for a lighter color, like a white or a pastel, and you can splash curved windows across the top of the door for more dimension. Arched windows help accent the door, and can be easily combined with other accents, like multiple colors or faux hinges.
8. Sideways Asymmetrical Planks
Looking for something a step above the basic wood door? Instead of having wood cut perfectly to fit an up and down door, you can put the planks sideways. These sideways wood garage doors generally use planks of different colors that are cut to different lengths. Everything comes together nicely at the edges, but the middle is a wonderful bricolage of texture and color. These doors are beautiful and sophisticated.
9. Splash of Color
You heard it here first—the trend of black and white, minimalist garage doors is over. It’s time to embrace the bold, assorted colors of mid-century modern and maximalism. If your house is a basic beige or white, this might be a more difficult task, but you can still pair with colors. We’re loving gentle yellows for garage doors right now, which can mix with browns and greens perfectly.
10. Swing Sideways
If you’d like to feel like a horse out of the gate every morning when you drive away, get a garage door that swings out like a gate. It’s not the perfect solution for most suburban homes, but depending on your home and the layout
11. Frame with Plants
This will require additional maintenance to keep things clean and clear, but planting trees, bushes, or ivy next to a garage door can help naturalize the space. Garage doors can sometimes stick out or fail to blend with the rest of the property in a natural way. Plants help blend the colors, and allow you to be more bold with the design.
12. Faux Stained Wood
Finally, if you already have a door and are just looking for a quick and easy way to upgrade, you might consider a faux stained wood look. It isn’t the same as a real wood door, but it also doesn’t cost the same and is far easier to maintain over the long run. Usually steel is stained with a faux wood overlay to create the effect.
