Garage doors are basically just a section of wall that has a motor on it to allow a large entry into a specific room. And if those are the parameters, then a lot of different things count as a garage door. It’s just a big door or a moving wall. If you’re looking for some unique garage door ideas that will get you out of the suburbs, then these are some great ideas:
Mirror
Tired of windows? They’re a little played out at this point. But mirrors are cool. Mirrors are a vibe. You can either opt for a 2-way mirror which would allow you to see outside of the garage while reflecting the outside back at itself, or you can simply put in a traditional mirror and consign your garage to a lack of natural light. Well, if you want to get natural light and the reflection specs at the same time, there are methods that you can use to get both. The best way to do this would be to combine 2-way mirrors, or just reflective glass, with more traditional glass windows. By alternating mirrors and traditional window glass you can allow light into the garage while creating some cool reflective effects. Obviously, “mirror” in this context doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll be putting up a bathroom mirror on your garage door. Reflective glass is often enough to do the trick.
Metal: Soldered and Lattice Work
Many garage doors are built from steel or aluminum which is then painted or finished in a specific way. But if you want to keep the garage door minimalistic and super raw, you can get a metal garage door that isn’t finished or polished in ways that you would normally expect. A soldered metal door would show the places where the door is welded. The metal might be ground down so that it is smooth but not finished or polished. Additionally, you can combine soldered and lattice work. Even if the door is polished and finished, you can get additional lattice work done on it. Metal latticing would add bold texture to the surface of the door while maintaining a natural, raw look.
Castle Gate
There is not really a garage door that is called a castle gate, but it is a style or vibe of garage door that you can create by using wood and steel. When you use wood paneling, particularly in a vertical or horizontal layer and then frame the whole door with steel, you can create a castle gate effect which will make you feel like royalty when you pull into your garage. Part of what makes the castle gate effect really come together is additional rivets or rusting on the metal parts of the door. Circular handles will help complete the effect. With the right kind of modern house, it provides the finishing touch to create an ancient, rustic counterbalance. It makes people think of horses and adventures when they see your car.
Barn Door
If you have access to old or rustic kinds of wood, you might be able to make a barn door style of design. While castle gate garage doors are generally characterized by double doors that put steel and wood in juxtaposition, barn door garage doors use longer, sweeping wooden frames. The handles of the “double doors,” rather than being made out of a metal, are generally of a wooden variety.
Bamboo
While you aren’t going to make a garage door out of bamboo usually, you certainly could. There are a couple options for cutting a sleek, modern, sustainable bamboo garage door. If you live in a moderate climate that doesn’t need much insulation or temperature control out of the garage door then you could actually make a garage door all out of bamboo by lashing bamboo together. This would work best for a detached garage that has an additional gate in front of it, as bamboo is not the most secure material, especially when it is lashed together as an outside gate. But if you have a garage in the back that has a different gate, bamboo makes a super unique garage door.
If climate control and security are issues, you can attach bamboo to the outside of an aluminum frame. If you paint the aluminum a dark color or a darkish green, it shouldn’t be too visible beneath the bamboo stalks if they are close together.
Unmarked and Hidden
While they sound the same, unmarked and hidden garage doors are both very different from each other. An unmarked garage door is a panel that looks distinct from the wall around it but might not be obvious as a garage door, whereas a hidden garage door is a panel that fits into the wall around it and is not super visible until it swings up.
Unmarked garage doors are great in situations where you have a strong accent color that you want to add to the house but you don’t want the garage to stand out as a garage. Hidden garage doors, on the other hand, work well when you want the whole wall of the garage to be the same and you don’t want to accent the garage door spot.
Faux Brick
Brick is super heavy and not a great material to build a garage door out of, which is why people don’t build garage doors out of it. But if you created a faux brick structure on top of a lightweight aluminum frame, then you could build a really cool unmarked or hidden garage door. This could be ideal on houses that already have a strong brick component in the design and architecture.
Side Opening: Sliding and Swinging
Sometimes you can create a unique garage door by simply changing the way that the door opens and closes! While roll up and fold up doors are the classic, there are also garage doors that open to the side with two motors or garage doors that slide to one side to let you in. Simply changing the way the door engages with space can change your perceptions of the garage! Alternatively, you can make it look like the door slides or swings, even if it doesn’t. Your neighbors may never know!
