How Garage Doors Impact Curb Appeal

by Rachel Lyon, Editorial Director for Direct from the Designers™

The garage is a major component of a home’s exterior, so garage doors have a huge effect on curb appeal and even the functionality of the house. It’s well worth the time to explore design options and build doors that complement the whole picture—architecture, color scheme, etc. Here are a couple of homes with perfect garage doors to show how beautiful the results can be!

A Craftsman with Style Beyond Its Years

Even new construction can have the timeworn appeal of older homes with the right finishes. If this sounds right up your alley, you probably like homes on the more traditional side, like European, bungalow, and Craftsman designs. Iconic examples of these styles have a lot of history behind them, and you’ll have to recreate the look if you want a brand-new build to have a similar vibe.

The Craftsman-inspired design shown here includes a number of decorative features to define its style and create curb appeal. The mixed siding and roofing materials, earthy colors, and wood-look accents all around contribute to a balanced, rustic façade!

Given the three-car, front-loading garage, it was especially important to select suitable garage doors for this house. Carriage house doors were a fantastic choice; the style goes back to the days of horse-drawn carriages and was the natural choice when Craftsman homes started to boom at the turn of the 20^th century. Back then and even now, you’ll find plenty of overlay patterns give each house the right touch. Just be sure to go with a color that imparts the aesthetic you want, whether that’s a wood look or a one- or two-tone paint finish. Craftsman designs are very adaptable and can be finished in a variety of ways with gorgeous results!

A Bright & Daring Contemporary Home

Clean lines and ample windows for natural light are the hallmarks of contemporary design. These homes have simpler looks than traditional ones due to the lack of obvious ornamentation, but that doesn’t mean they don’t give you choices. Garage doors for the style range from utterly minimalist with just flush panels to bright and interesting with grids of windows and even asymmetrical patterns for extra interest.

This beautiful contemporary home features a full-view long panel garage door that visually balances with the windows elsewhere around the façade. The base is a chic gray color that works well with the washed-out wood siding, but it’s a bit darker to add depth to the garage. The simplicity and flexibility of this garage door style has made it a favorite—you can choose the base color and type of glass that work for you!

If the garage goes the full depth of the house—that is, it has exterior walls on the front and back—you can also open it up from the other side. Many architects have been including this feature in recent designs, but it’s a relatively easy modification so long as the house has the right structure. Homeowners love the convenient access to lawn equipment and that it creates shop space. And, since this back door isn’t seen from the street, you don’t have to worry about the style for curb appeal. Feel free to select a contemporary garage door to bring in plenty of light—our house plan designers often do just that!

Check out Clopay® whether you’re in the market for traditional or contemporary garage doors! Their products run the whole gamut, with numerous design options to help homeowners come up with the perfect solution for their architecture and personal tastes. Find a local dealer to get started!