Different Styles of Garage Doors

Selecting the style of your garage doors can be a difficult choice. You want something that goes with the rest of your home's overall look, especially since people may notice your garage doors right away. If they clash with the rest of your home, they will definitely be noticed, but not in a good way. You really want your house to present an amazing, coordinated look and to do that, you've got to have the right style of garage doors.

The first style decision to make is colour. Selecting a garage door that blends with the rest of your home is important. You could go with a garage door that matches your trim or other detail work on your home, or you can always go with a neutral white. If you select a wooden garage door, you will have the option of repainting it every now and then. If you go with a steel or plastic garage door, you will need to select your colour a little more wisely since you can't as easily change them.

If you have a sectional roll-up type of garage door, there are several different options for you. You'll need to decide if you want long panels in your sectional door or short ones. Longer ones make the door look deeper while shorter ones look better with homes that have a lot of details in the trim or have strong, bold architectural lines. You'll also get to select the panel design. There are flush panels, or panels that are mostly flat and usually somewhat textured. These panels don't really call attention to themselves, but they can work very well with surrounding features to create an overall look. Then there are some panels that are slightly raised. You can paint the raised portions a different colour to create contrast and really make your garage door pop.

One interesting way of painting your garage door is to really make the door stand out. You can paint it a bold primary colour to make everyone take notice, or you can paint individual panel's different colours to give it a checkerboard theme. In some places, artists have even seen their garage doors as a giant canvass and have painted a mural on it. However, be cautious when doing this. You don't want to paint something on your garage door that is going to look very odd when viewed with the rest of your home, though.

You also have the option of replacing some of the short or long panels with small windows. Generally, this is done on the top row of panels, but you could conceivably put a window in any panel on the door. Of course, you'll want a double paned window to help keep the garage as insulated as possible. How fancy these windows are is another option. You can simply replace the square panels with a standard square window, or you can get fancy. You can have half-circle windows installed, or if you have a tilt-up garage door, you can replace the whole top of your door with a single curved window.

Overall, you'll get fancier, more intricate options as your budget increases. If you're looking for the cheapest style, expect a one-colour, flat garage door with no windows in it. If you have money to spare, though, you can go wild.