When it comes to increasing your home’s value for the home market, for refinancing purposes or for your own satisfaction, adding curb appeal is a pretty big deal.
In a study conducted by the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR), 99 percent of REALTORS® involved in selling homes agreed that curb appeal is crucial in attracting a buyer, with 79 percent rating it as a very important value factor. Adding curb appeal can raise your home’s value by as much as 12 percent.
Even when you’re not trying to sell, though, improving your house’s exterior is a matter of personal pride — it’s likely you’re one of the 41 percent of homeowners who want their houses and yards to look different and better than their neighbors’.
When you’re aiming to improve your home’s exterior appearance and wondering how to give your house curb appeal, your garage doors can have a lot to do with how successful your sale is or how impressed your neighbors are when they drive by. In both old houses and new houses, garage doors often offer only functionality and the most basic appearances or designs — even when they protrude prominently from the house or take up a substantial amount of space in the front. But imagine if you transformed this common, typically unimpressive exterior feature into an eye-catching, aesthetically appealing aspect to make your home shine.
Leaving your garage door bland and unembellished in the same color and design your home came with means you’re missing out on the opportunity to maximize curb appeal with a simple feature.
If you’re wondering how to improve curb appeal with your garage door, you can make a variety of changes to accent your home’s exterior features and turn that door from drab to dazzling. Whether you’re putting your house on the market or tackling a home improvement project, here are our best garage door curb appeal ideas to help.
Table of Contents
- How a Garage Door Can Improve Your Curb Appeal
- Updating Your Garage Door to Increase Curb Appeal
- Types of Garage Doors to Add Curb Appeal
- Painting for Garage Door Curb Appeal
- Accessorizing to Add Curb Appeal
- Adding Lights to Make an Impression
- Extending Your Garage Design to the Front Door
- Design Tips for Garage Curb Appeal
- Update Your Exterior Look With Banko Overhead Doors
How a Garage Door Can Improve Your Curb Appeal
When it comes to the colors, materials and design in the front of your home, a little change can go a long way — no matter what kind of improvement you make. Whether you’re giving your old door new life with a fresh coat of paint or replacing your door completely, any investment you make in the look of your garage door is going to increase the curb appeal of your entire home.
If your garage doors and the front of your home are a similar color, painting the garage a lighter, brighter or darker color than the rest of your exterior can make it pop. If your shutters, front door or roof don’t go well with your home design or darken its appearance, using your garage door design to complement them can offset the right assets and give the house a refreshing new aesthetic. Whether your house is new or older and whether you want accent colors or updated doors, improving your garage door can boost your curb appeal by:
- Completing Your Home Design: If you’re working on finishing or revamping your whole exterior design, an updated garage door can add the finishing touch you’re looking for. With its color, material or design, it can tie your whole home look together or add that extra something the front of your home needs.
- Upgrading Your Style: Whether you bought your home new many years ago and it’s in need of an update or you bought it used and want it to look a little more modern, a new garage door can provide the refreshing touch you’re craving with its texture, material, color, design and style. Choose something especially suited to your current tastes.
- Restoring Your Original Home Look: Maybe your home has seen a lot of years of wear and tear, and you just want to return it to the curb appeal and polished look it had in its younger days. Replacing your declining garage door with a brand new one and repainting or refreshing the front of your home can restore its original design and make it as good as new when it comes to curb appeal.
Because of its relation to both curb appeal and your home’s functionality, a garage door’s return on investment (ROI) is high. A high-quality and attractive door can greatly enhance the worth of your residence after your initial investment. It’s one of the first things a person will notice about your home — including a potential buyer.
Updating Your Garage Door to Increase Curb Appeal
While upgrading your garage door doesn’t have to mean replacing it completely, sometimes the best way to achieve better style and curb appeal in your home design is to start with a fresh canvas. If your home has been around for a while and your garage door has seen its share of wind and weather, it might be time to replace your current garage door and install a new one. While a new door can seem expensive, replacing your garage door is an upgrade with one of the best returns on investment.
When it’s time to pick your new garage door, you want to choose something that stands out with the right amount of visual appeal, complements your exterior home design and offers the highest quality material. Whether you opt for a modern or traditional design, your garage door should reflect your personal style and set the tone for any future designs you implement in other areas. Choose from a variety of materials to match your tastes and add some special features to make your door stand out. While you might be used to the plain, flat look most garages sport, think about making yours more visually interesting with one or a few of the following features:
- Vertical Lines or Patterns: Patterns or indent lines can break up the surface of a garage door and add some visual interest. Vertical beams, ridges or patterns are a simple way to make your door different.
- Horizontal Relief Designs: Just like vertical lines, horizontal relief patterns — like boxes or hexagons stretching across the door — can add a visually interesting touch while still giving your garage door a subtle, classy look.
- Windows: Set your garage door apart by incorporating windows. Whether you have a line of small windows along the top of the door, a stack of sleek windows positioned vertically on one side or a couple of arched windows on either side, this simple addition will go a long way for your door design. Many windows are now impact-rated to withstand 350 foot-pounds of force.
- Crossbeams: Going for a rustic or classic look? Think about adding crossbeams in the style of a barn door for an especially stand-out design.
- Hurricane Rated: Consider upgrading to a hurricane rated door. Even if a hurricane-resistant garage door isn’t required in your area, it’s a wise investment. You can improve your curb appeal, increase your home’s security and possibly even save on insurance premiums by installing one.
Types of Garage Doors to Add Curb Appeal
Before you think about special features for an enhanced look, you have to decide on the type and material of your door. If you’re picking a brand new garage door for your home, you have a variety of options when it comes to material and design. The type that’s right for you is all about your personal tastes and style preferences. Do you want a rustic look? Wood panels can make your home look more classy and warm. If you’re aiming for something more modern, clean lines and geometric cuts can make your home look sleek and minimalist. Your choice of style and material may also depend on the way you intend to use your garage.
To help you decide what’s right for you, here are some common types of garage doors and how they make an impression:
- Aluminum and Glass Garage Doors: Aluminum garage doors are high quality and sturdy. They offer a sleek surface and are ideal if you’re looking for a simple but modern style. Your door can be all aluminum or incorporate glass — some modern garage doors are designed with an aluminum frame and a glass center crossed by aluminum beams. This option is great for simple, modern tastes and for functionality. If you use your garage as a workshop, aluminum and glass garage doors are useful for incorporating natural light into your workspace and giving your garage a warehouse-like feel. Even if you’re just using your garage to park cars and keep the weather out, this material provides a sleek, geometric look that modernizes your exterior.
- Steel Garage Doors: Like aluminum, steel garage doors offer a modern touch and a sleek design, but they serve another purpose as well. Insulated steel is one of the sturdiest, strongest materials you can choose to keep your garage secure — plus, it provides the additional benefit of efficiency with its performance. Most garage doors aren’t climate-controlled, so air leaks and heat transfer from the garage can affect the temperatures in other areas of your house. Steel garage doors insulate your home, protect it from outside air flow and offer a modern but versatile look you can incorporate into almost any home design.
- Wood Garage Doors: Wood garage doors are traditional and classy and offer an aspect other garage doors can’t — authenticity. While a variety of garage doors use synthetic materials designed to look like wood, natural hardwood doors provide a richness and rustic feel that just can’t be duplicated. If you live in a rural area, want a rustic look or are hoping to give your home a traditional feel, wood garage doors might be the perfect pick for you. You can choose the wood material and stain you like to suit your home — just make sure your doors are finished with a waterproof adhesive sealant to protect them from weather.
- Carriage House Garage Doors: Want a luxurious, authentic look to complete your garage doors and give your home a country touch? Consider installing customized carriage house garage doors for chic convenience, reliable durability and extra style. This design evokes an old-fashioned, sophisticated style while delivering a rustic feel and giving your home exterior something different to help it stand out from your neighbors. You can also choose your hardware materials, door color and additional details to make your doors even more suited to your specific tastes. Windows, handles and side detailing make these doors especially attractive.
- Garage Doors With Windows: If your garage door has never had windows, this might seem like an unusual feature to add, but garage windows can transform your look and go a long way in improving your curb appeal. Windows may not be right for all homes, but if your garage door takes up a pretty big amount of your house’s front facade, installing windows along its top or sides can break up the monotony of the flat, wide surface, offer variety and make your exterior that much more beautiful. Choose your window’s location and shape based on the design of your front windows or the windows in your front door to complement each other and draw your design together. If you’ve avoided windows in the past due to safety concerns, know that many windows available today are impact-resistant.
Painting for Garage Door Curb Appeal
When you’re replacing or updating your garage for curb appeal, you might not think about your door as a place to play with paint colors and express your tastes — but just like your roof, shutters, front door and home exterior, your garage door offers you a unique opportunity to individualize your home design and express your style. Picking your garage door paint color to suit your house offers you a variety of options and interesting ways to maximize your facade design. Here are some tips to help you choose the perfect shade:
- Contrast Colors: While you do want your garage door’s color and design to be integrated into the look of the rest of your home, you also don’t want it to blend in or disappear into your walls — then it has no chance of enhancing your design or increasing your curb appeal. When picking your paint color, you’ll want to choose a hue that contrasts with the color of your house in an appealing way. Choosing a color a few shades darker than your siding can be a good idea — so if your home is a light tan, you might choose to paint your garage door a light brown that stands out against it without appearing too stark. Picking a neutral — like gray, white, brown or tan — that contrasts with your siding is usually a safe bet.
- Complement Other Front Features: If you want to tie together the look of your front exterior design, using your garage to bring out other front features is a smart style choice. You might decide to paint your garage door the same color as your shutters or your trim, for example, or draw out the color of your front door or porch by painting the garage a similar complementary shade. Using your garage door color to enhance your other home features and draw attention to the front of the home as a whole creates a sense of visual balance that can boost your curb appeal.
- Define Your Space: Without a difference in colors or a design plan for your garage and home color scheme, the whole front of your house can end up blending together or clashing — which does a disservice to the beauty of your home’s architecture and design style. Choosing contrasting or complementary colors to break up the details in your garage door and home’s facade allows you to define your house’s space, stand out and emphasize the design details that make your home special. It’s amazing what the right colors can do.
- Stay Subtle: While you might want to make a bold statement with your garage door and make sure you stand out from your neighbors’ homes, avoid picking paint colors that are too bold or bright. If you opt for a paint shade that’s too vibrant or doesn’t complement the rest of your home’s colors — like a blazing red or a bright blue that doesn’t appear anywhere else on the front of your home — you risk drawing attention only to the garage, and not in a positive way. You want your garage to be a complementary feature to add curb appeal to your home, not an overly bright eyesore that clashes with other features and makes the rest of your house look dull. For this reason, it’s smart to stick to subtle shades of color like neutrals, light blues, pale yellows, pale greens or toned-down maroons that draw out already-existing home colors.
Accessorizing to Add Curb Appeal
With your door style and paint colors picked out, you can also use another feature to add character and visual interest to your garage door — accessories. Some types of doors — like carriage house doors — come with built-in details like handles, side arrows, windows or patterns to make them stand out, but you can also add accessories around your garage door to bring out its beauty and boost its curb appeal.
Giving your new or updated garage door an even more upgraded look can be as simple as adding decorations like potted plants or topiaries on either side of your garage. Tall plants, shrubs, climbing plants or other greenery add an extra flourish you can customize each season and change whenever the mood strikes. You can also enhance your garage with architectural features around it. Incorporating trellises, trim, porticos and pillars above and around your garage draws attention and enhances its design, and stonework in your walls or driveway can also make a difference.
Adding Lights to Make an Impression
Lighting up your garage door design is one of the last important touches to incorporate for better garage curb appeal. Not only do exterior lights illuminate your garage design, but they provide functionality and safety features — they’ll light up your driveway when you come home after dark and keep your front yard visible at night to dissuade intruders. Like the rest of your garage door accessories and features, your choice of lighting should complement your home exterior colors and style to bring your design together.
You can install light fixtures above your garage, built into your garage door, on either side of the door or even along the driveway to enhance the aesthetic. Choose from a variety of designs, colors and materials to complement your home.
Extending Your Garage Design to the Front Door
Like your garage door, your house’s entry door is a crucial part of your design. When you have incorporated your customized design elements into your updated garage door, think about extending some of those features to your front door for even more curb appeal.
You can duplicate your lighting choices, accessories and style or use complementary colors to create a sense of balance between your front and garage doors that contrasts tastefully with the rest of your house.
Design Tips for Garage Curb Appeal
No matter what style, colors and additional design elements you use to transform your garage door and the entire look of your house, remember to follow these key design elements in all the choices you make for your home’s new look:
- Create a sense of balance by using your garage door to complement other features on the front of your home — like your shutters, front door and trim.
- Use contrast between your garage door and the color of your house to enhance its design and ensure it stands out tastefully.
- Emphasize your home’s naturally strong features by making color choices that draw attention to its best design elements.
Update Your Exterior Look With Banko Overhead Doors
Ready to get started on revamping your garage door and revitalizing your home? To ensure you give your house the highest quality in design, durability, materials and appearance, trust your garage renovation project to a professional. With three decades of service in garage door installation and improvement, Banko Overhead Doors is here to help you better your home exterior and boost your curb appeal. Choose from an inspiring variety of distinctive door designs to suit your style and architecture, and renew your home design with our expert installation services.
Your home transformation is only a garage door away. Browse our selection of residential garage doors online or contact us to schedule an estimate today.
Additional Resources on Garage Door Tips and Tricks:
- How to Paint Your Garage Doors
- How to Open a Garage Door Manually
- Garage Door Lighting Increasing Curb Appeal
- Is Your Garage a Firetrap?
- Garage Door FAQ’s
