Garage doors are a design element that is often take for granted and seldom used to its best advantage. There was a time when the garage was more or less hidden in the back yard. Today it’s up front and center with the garage sometimes taking up most of the front of the house. So the garage door is a far more important design element than ever before. It adds curb appeal and, and if done right, it can even add style, color and personality to your home. However, you do not want so much color that it robs attention away from your home. The garage should complement your home not be the main feature.
If you buy garage doors that you cannot paint be sure it’s the right color for your home and that it’s a color that will be right for your home for a long time. The garage doors are not large and not at all hard to paint making wood a wiser investment for many people. You far more color choices. Wood can be painted to match, coordinate, highlight or blend with the color of your home.
But what color is right for your garage doors?
• If you want to keep the attention on your homes architecture rather than the garage, paint the garage door the same color as your house so they blend in. As an added benefit this will make your home look larger.
• The trim around your garage door should usually be the same color as your door and/or the same color as the trim on your house. There are times when a contrasting color can be used to call attention to the garage door and away from your home.
• Do not paint your garage door the same color as the door to your house or shutters, this draws way too much attention to the garage doors and downgrades the façade of your house.
• Resist any temptation to highlight details of your garage door by painting your door two colors. There are very few times when this will work. If you have a Victorian home, aka “painted lady”, you might get by with this, but otherwise no.
• If your garage is very prominent in the front of the house you need to draw attention away from it and to your house. To do this play up your entry way with a beautiful door, lighting, flowers or plants, a bench or chair or any other tasteful elements you can think of (just don’t get too many of them).
• If you have a brick home or a rock façade find the color cast of your brick or rock and go with that as a garage door color. Don’t try to paint the door to match your primary brick color. Most brick has a second highlight color, usually beige, gray, or gold. Find a close paint color to this highlight. If the brick has beige highlight color paint your garage doors that beige color. This will insure that your garage will harmonize with the house and give it plenty of curb appeal.
• Sandstone is becoming very popular for home exteriors. The predominant color is gray. You can go two ways. Blend or contrast. To keep the garage from dominating the house blend. If you don’t want the exact same color for your garage door go a few shades lighter or darker. Or you can contrast with a primary color like red, blue or yellow will draw the eye to the garage and away from the house. Before you paint always try the paint color on a piece of plywood and prop it up against the garage stand back to the street and you will get a good idea of the effect of the color.
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