15 Modern Garage Doors That Demand a Second Look
Even at their most convenient, garages aren't typically thought of as a design feature to celebrate and highlight. But, like any design challenge, it's all about how you approach it: Give a garage and its oversized doors enough attention and you'll realize that it's possible to make garage doors effective and aesthetically pleasing. Whether they're made of wood, metal, or glass, and designed with an industrial, minimalist, or modern vibe, we've gathered some unique, eye-catching garage doors that are sure to transform your ideas about the possibilities of this overlooked feature.
A Striking, Slatted Fold-Up Garage Door
At a home in San Francisco, the garage continues the materials and motifs from the main part of the house. A custom garage door built by Raimundo Ferreira is slatted, with interlocking "fingers" that open outward to uncover a small space that doubles as car storage and a makeshift workshop. Photo by Ian Allen
At a home designed by Escher GuneWardena Architecture in Los Angeles, California, the two-door garage has minimally-detailed doors in a darker color that slide horizontally, instead of rolling up or hinging inward.
At an Australian home with a new addition, the new garage is topped with a master suite and clad in James Hardie Scyon Linea boards painted a dark color, Dulux Monument. The garage door's horizontal joints and dark colors help it blend in with the dark cladding of the new addition, allowing it to blend in.
This sprawling abode in Australia enjoys sweeping views of Werri Beach and Geering Bay, as well as the grazing dairy cows in the nearby green pastures. Its detached garage is clad in horizontal wood paneling, and the garage door is camouflaged by continuing the same horizontal strips and aligns with the rest of the garage, instead of being recessed with clear shadow lines.
In a South Minneapolis neighborhood of century-old housing stock, an unapologetically modern home has a darker gray garage door for its concrete garage. The doors offer a chromatic and textural contrast to the concrete shell.
A prefab home in the Snarøya peninsula of Norway was in need of an update, which included an expansion and a cleaner, more modern aesthetic. Cedar cladding was used on the home and its enclosing fencing, and the new garage door was paneled with a checkerboard of shorter cedar planks that is eye-catching but still clearly connected to the rest of the house.
When Ben Carstensen decided to redo his backyard, he converted half of the 540-square foot detached garage into a screened porch. He painted the whole garage including the exterior trim and the existing wood garage door the same color in order to "make the house look slightly more modern, without losing character," he said. The color is a discontinued shade, called Evening Canyon, from Behr, that he had mixed at Home Depot. "I tried so many before landing on this one," he said. "This one ended up being my favorite, because it maintains a nice warm tone all throughout the day. Others would end up either looking too cool (almost navy blue) in direct sunlight, or just look brown."
In a conservation district in London, this historic home got a modern interior behind its original facade. The renovation included a new paneled garage door that follows the style and proportion of the main door, with four glazed panels above four lower recessed panels.
At an existing 1970s home and garage in Cap Cod, the whole house including the garage had its dated exterior cladding removed, replaced with vertical strips of Kebony Clear siding and a Freedom Gray copper standing seam metal roof. The garage doors were clad in the same material to help them match, and their deep inset provides a deep shadow for contrast that breaks down the wide garage facade.
Barcelona–based architect Anna Noguera converted a historic building into a stunning vibrant vacation home with a new garage structure. Noguera created a dialogue between ancient and contemporary, complementing the existing old stone, oak, and terracotta interior with sleek, modern materials, including dark steel and concrete. The new garage door contrasts with the concrete and stone structure, hinging inwards to open.
In rural Texas, this off-grid home has sliding barn doors that connect the garage to a shaded outdoor sculptural studio that doubles as a stage for summer concerts. The doors provide a dramatic reveal, and their hardware contrasts with the vertical cypress paneling of the doors and surrounding area.
The angular roof of this midcentury-inspired home in California covers the attached garage, whose garage door is minimized by its simple detailing and brown color that matches the wood cladding surrounding it.
In addition to the 4,000-square-foot home, there is also a new guest house and garage with a shared porch that continues the material palette and design language established at the main house.
Meredith Barn is a matching 40x60 barn - perfect for the homeowner's hobbies, and entertaining. Its double doors at the garage offer an updated take on more traditional garage door styles, and contrast their vertically-oriented doors with the shingled exterior of the barn.
Related Reading:
Budget Breakdown: A Neglected Garage Becomes a Library Loft for $69K
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