Where to Draw Inspiration for Garage Door Designs

Whether you are a homeowner looking to design your first garage door, or a designer starting your next custom garage door project, building the perfect door begins with inspiration. In a world filled with diverse scenery, countless architectural styles, and custom building projects everywhere you look, where can you draw inspiration for your next design? If you want something truly unique, there are many places from which you can draw inspiration for your design.

Architectural Time Periods

There are over two-hundred years of architectural history for modern home builders to draw upon when designing and building a home, including many styles for garage door designers to gain insight and inspiration from when designing their door. Take a look back in time. What can you learn from the past? Whether you are looking to mirror features from various architectural styles, or to create something new based on designs from the past, you have centuries of architectural history to draw from.

Start by identifying the architectural style of the home and the history of the garage door designs that have complemented those homes in the past. Then draw from the iconic designs that were prominent in the era. Whether you are looking at a contemporary colonial or a Greek/Gothic Revival home, there is more than enough inspiration from the past to get you started.

The Façade of the Home

The best advice anyone can receive when designing a garage door is to use the home as a primary source of inspiration. It may sound obvious, but there’s so much more to the process than simply using the style of the home as a rubric for your garage door’s design.

Here are a few details to pay specific attention to:

• Profile of the home: are there hard edges or soft, rounded corners? These should be mirrored on your garage door.
• Hardware: what are the hinges, handles and other pieces of hardware on the home made from? Which type of metal? Which color?
• Windows: what sizes, shapes and styles are the windows on the home? What type of glass is used?
• Color: is the house painted or is the wood siding stained? What colors are used and what colors will complement them?

The Neighborhood

The other homes in the neighborhood can provide a source of inspiration. Specifically, they can direct your design based on your goals. Do you want the garage door to blend in with other homes in the area? Or would you prefer it stand out? Think about how you want the garage door to fit within the neighborhood, and create your design based on the homes surrounding it.

Looking for more garage door ideas? Download our free inspiration guide!

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