As National Curb Appeal Month sheds light on boosting homes’ exterior aesthetics, one element of curb appeal that can often go ignored is the garage door. Taking up a huge chunk of a home’s front exterior, an upgraded or freshly updated garage door can make a strong impression.
Once a run-of-the-mill exterior necessity, home builders around the country are offering hardware packages to boost charm and painted doors to match a new home’s trim has taken precedence.
Chelsea Timmons, Tri Pointe Homes vice president of community experience in Austin, says, “Having two paint colors on a home and prioritizing the garage to be the same color as the trim is always a preference. When you blend the base house paint color and the garage door it can lessen street appeal and cause it to present more ‘bland.’”
Preferred exterior colors according to the 2024 U.S. Houzz Outdoor Trends Study, include white (23%), gray (19%), and beige (10%). And when light neutrals aren’t the first choice, the study found that green (8%), black (8%), and brown (7%) are top picks. Popular trim colors include white (28%), black (22%), and green (13%), the study found.
Houzz’s exterior paint trend findings align with Clopay’s garage door trends for 2024 which says, “The most popular garage door color choice is still white, but it is on the decline. Dark colors like charcoal, dark brown, and black are increasing in popularity to complement darker windows, entry doors, and trim colors.”
Added Accents
Throughout some of Tri Pointe’s Texas communities, home buyers can add hardware and/or windows in upper panels of the garage doors for minimal upgrade costs, says Timmons. While in other communities a garage door hardware package of faux handles and four accent pieces can spruce up a streetscape.
As for windows, arched or grilled decorative windows are now being replaced with modern, long rectangular ones, Clopay says. More contemporary and slim window picks allow for natural light inside without losing privacy.
To accentuate the garage door and add more curb appeal, 19% of homeowners upgraded or added garage sconces to their home’s exterior, according to Houzz.
Going With the Grain
While classic raised panel steel garage doors still represent the highest value of sales, new styles complementary to different, more modern architecture are growing in popularity. Clopay has found that wood-look finishes on low-maintenance materials like steel or composite are popular because of the natural texture without the upkeep.
“Builders can design exteriors that don’t sacrifice function for aesthetics,” adds Clopay. With the ability to incorporate charm and texture while holding up to weather, faux-wood doors can be a sustainable choice.
Value Boost
Energy efficiency, which is at the forefront of both builders' and homeowners’ minds, has also become a trend this year.
“Homeowners are willing to pay extra for insulation with higher R-values because they don’t want their garage to be a source of drafty air–especially if they have living space overhead,” Clopay says. The garage door manufacturer says an insulated door can keep a garage an average of 10 to 20 degrees warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer.
These upgrades not only add visual value, but monetary value as well. Garage doors have a 194% return on investment at resale, on average, nationwide, according to BUILDER’s sister site Remodeling by JLC's 2024 Cost vs. Value Report.
For existing homes, the report estimates a garage door replacement average cost is $4,513 and average resale value at $8,751.
