Garage doors play a huge role in the exterior appearance of a home. We learned this first hand when we upgraded from our 80’s white garage doors to these gorgeous Ultra Grain Walnut doors from The Home Depot. We’ve renovated two homes now. I’m still in awe of how big of an impact garage doors have played in the transformation of our ‘forever’ home.
After renovating the entire interior of our home we knew it was time to work on the exterior. We spend countless days and nights in our yard with family and friends. Watching our kids ride bikes, playing in the yard, BBQing and more. So, we really wanted the exterior to feel warm, cozy and inviting.
Picking the Perfect Garage Door
We turned to The Home Depot when it was time to upgrade our garage doors. They offer a wide variety of doors and using their installers took out the legwork of having to research and vet our own installer. We typically DIY 100% of our home projects, but for the garage door installation we knew we wanted to leave that to the professionals.
When we sat down with The Home Depot to order our garage doors we realized there was a lot more involved in the decision than just looking at the pictures and saying “oh that’s pretty!” Here are some of the important factors to consider when choosing a garage door.
Door Construction
We opted for the Clopay Gallery Collection doors because of their quality and beautiful design. You’ll need to decide what R-value (insulation level) you’ll want which directly relates to energy efficiency. Since our garage is heated, we knew we wanted the highest quality door available. This is the 18.4R door, which happens to be incredibly durable, and energy efficient. This high quality door also comes with a lifetime manufacturer’s warranty.
Door Color
The next step in your process will be deciding on the color of your doors. I originally wanted white doors. I’m so happy that my husband talked me into going with the Ultra Grain Walnut doors. Wow is all I can say about the curb appeal they bring to our home! If you’re having a tough time deciding, The Home Depot has a convenient mockup tool. Use this tool to see how the different color garage doors will look against your home.
Windows
After you’ve decided on a color, you’ll need to decide if you’d like windows in your garage doors. In my opinion, windows are essential for garage doors. Not only do they allow natural light to enter, but they make the doors look much less builder grade. This will help add to the curb appeal. If privacy is a concern of yours, you can opt for windows with privacy glass.
Handles and Hardware
This might seem like trivial decisions to make, but the hardware has a huge impact on the overall look of the garage doors. We opted for double pulls and 4 decorative hinges on our doors. I feel like it makes the doors look more sophisticated. If you don’t immediately purchase these when installing your door, they are also very easy to purchase separately and add later.
Garage Door Opener
We went with the Chamberlain B970 because it was rated for a noise level of 2 and came with a lifetime warranty. Let me tell you, the noise level is almost non-existent! They are quiet as can be. When we first opened them after the installation, I thought something must be wrong with them, but that’s just how quiet they are. The openers they came with are pretty neat too. We have the typical car openers that clip to the visors, each door has a keypad on the exterior of the door and inside the garage openers come with an LCD screen that displays the time and temperature.
Installation Process
After you’ve made all the ‘big’ decisions when it comes to ordering your new doors, you can expect your installation process to go something like this:
- Sit down and order through The Home Depot either in store or online.
- The installer will come out to your home to do a quick measurement before they place the order with Colpay.
- Colpay will take a few days to weeks to make your new garage doors to your exact specifications. Our doors were 9’x7’ which is a custom size so they took around 4 weeks to make.
- The installer will come out to your home and install your new garage doors.
Be sure to add haul away of your old garage doors when ordering your new ones to make the process even more simple. On the day of installation, our installers came out and worked for around 4.5 hours to install our new doors. It was a seamless process from start to finish. Here is the final ‘after’ photo of our new garage doors. I’m still in awe of how beautiful they turned out! I can confidently say that garage doors are well worth the investment.
Complimenting the New Garage Doors
After the doors were installed, it was time for us to spruce up the rest of our space. This included purchasing new planters from The Home Depot, these Tierra Verde self-watering planters in slate were the perfect ones to compliment the look of our new doors. The gorgeous flowers were also from The Home Depot. I love their selection of shrubs and flowers, especially the pre-made planter ones.
Fresh Mulch Makes a Difference
Next up was mulch. We don’t have a ton of mulch near our garage area, but refreshing what we do have makes a huge difference in the curb appeal of our home. We choose the Vigoro brown mulch to go around our existing shrubs and in the planters. We usually choose black mulch and decided to try brown out this year, we are very happy with the results.
When I saw this metal watering can I couldn’t resist it! It’s so much better looking than the plain plastic ones and when it’s left outside I think it looks decorative. It also pours very easily, which might seem silly when choosing between watering cans, but I found the plastic ones always spilled out the top and this one doesn’t!
Adding House Numbers
Next up was adding these gorgeous Architectural Mailboxes 4” house numbers to our exterior. We went with the satin nickel finish to match our exterior door knobs.
There you have the complete transformation of the exterior of our home. We couldn’t be happier with how it turned out!
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