If you want to remodel your Colonial or mid-century modern house, consider upgrading you garage door to a carriage house design. A carriage-style garage door will increase the value of your home and provide a historic charm to your property. At AAA Garage Door in Omaha, Neb., we offer a variety of materials, colors, window designs and hardware for the exterior look of your overhead door. Use this buying guide to explore our carriage house garage doors for sale.
What Is a Carriage-Style Garage Door?
Carriage-style garage doors are classic and timeless. Their design resembles the doors of traditional coach houses that sheltered horse-drawn carriages before modern cars were invented. Their barn-style look is still popular today — many opt for carriage house garage doors to add vintage charm to their modern homes.
How to Choose a Carriage-Style Garage Door for Your Home
Carriage house garage doors come in many styles to suit your preferences. The design, hardware, overlay and insulation might all factor into your choice.
Design and Color
A garage door that complements other exterior elements will add to your home’s curbside appeal. Some popular choices for carriage doors include:
Wood or wood grain finishes: Wood’s natural, dark luster adds depth and character, making it suitable for modern homes.
White and neutral colors: White’s pure, clean, fresh appearance provides a classic look. It has a contrasting effect on modern homes while blending in subtly with more rustic designs.
Brown and dark colors: Like white, dark colors can contrast with your home, giving it a bold look. Mid-century and country-style homes are instantly transformed with the addition of a dark-shade carriage house garage door.
Real and faux wood are so similar that it’s hard to tell the difference with the naked eye. However, their construction differs — faux wood is made of composite materials such as aluminum, fiberglass and steel. For this reason, you’ll notice the difference when you knock on each door.
The benefits of these garage doors vary, and the right option for your home depends on your needs and preferences.
Hardware
Various styles of hardware can accentuate carriage doors, including:
- Clavos: Clavos are nail heads with distinctive shapes that enhance the door’s appearance. They are available in bronze, wrought iron and stainless steel for a unique visual allure.
- Hinges: These hardware parts can be hidden or displayed to showcase their style. Strap hinges are popular for their elongated design that extends across the door, adding an ornamental semblance.
- Latches: Garage door latches secure the door, locking it when closed. They are generally not considered aesthetic additions because of their practicality, but they can make a difference in your door’s appearance.
- Pulls and handles: Pulls and handles are visually attractive and add a rustic element to garage doors. They’re available in intricate designs, including lion heads, clovers, leaves and other uncommon shapes, and heavy materials such as iron and steel.
Overlay
The pattern on your carriage door panel — also called the overlay — gives the door its unique coach house characteristics. The panel pattern traditionally has a barn-style X on the exterior. Some styles include extruding triangular, hexagonal and square shapes.
Insulation
Insulated doors help regulate the temperature inside your garage, keeping it cooler in summer and warmer in winter with less energy. The reinforcement of insulation also adds to your garage door’s durability against impact.
Which Home Styles Look Best With Carriage House Garage Doors?
Various home styles work well with carriage house garage doors:
- Victorian: Victorian-era homes are distinguished by their exaggerated exterior features, including towers, turrets, massive porches and curlicues on roof edges. The details of a carriage-style garage door can complement these elements.
- Craftsman or bungalow: These homes are identified by their low-pitched gabled roofs with uncovered rafters and open cornices. Other features include square or round column porches, stucco or wood siding, protruding stone chimneys, and abundant windows. Cross-diagonal carriage-style garage doors complement the clean, neat exterior of this style of home.
- Tudor revival: You’ll recognize these homes by their steeply pitched roofs with half-timber framing. Plunging eaves and a huge extruding chimney add a dramatic effect. Tudor revival homes are traditionally built with brick, stone and stucco with decorative arches and diamond-shaped, grouped windows. Carriage-style garage doors go well with Tudor revival-style homes because of their matching elaborate details.
Benefits of Carriage House Garage Doors
- It increases your home’s value and curb appeal.
- It keeps your home safe from intruders.
- It makes your home more energy-efficient.
- It reduces the noise from your operating system and outside activity.
- It reduces the number of garage door repairs you’ll need each year.
- It prevents accidental injury to your family or property.
Carriage Style Garage Door Selections
At AAA Garage Door, we supply various carriage-style garage door options to suit your needs. Explore some of our popular styles.
Coachman® by Clopay®
These insulated steel and composite doors combine aesthetics and functionality. The wood grain textured overlay enhances their authentic wood-like appearance, while the door is constructed with insulated steel for improved durability. This collection of garage doors includes various designs and colors to complement your home’s other exterior elements.
Canyon Ridge® Carriage House (5 Layer)
With their magnificent faux wood composite overlays, these doors are a sight to behold. They have the distinct characteristics of traditional carriage houses with a modern flair. Their steel construction reinforces their strength, while wood boards comprise the overlay for a more authentic look. The carriage house garage doors in this collection are practical and attractive. They’re well-insulated and designed to resist moisture while adding to the curb appeal and overall aesthetic of your home.
How Much Does a Carriage House Garage Door Cost?
If you’re trying to plan a full remodel of the exterior of your house, you should think about the garage door cost. The price to install and design your carriage house door depends on several factors, but you could customize this entryway to fit within your budget.
Consider these factors that affect the price of your door to help you decide what you should personalize.
- Materials: Steel is the most affordable material, followed by wood composite and natural wood. If you choose natural wood, keep in mind that you also need to paint and reseal your wooden panels every couple of years to increase its resistance to moisture.
- Insulation: An energy-efficient door will reduce your monthly energy bill and provide a more comfortable temperature for your home. While an insulated garage door with a high R-value will cost more money up front, you’ll save money on your utility bill.
- Location: Where you live affects the cost of your installation project due to the availability of the materials and the fees local contractors charge. If you choose a bulkier door, you should also be aware that they tend to be more expensive to install because the installer might need to hire a team to help carry the door.
Carriage House Garage Door Windows
Complete your carriage house garage door with a unique window design. Browse through the brochure of each of the collections we offer to find out the specific windows available for your desired product. In general, you could personalize any of the following features.
- Window size: Whether you have a one-car or two-car garage, you could choose a long or short windowpane pattern across your door. We recommend square windows for carriage style doors.
- Window shape: Carriage house-style garage doors with windows often have rectangular or arch shapes on the top.
- Window type: Some of our collections offer unique window types, aside from the rectangular or arch shape, such as the Kristin, the Trenton, the Clayton and the Wrought Iron. You could review the design brochures of these collections to discover how they would look against your house.
- Single and double-top section: You could choose one or two rows of small windows for the top part of your garage door. The upper row features a traditional arched design.
- Grille pattern: The decorative grilles are available in rectangular, square, vertical, horizontal or vertical and horizontal. You can easily remove them when you need to clean them.
- Glass option: You could choose faux or real glass for your windows. The glass design options include clear, frosted, seeded, obscure, rain, frosted gluechip, delta frost and narrow reed.
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Felipe Pinales
Reviewed By: Felipe Pinales - Felipe is Nebraska’s first IDEA-certified Master Technician. He has been employed by AAA Garage Door for 6+ years, and has had the Master Technician Certification in his sights since he began. Felipe has also passed four written examinations including Residential Installer Certification, Commercial Sectional Door Systems Technician Certification, Commercial Rolling Door Systems Technician Certification, and Rolling Steel Fire Door Technician Certification. Felipe is constantly looking for ways to improve his abilities within our industry. His goal is to become the best garage door technician possible to best assist his customers and fellow co-workers.