How to Transform Garage Doors into Carriage House Doors

If you love carriage-house doors but yours are plain and boring, don’t worry. Simple garage doors can be turned into interesting carriage-style ones in a few moves. All you need to do is find the image of carriage wood garage doors you would love to have at home and copy the style.

 

Main features of carriage house garage doors

Most garage door installations include carriage style products. That’s not accidental. Trends make circles and so what used to be old style and outdated becomes vogue again (nearly) overnight. Carriage garage doors are old style. And now they have become trendy again due to their warm style and stylish appeal.

 

Since technology is not the same as plenty of decades back, today you get the advantage of overhead garage doors without necessarily missing the warmth of carriage designs. Another advantage these days is that you have the means to do so in an easy way.

 

In order to create a faux carriage house garage door, you need to consider the features defining this style. Authentic carriage doors stood out for the windows and accent hardware. Since they used to swing open, they featured handles placed side by side while the surface of the panel was distinguished for its shiplap style. They often had wooden horizontal, vertical, or diagonal rails which often crisscrossed on the panel too.

 

With that said, all you need to do next is choose which features will interest you and bring them to your garage door.

 

How to bring your carriage house garage door to life

• Let us start with the basics. Most authentic carriage garage doors had a deep wood color. So if you own a white or light wood colored door, you need to repaint it first. By all means, if you like the idea of white carriage doors, keep the color.
• If you have a flat overhead garage door, you can add tongue and groove boards over it or trim it in a way to look like the classic carriage style. It’s best to cover the two-thirds of the lower panels assuming you will want windows at the top panel. And so you can create picture frame trims (like you would do for your interior walls) and nail them on the door. And you can do it in all sorts of ways. You can install the rails and stiles and then add shiplap. You can keep the rail lines straight or opt for arches etc.
• Add faux garage door windows. These should occupy the top panel of the overhead door. How can you achieve that? You simply paint the panel to create the visual impression there are windows. Let’s say you have a raised panel garage door. You can simply paint each raised panel and create a faux trim around that will serve as the frame of each window. For a more real touch, you can actually add wrought iron frames around the paint that will act as the windows.
• There is no need to add vertical boards at the center to give the impression of a swing-out door. You can simply place two handles at the top of the second horizontal panel from the ground up and that will do the job.
• Add decorative hinges under the windows and at the top of the bottom panel. Decorative hardware can help you transform the door easily. For a more Mediterranean look, add clavos too. These are the spike (small nails like iron elements) that used to be placed around the panels.

 

Voila! Your carriage house door is ready. One thing though: if you add extra boards and elements, the door will become heavier. So you need to make sure the garage door opener and springs can take the extra stress or you will need to replace them.