Choosing a Garage Door Colour

While some homeowners like to look at colour options and point at the first one they like, most garage door consultations take a little longer. It’s important to choose the right colour for your garage door, especially since it makes up almost 30% of the curb appeal of your home. Colours can impact how people see your door, and even increase or decrease your home’s resale value. 

Whenever we sit down with a homeowner to discuss their new garage door options, we talk about how we can find a colour that complements your siding, entry door, and all other colours that it might be seen alongside. 

 So how do you choose one colour out of thousands that fits all of these criteria perfectly? It usually starts with an expert garage door technician guiding you along. Let’s jump into what a conversation about garage door colours might look like with a C&W Garage Door client!

What Are The Most Common Garage Door Colours?

When selecting a colour for their garage door, many homeowners will choose a neutral colour such as white, black, brown, or gray. These shades will suit nearly any colour of siding and will provide a more muted, subtle look. If you want to avoid the stress of trying to choose a coordinated or bright colour, the neutral look is the easiest way to go. Just make sure it suits the rest of your home and that the colour’s warmth matches your siding. For example, a red-brown door won’t look great with grey-brown siding. 

White is possibly the most popular shade to choose because it’s able to complement every colour on the spectrum. You really can’t go wrong with white! However, there are plenty of other options to consider, especially since white can be difficult to keep clean. 

How to Choose a Garage Door Colour

Colour Scheme

Chances are, your home already has a colour scheme going on (or, if you are about to renovate, it will!) If you have an obvious colour scheme, you’ll probably want to coordinate your garage door with the rest of your house, or you’ll risk the colours clashing. 

Want a Pop of Colour?

If you feel like your house needs some vibrancy, this is the perfect chance for you to go wild with a garage door colour that stands out. A bright colour like red can add life to your home, especially if you’re coordinating with your front door. 

 Tread carefully if you’re worried about curb appeal, though. Colour is a personal experience, and not everyone will love a brighter colour. If you plan on selling your home in the near future, you’d be safer sticking with a monochrome, neutral colour.

Contrasting Colours

If colour coordination isn’t your style, a contrasting colour can be a great choice as well. If you want your garage door to stand out, this is the way to do it. However, heavily contrasting colours have a big risk of clashing or sticking out more than you might like, so you’ll want to stick to colours with a simple contrast. For the safest contrasting colour option, you can try a darker or lighter shade of the colours already on the exterior. For example, if your house is light blue, consider a darker shade of blue to make your garage door stand out.

See It In Different Lighting

One aspect of garage door colours that many homeowners may overlook is how it appears under different lighting. The colour you choose may look different in the morning than it does at night. When you’re looking at possible colours, be sure to view them in all kinds of lighting so you know exactly what colour to expect. 

Take Note of Typical Lighting

Take special care to note how shaded your house is during the majority of the day. The amount of sunlight your garage door gets will matter for a variety of reasons. In the last point, we discussed looking at the colours in different lighting; as you do this, you also need to make sure the colour you want is what shows up in your typical lighting. If you like how a colour looks in a dim setting, but your garage door will be bathed in sunlight most of the day, you won’t be getting that exact colour most of the time.

 The amount of daylight on a garage door can also affect how the colour looks. Lots of sunlight will make lighter colours look washed out. Heat is also a factor you’ll have to pay attention to – darker colours absorb more heat, while lighter colours deflect it. 

Garage Door and Home Material

The material used on the exterior of your home can also affect how different colours will look on your garage door. Different materials complement different colours - for example, dark blue and white work well with historic homes, and houses made of stone or brick look best with different colours for the trim and door. 

 Meanwhile, the material you use on the door itself should also complement the colour. Wood and wood-tone materials are becoming a popular choice for garage doors, and come with a natural, elegant look that you might not want to paint over. On the other hand, steel garage doors offer plenty of durability and come in virtually any colour, allowing for far more options. 

 Ordering a door is also different than painting a door. Different materials also need different kinds of prepping for painting. For a vinyl door, you’ll need paint that can adhere to the vinyl, or you can just buy the door in a pre-painted colour. Steel requires latex paint and dry weather while you’re painting, and aluminum needs to be prepped with an oil-based primer. Take extra care in ensuring your garage door’s material can be painted the way you want it before you dig out the rollers! If you aren’t sure about painting your door, get in touch with your garage door specialist in Edmonton to ask about best practices and see what they recommend.

Door Style

The overall style of your garage door, while not directly affecting the colour, is still an important factor in selecting a door. Do you want a traditional, windowless door, or one with glass panels for a more modern look? Maybe you want something more unique, like a carriage-style door. Make sure to decide what kind of style you want before deciding on a colour, as some colours and styles won’t go together well.

Choose From a Massive Selection of Colours

When hunting down the perfect colour for your garage door, you need it to be as precise as possible. Fortunately, C&W Canada Garage Doors offers a wide variety of garage door colours and styles, so you can get the exact colour you need. With our selection of top-quality Amarr Overhead Doors, you’ll be able to find the perfect match for your home in no time.