Black Garage door anyone? Now with updated pics and a poll

[Deleted]

My house is a typical side hall colonial built in the 70's. It still has the original aluminum siding which is in pretty decent shape, but looking a bit worn. Within the next 5-7 years we are going to do new siding, a new roof, new garage doors, and new windows all in one shot, so to tide us over until then, we are painting the siding and getting new shutters (we've already put in a new front door and storm door). I would love to get some input. We've decided to paint the siding SW Storm Cloud and the front door will be SW Heartthrob, the shutters will be SW Black Swan and the trim SW Pure White. Would you keep the garage doors white or paint them black for some WOW? We don't actually ever open the doors, so the other option if we leave them white is to add some exterior hardware like hinges and handles to change the look some. WWYD? ETA The picture of the house is from the listing 6 years ago, we've one a lot to the landscaping since then.

[Susie]

We used to have a side hall colonial with a similar color scheme (front door was originally red, we later painted it purple), and we left the garage door white.  I don't feel like garage doors ever really deliver on wow, so I wanted it be as nondescript as possible.

[winecat]

Which direction does your house face? If it’s southern facing, you might get heat buildup from the dark paint and be battling fading.

[aprilsails]

I don’t know why but on all the black garage doors in our neighbourhood the paint blisters and lifts if they face South. So don’t do that.

[nicolewi]

I vote white. Someone in our neighborhood did black garage doors and I think it looks kind of strange.

[kitchenreno]

I guess I'll be the odd one out and say yes I think black would look nice. To me, white will be too harsh/too much of a contrast once you've painted the house a darker color.

many suggest painting the garage doors the same as the house color (for the exact opposite reason you described though - to make them blend better, not stand out).

ETA before you do anything though, I'd take a current house picture and mock up with all the colors you're considering.  You might feel differently once you've seen the options

[Deleted]

My house faces West so we don't get a lot of harsh sun in the front yard.

[darby]

I’m going to vote completely different and say paint them the house color. To me white garage doors just look unfinished, unless other main items are also white (so more than the trim), which just enhances their less than desirable features. Since you already have the brick and will have different color trim there will be a lot going on. The house color could make them blend a little more seamlessly with your siding.

[fryjack2]

We have a moss green house with black shutters and black garage door. I'm not sure if its paint or the material itself that is black, though.

I think black would look good.

Sherwin williams has a tool on their website where you can upload a pic and then try out the colors where you want them. Maybe play around with that a bit?

[TBM]

Sept 10, 2021 9:24:36 GMT -5 @sameoldstory said:

My house faces West so we don't get a lot of harsh sun in the front yard.

Our last house faced west, and the sun was so harsh that the front door and door handle would get hot. It was so hot that you couldn't touch it bare handed.

I think garage doors can easily draw focus away from the front door, so painting them a color that complements instead of contrasting with the house/ siding works better for keeping the focus on the front door or wherever you want the focus to be.

[macmars45]

If you want to paint them black, do it. Worse comes to worse you pick different in 5-7 years when you update.

I'd love to paint my garage doors and front door red. Every day I drive by a house that has those and it looks so good.

[tela]

I agree with darby , I don't like white. Our house originally has white doors. For the life of me, I can not find an original photo. We painted them tan to match the aluminum siding (that the previous owners had painted). The grout of the brick is also tan. I know you can't see that from the road but up close it was nice that it matched/blended. I also cannot find a picture of that. But we ended up going with new black garage doors. and then a year later did the roof, gutters, siding and front porch railings to match with the theme.

 

[tela]

oh also my house faces south and we have no issues with peeling paint.

[ellipses84]

I think keeping them white will stand out more than gray or black, so I would not keep them white.

[mrspez07]

I think garage doors should almost always be the body color, maybe trim color if the layout makes sense. I don’t think calling attention to the garage door is a good thing.
Also, if it faces south or west, black will fade quicker on that large of an area it will be noticeable, and heat your garage

[sillygoosegirl]

My garage gets super hot in the summer so I can't imagine painting them black as I think it would make the problem even worse (west facing, but I think south facing would be just as bad).

[lust2hart]

I would do black garage doors if your shutters and front door were also black. If you’re committed to the red front door then I’d do the garage doors the same color as the siding.

[Deleted]

Update and help: We've finished painting the house, the door, and put up new shutters. Now I need to decide what to do with the garage doors. I definitely do not want to leave them white. So what do you think? Paint them black or the house color?

[Deleted]

(excuse the sofa in the driveway, it's going out in the trash this week LOL)

[mildop]

Wood a wood-look garage door work if you hate the white?

I think black would look a bit strange against white trim, but I see several of the wood-look doors in my area.

[RockNVoll]

I would do black.

[aprilsails]

I would match the colour of the shutters. Our last house was done that way and it looked nice and was easy.

[TBM]

I like the suggestion of wood-look.

Our last house was painted sort of similar to brick color, and I painted our painted white, really cheap wood garage door, to look like stained wood.

It was really nice to have it kind of blend with the house and not stand out (my pet peeve), and we got a lot of compliments on it. It didn't look exactly the same as the house, but wasn't so different that it drew the attention away from the parts of the house that I wanted people to look at.

[bittybomb]

I would do black. We have a detached garage set back from our house. Our house is pacific blue with black shutters and a black front door. I really did not want white. I fought my husband hard for the black because of the aforementioned reasons of peeling and heat but he relented and loves it now. Our house faces west, if that even matters.

[thejackpot]

I think that the black would look nice with the shutters.