Your garage door has a big part to play in the curb appeal of your home. In fact, your garage door can cover up to 40% of one side on the outside of your home with an attached garage. With this can come a question, how do you upgrade the look of your garage door affordably? So we are going to show you some easy garage door upgrades that won’t break the bank.

Decorative Garage Door Hardware.

Decorative garage door hardware can be an easy way to change the look of your garage door affordably. They can turn a garage door, like a plain white aluminum garage door, into something that looks more unique and special. These decorative pieces like Barcelona straps and handles or spade straps and handles can add some old-world charm to your garage door, giving your garage door a carriage house barn door look.

A Few Tips When Choosing Your Decorative Garage Door Hardware.

Make it look like it belongs.

Decorative garage door hardware looks, like the strap hinges, latches, and pulls that at one time functioned on older doors. For example, the handles are made to look like handles actually used on older barn style doors. Because of this, you want to make the decorative garage door hardware look like it truly belongs on your door instead of just something stuck on there for no real reason. Your current garage door style, position and size are key to making the look believable. For example, consider where hinges would be located if the doors really were to swing open for real.

Some other things to consider:

• Is it a swing style or barn style door?
• What design elements do you want to emphasize?
• Do you want to create the look of double wide doors as two doors?

Some Tips on Placement:

• Size your strap hinges to be at least 1/4 to 1/3 the width of the door opening if creating a two-door look or use strap hinges that are 1/4 to 1/3 the width of the double wide opening.
• Handles, ring pulls, latches (anything that looks like you would pull) need to be placed at least 34 inches from the bottom of the garage door. You want to have them at a height that looks like someone could actually pull on them to open the door.
• Strap hinges are usually placed on top and bottom rails and intermediate locations. The key is to remember to place them in a logical position if there were real hinges that would open the door.
• The top and bottom straps should be the same length and the one in the middle should be shorter.

For less than $100, you can use the decorative garage door hardware to give your garage door look some new life.

Garage Door Lighting

If the outside or inside of your garage door is lacking lighting, you can easily solve that without having to spend too much. For example, you can place solar rechargeable lights on the outside of your garage that also detects motion.

Outdoor Garage Lighting Tip: Quantity and Placement Considerations

For a single-car garage include one or two outdoor lights across the top of the garage door or two smaller lights on either side of the door. For a two-car garage, a light on each side and one in the middle should give you sufficient lighting and look great.

Clean Your Garage Door

Now, you may be thinking, “wait, isn’t that just basic maintenance work”? You would be right. But in terms of a cheap way to spruce up the look of your garage door, a dirty garage door is not something anyone wants to look at. If your garage door does not have dents, cracks, or chipped paint, a good cleaning could be the answer to giving your garage door new life.

About Spectrum Overhead Door LLC.

If you are in the Houston or surrounding area, we provide a free consultation and estimate. Spectrum Overhead Door has been providing the Houston area with award-winning garage door installation service since 2006. Call 281-748-9542 or our East Houston office 713-557-3407 to schedule an appointment today!