Choosing the Best Garage Door Paint Color
Like choosing your exterior paint color wasn’t hard enough (siding, trim, front door), you also need to pick the best garage door color.
With changes in exterior styles, layouts, and palettes, there’s no ‘one-answer-fits-all’ situation. What suits your neighbor’s home could be a hot mess on yours. What looked great on that Pinterest house could be the worst choice for yours.
Today, we’re looking at typical home styles and discussing the color of garage doors and why.
- DARK siding with white trim
- LIGHT to medium siding with white trim
- WHITE house with white trim
- Light house with NON-WHITE trim
- Garage doors & BRICK exteriors
- MODERN exteriors
Just remember that, with SO many architectural styles and varying palettes and finishes, there are always… always exceptions. In which case, the info below suggests ‘guidelines’, not ‘rules’.
WHITE TRIM WITH ANY MAIN HOUSE COLOR (EXCEPT WHITE)
Many times, the best garage door color is white – boring? Sure, but sometimes boring is the answer, unless you want your garage door to be your home’s top feature.
Whether you have a light gray house or a dark blue one, if you have white trim, it usually calls the shots.
This next home has beautiful dark brown siding from James Hardie. If your home has darker siding or stucco and white trim and gutters, chances are, your best garage door color is white – the same white as your trim.
Benjamin Moore Cloud White Color Review
While there are definitely exceptions, if you’re nervous, matching your trim is a great default.
By the way, 90% of the images in this blog post are from my Online Color Consulting clients. A small handful are from me driving around, needing examples.
I love this next exterior (similar to Benjamin Moore Stonington Gray), with its wood beams and front door…
While it can be pretty to match the garage doors to the wood front door/beams, it would…
a) make this home look smaller and more compact, and
b) be WAAAY too much of a good thing. Instead, matching the garage door to the trim makes the most sense.
How about this next natural beauty, painted Benjamin Moore Rockport Gray…
Matching the garage door to the trim makes the most sense. The windows in the garage door make a ton of sense, too, as they add interest and complement the style of the home’s main windows.
Don’t worry, if you don’t like white garage doors, we’ll be looking at some exceptions shortly!
I love this next home’s exterior with its dark gray and black metal roof, red brick, and warm gray siding color…
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Considering the white trim, it makes the most sense to match the garage doors to it. Any other color would be out of character.
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The same goes for this bad boy…
If they painted the garage doors to match the house, it would make this home’s front look flat and boring. If they painted it to match the front door, it would be way too bossy for this home’s flow. Instead, notice how the white garage door contrasts with the dark brick, highlighting it.
Here’s another winner winner chicken dinner with white trim and matching garage doors…
Most homes with lighter exterior colors and white trims suit white garage doors.
Even if your trim is an off-white or light-depth color, it acts as white and is treated the same way. This next beautiful green home repeated the trim color on the garage door and front door. I love the simplicity of this, as it lets this home’s charm do the talkin’…
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This next red tile-roofed home is a soft, warm off-white, much lighter than the stucco color…
With an exterior color palette like this, matching the trim color is usually best (I’d also love to see those fan windows replaced by squares, budget-allowing).
How to Choose Your Home’s Best Exterior Color
Notice how most of the prettiest white garage doors are great because they have either windows in them, decorative hardware on them, or both.
LIGHT EXTERIOR WITH NON-WHITE TRIM
While white exteriors were popular, the trend is fading, being replaced by warm off-white and light-depth colors.
As for the garage doors on these homes, it depends on the color you choose for your trim and where the garage doors are located. This next home’s brick is painted a gorgeous, warm off-white. Its trim is a medium-depth-earth tone…
Or, budget allowing, because the front door is wood, I’d get wood garage doors.
Now, we can’t see the garage door, but on a home like this, I’d paint the garage doors to match the trim, especially if they’re on the side rather than the front.
Why?
Because the sides of a home are often more boring than the front. Adding the trim color to the garage door can add interest.
As for this next home, while the garage door looks fine painted the same color as the siding, it would add interest and connect it more to the house if it were the same brown as the window trims.
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This next stucco home has an off-white main house color, with a slightly darker greige-taupe trim. In this case, the garage doors match the main house color – not the trim…
I LOVE that they added some decorative hardware, so it’s not just a big slab of house/garage door.
HOWEVER, if those smaller horizontal bits weren’t painted trim color (on either side of the garage doors) and if there was ONLY standard trim around the garage door (like an upside-down U), I would’ve absolutely matched the garage doors to the trim. Why? I think this home’s layout would look more interesting that way.
Don’t treat your garage doors like an interior accent wall – make them make sense with existing finishes.
This next color palette is perfection…
They did a great job coordinating the garage door style with their windows.
This more modern, contemporary exterior looks gorgeous with its neutral stucco and dark gray-blue trim…
Without the dark fascia boards and railing, these dark garage doors wouldn’t make any sense.
If they’d matched the stucco, it would’ve been too bland. Instead, the dark garage doors tie into the home’s trim, adding a bit of interest. That said, wood to match the front door would’ve been nice, too. I’d also love to see some linear windows in those garage doors.
A BIT MORE ABOUT GARAGE DOORS & MODERN EXTERIORS
With modern or contemporary exteriors (generally, exteriors that aren’t super traditional, modern farmhouse, colonial, etc), the approach is often to blend the garage doors into the exterior. But as with other homes, it TOTALLY DEPENDS on your home’s architecture and how your garage doors relate to the rest of your home.
For example, it wouldn’t make sense to blend in this next garage door with its frosted glass panels. Instead, it matches the trims…
On this next, more modern exterior, while we can’t see the garage doors, you could paint them the trim color or the stucco color. I actually think they’d look more striking in the darker trim color (we were just sampling stucco colors, as you can see)…
Here’s another beauty, where the frame around the modern, frosted-glass-panel garage doors matches the windows…
- Consider how the window color contrasts with the siding.
- Now, picture the garage doors in black (matching the front door)
- I think the current garage door color brings the look/contrast of the windows to the right side of the home. If the garage door’s paintable areas had been black, they might’ve looked a bit disconnected.
The Best Off-White Exterior Paint Colors
OFF-WHITE/LIGHT HOUSE & MATCHING TRIM
While it can depend on your home’s layout and all of its finishes, many times, it’s best to ‘keep on goin’ if you plan on painting your main house color and trim the same (other than white). But again, it can depend on what you’ve got goin’ on.
This next beautiful home has a white garage door…
The Best Off-White Exterior Paint Colors
If they were to paint it, they might match it to the siding, since the surrounding brick adds some interest, and thanks to the black windows and dark roof between the siding/brick, the side of the home has a bit of character.
On this next exterior, what do you think about the garage doors matching the house color?
It’s an each to their own situation. Personally, I’d paint the garage doors the same color as the trim. The great thing is that with my Online Color Consulting, I advise what you should/could do, but it’s YOUR home, and you get to make your own choice (even though I am a bossy lil’ Ginger).
SHOULD YOU DO WOOD GARAGE DOORS?
Not every home is suited to wood garage doors. Here’s some food for thought or drinkin’ for thinkin’…
- If you have a wood front door, your home might suit wood garage doors
- If the existing wood stain on your home is a strong, bossy color, you might not want this on your garage doors – it could overwhelm your home.
I’m torn on this next home (not one of my designs, it’s just a home I drove by)…
While I do like the wood garage doors…
a) They’ll be higher maintenance than paint
b) They dilute how pretty the other woodwork is
c) White garage doors could be prettier in contrast with the gray stone and other wood finishes.
As for this next exterior (again, a driveby)…
The garage doors are gorgeous, but…
a) There’s no other wood stain like this on the home, so they don’t visually connect with anything
b) There are other wood stains. On a home like this, it would be better to repeat the existing, muted wood stain than add a foreign one.
This next home has darker gray siding, black trim, and black windows. Given how light the stone is, it would’ve been way too drastic and contrasting to paint the garage doors black. In this case, matching the wood on the front door was best…
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What if there was NO wood on this home – only stone and painted finishes?
- Ooooo, I’d probably have to go for black garage doors – gray doors feel too flat and boring for how these doors extend from the main part of the house.
- While it’d contrast a lot with the stone, it’d be the best choice given the existing palette.
This next lovely ranch-style home is painted a warm, creamy off-white, the wood garage doors and front door are amazeballs…
- They match the front door
- They’re a muted enough stain that they aren’t shockingly colorful
- With the siding, stone, and trim painted the same color, it would be hard to introduce a new color to this home – matching the front door makes the most sense.
WHITE-ON-WHITE EXTERIORS & GARAGE DOORS
If you have white siding or stucco (especially on farmhouse-style homes), you might wonder what the best color for your garage door is.
- If you have a wood front door, wood garage doors can be friggin’ glorious
- If not, and if you have white trim, a white garage door is the best choice 99% of the time
- If you don’t have white trim, you might choose to paint the garage door the same color as your trim.
The Best White Exterior Paint Color
I’m obsessed with this next stunning stucco home – LOOK AT THAT CHARM.!
While we can’t see the garage door, I imagine its trim is (or should be) the same color as the window trim.
From there, would you match the main house color, trim, or front door?
On a home like this, I’d absolutely match the trim as it suits a little character.
This next home is different: while the main house is white, it has a strong, warm brown stone and black windows. This palette was in place, and I was brought in to consult on a color for the front door/garage doors…
Could white garage doors look good on the above home? Yup, given that the doors have windows in them, and if they add a little decorative hardware – yes. This way, they match the siding and the trim.
Could they paint the garage doors a different color? Given the depth of the stone and the front door closeby, yup, they could. In this case, they’d likely paint the front door and garage doors the same color.
How about this next modern farmhouse beauty?
The garage doors are on the right side (I don’t have a photo of them). While some might paint them the same color as the shutters, I’d way rather see them in the siding color, as long as they have windows and hardware.
As for this next home, while I don’t mind the two-colored garage doors, they draw your attention. I’d rather they be all trim color…
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Sure, it might seem boring, but there are awesome garage door hardware kits that can add a little personality, and some planters with evegreens on either side of the door could look sharp.
If you have a metal garage door, you can even get magnetic hardware kits if you don’t want to drill any holes…
SHOULD YOUR GARAGE DOOR MATCH YOUR SIDING?
While there are situations where matching your garage door to your siding color works, it’s hit-or-miss and can really depend on…
a) the layout of the home and where the garage door is situated in relation to other finishes
b) how big the garage door is and how many there are
This next home is perfection with the garage doors matching the siding…
- Notice how the garage door trim is the only one not painted the ‘wood-look’ color. With this color being stronger, it could’ve looked pretty graphic on the garage door trim, especially if the garage doors match the siding.
- With the trim color being strong, it would be overwhelming on the garage doors, too.
- In all, these homeowners made a great, thoughtful decision.
Some homeowners feel that painting their garage door the same color as their house is the best way to blend it with the house. And it can, however, on a home (or side of a home) without a ton of visual interest, painting the garage door to match the trim can add some visual interest.
On this next exterior, I’d paint the garage door white to add some variation (and I’d paint the man door a pretty accent color, for sure)…
The same goes for this next cutie-patootie exterior: painting the garage door to match the house actually makes it look smaller and busier, and takes away some of its charm…
The garage door should really match the trim for the most classic look. Sure, the garage doors have details, but with so much trim nearby and vertical siding strips, matching the garage doors doesn’t define this home at all.
Schlong story short…
Most homes that have a darker siding or stucco color and white trim, suit a white garage door.
But of course, there are always exceptions…
This next exterior looks great with its garage doors painted to match the siding…
Notice that because there’s stone around the garage doors, they kept things simple by painting the garage door trim to match the siding. In this case, matching the siding/trim makes the most sense.
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Could they have matched the trim? Yeeeeeah, but I don’t think it would look as balanced. That said, I’d either add windows or inexpensive decorative hardware to garage doors to add a little interest.
Check out this next little charmer…
- If the garage doors were just slabs of metal, painting them to match could’ve been too flat and drab.
- Because the doors have a shaker-style profile and the windows are modern, matching the siding color makes sense.
- That said, they could’ve easily matched the trim – there’s no wrong answer here!
SHOULD YOU PAINT YOUR GARAGE DOOR A DARK COLOR?
Maybe.
Again, a lot of it comes down to the layout of your home and the finishes around it. Most of the time, a dark garage door works because it matches the home’s dark trim.
If you’re painting your entire exterior and aren’t sure what to do, leave the garage doors until last. Then, step back and try to visualize how they might look in one color or another.
We chose a gorgeous dark gray-blue paint color for these next garage doors…
But they don’t come out of nowhere.
a) They aren’t on the front of the home, they’re on the back (under an upper deck)
b) They visually connect to these doors on the 2nd floor…
While I wish the railings were a different stain, this was all a quick freshen-up for selling purposes.
c) Which visually connect to the FRONT door on the other side of the home…
The Best Front Door Paint Colors
In other words, the dark garage doors didn’t come out of nowhere.
BRICK EXTERIORS: WHAT COLOR SHOULD THE GARAGE DOOR BE?
If you have a brick exterior, it can be hard to know what color is best for your garage door.
On this next gorgeous home, with its orange-yellow-hued brick and taupe roof, we painted the trim and garage doors to match. With the brick and roof being busier, keeping other elements simple and non-white was the best choice.
The same goes for this next big boy and its red-pink-hued brick. We matched the trim and garage doors for a seamless look…
Although I wouldn’t mind seeing a bit more depth on the front door!
This next brick home doesn’t have a visible garage door, but given its current palette, you’d have two choices…
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This whole palette is reasonably low-contrast, which means no color will be shocking on the garage door.
- Paint the garage door black
- Paint it the same color as the trim, meaning it would blend with the garage door’s trim
All of that said, I wouldn’t mind seeing a slightly softer color on these shutters and front door – something more like Benjamin Moore Cheating Heart, which would look amazeballs on the garage door, too.
This next exterior features a mix of light siding, red brick, and a dark-painted front door and shutters…
The Best Shutters Colors With Brick
The garage doors are on the side of the house. If they matched the trim, it would’ve looked a bit flat and boring. Instead, matching the house’s shutter and front door color adds some interest and contrast to the gorgeous red brick…
The dark garage doors bring this home’s palette around to the side of the home, not just the front.
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LET’S LOOK AT SOME EXCEPTIONS
Again, based on your exterior light and exact finishes, your home might be an exception to the above guidance.
Before, this home was ‘fine’ but lacked character, and the siding color clashed with the stone…
After, it has way more charm! While I don’t usually recommend framing white windows with a darker trim, it’s not ALL about me. In this case, this home looks gorgeous with a new off-white siding color and dark trim.
As for the garage door, an all-burgundy door would’ve been a) too colorful and b) overwhelming for this home’s smaller scale. Instead, we leaned into the stonework so the garage door blends with that surface, while still suiting the rest of the finishes.
Consider this next home with its dark gray-blue-green siding and white trim…
Right now, the garage doors match the front doors, which adds an interesting balance. However, consider the garage door on the left side; there’s a matching one to the left of it, too, for a total of 3 garage doors. Notice how that garage door has a white fascia/trim above it, with no house color between it and the roof.
If the garage door were white on these garage doors, the door would run VISUALLY into the roof – there needs to be some more separation than what’s there. This is why the ‘non-white’ garage doors make sense.
Why not match the siding color?
It would just create a big upside-down U on the house with a big gray blob in the middle. Long story short, when the ideal world doesn’t exist (the main house color above the garage door), you have to find a happy medium.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Sometimes, tying up a few loose ends seals the deal…
WHAT’S THE BEST GARAGE DOOR COLOR?
For the average home, with exceptions (as we’ve explored), the best garage door color is the one that matches their trim – whether it’s white, off-white, or darker.
While white is the most COMMON garage door color, if your trim isn’t white, it’s not the best option.
IS WHITE TOO BRIGHT FOR A GARAGE DOOR?
While some get a little anxious about white’s reflectiveness/glare, in general, white is a timeless, expected color for garage doors (assuming it suits the house’s finishes).
On the other hand, dark colors absorb more sun and can fade faster.
WHAT COLOR MAKES A GARAGE DOOR LESS NOTICEABLE?
If you want to blend your garage door into your siding, you’re usually best to match it to your siding color. And while it can depend on your home’s exterior layout, some choose to also paint their garage door trim the same color, so it all blends.
This home (which we looked at earlier) is a great example of this…
CAN A GARAGE DOOR BE PAINTED AN ACCENT COLOR?
- If you’re considering a COLOR for your garage doors (non-neutral), be careful – garage doors shouldn’t be treated like interior accent walls.
- If this color doesn’t already exist on your home (trim or front door), it’s probably not a good idea – it should visually connect to another finish.
To sum that up, the best ‘accent colors’ for garage doors are a) neutral and b) are already on your exterior’s trim or front door.
QUICK SUMMARY (TL;DR)
- The best garage door paint colors usually match the trim, whether it’s white, light, or dark
- Wood garage doors look best when there’s another wood feature.
- If your garage doors are on the side of your home, painting them a contrasting color to the siding can add interest.
- If you have an all-white exterior, and your front door isn’t wood, your best garage door color is white.
- Many garage doors need windows and/or decorative hardware to look their best.
READ MORE
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