The Garage Doors

We struggled finding the style and design of garage door that would offer the functionality of a modern door while keeping with the architectural elements of a Tudor style home. We finally decided on an elliptical arched door in a rectangle opening. These doors give the appearance of a pair of doors that open out; in actuality the door rolls up when opened, providing ease of use and high functionality. We chose to construct the doors out of red cedar with a wire-wheeled finished surface to match the half-timbering of the exterior, and finished them with a lighter stain for a complementary contrast.

Many garage door designs offer good function, but were not faithful to the old world Tutor-revival style of the house. Because the garage doors are a large feature on the front of the house and are very important for every day use, we did not want to sacrifice on either form or function.

After finding a local door manufacturer we wanted to work with, choosing a style of doors was our next challenge. We reviewed hundreds of styles. We sought a style that emphasized the smooth radius or elliptical curves in the architectural designs of the Tudor home, like this post we crafted for the front of the house..

Finally, I spent an afternoon with Doug Sequeira, owner of Carriage Doors - the garage door manufacturer company, and designed a set of custom doors that suited the house. Doug worked with me on the design and basic features (like how the doors styles, rails and paneling would layout). Doug created a custom drawing and layout for the garage doors using AutoCad. After that, the next steps involved selecting hardware consistent with the arts and crafts finishes for the house. I unveiled the finished garage doors last week. (12/16/07)