Just like your home’s architecture, there are hundreds of residential garage doors and commercial garage door styles to choose from. Important factors to consider are dimension, insulation, colors and textures, and other features like windows or how the door opens. At Smart Doors, our highly trained consultants can help you choose the door that best fits your home.

There are four primary garage door styles to choose from Carriage, Contemporary, Raised-Panel, and Traditional doors.

• Garage door styles that are growing in popularity are Carriage and its variants. For customers with older homes, these kinds of doors mimic the style of swing-open doors found on old carriage houses but can blend in with many different architectural styles. While traditional carriage doors swing open, some of the newer models fold open yet maintain the look of a swing door.
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• Contemporary doors are the perfect garage door styles for a modern home design featuring clean lines and high-tech materials and finishes. Some of the most popular features for this kind of door that we can offer include tempered glass panels (clear, frosted, tinted) and multi-colored or textured frames.
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• Raised-Panel doors. These are extremely popular and feature individual raised panels on the outside of the door. Just as many baby boomers refer to facial tissue as “Kleenex,” many people call raised-panel models “Clopay” doors, which also happens to be the name of a manufacturer. This is perhaps one of the most common garage door styles around, thanks to a wide variety of colors, styles, and finishes to choose from.
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• Traditional garage doors. This type of residential garage door is known as “traditional” because it affords the homeowner the chance to select from a wide range of styles including American (Craftsman, Colonial, Cape, Ranch Victorian) and European (Mediterranean, French Country, Tudor, Spanish) with a range of features to match.
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What Else to Look for in Garage Door Styles

While it is beneficial to buy a garage door that matches your home’s architecture, it should never be the single characteristic visitors associate your residence with. A garage door should never overwhelm your home, nor should the style radically diverge from the architecture. This means, for instance, that a Contemporary-style door would not be a good match for a Victorian-style home, nor would a Traditional-style door blend in with an old barn that has been renovated into a home.

But style is not the only factor. Keep in mind how much you can afford to spend. This also will be decided by door dimensions, insulation, and the door’s R-value (a door with a higher R-value offers greater protection against cold, but it is more expensive), how often you expect to open and close the door over its usable lifespan (called the torsion cycle), and the warranty.

Smart Doors is located in Concord, Ontario, and is the garage door company of choice for residents and business owners in nearby Toronto, Richmond Hill, Thornhill, Markham, Aurora, and North York. When you’re ready to buy, have a question, or need garage door service or repair,