I never thought I’d be this excited to show you the prettiest garage doors ever. When we finally agreed to invest in making our garages better, our goal was to make them functional, but we had very low expectations on how beautiful they would be. Our garages aren’t on a street where neighbors can see (only friends and our trusted FedEx guys would see them), they aren’t part of our curb appeal (not attached to the house), so our goal was “better and basic” (along with “dry, not disgusting, less spiders and mold,” and ultimately way less dangerous). But today we are talking specifically about the doors – what we now call the best garage doors ever. And because I clearly have a disorder where I can’t do anything simply or “without obsessing about how pretty it could be,” therefore I ended up choosing these pretty doors that make me so happy – far happier than predicted.
Before we get into the full post, here is a fun little video (just wait for the ad to play:))
Here is where we started 5 years ago. We knew we were lucky to have this huge garage at all (right?), but they weren’t in the best shape, and everything needed repair.
We ignored them for a couple of years, finally hiring the most affordable painter in town who was willing to just paint without any prep (a real literal lipstick on a pig situation) because they were such an eyesore after our house was finally done. But we knew they were not in good enough condition to invest in scraping and painting properly. The fresh coat kinda helped, but otherwise we didn’t touch them for another 3 years.
Starting in January, we knew that we needed the storage soon because we wanted to start restoring the original carriage house on the property. We’d need the garages to be our future and permanent storage space for my vintage hoarding and any future product lines (not to mention life and holiday stuff). So we hired my brother’s brand-new company, Afore Construction, to fix them up, and new garage doors were a clear must.
I received multiple word-of-mouth recommendations for Ponderosa, a local (and experienced) garage door installer. I reached out and really loved their customer service, speed, communication style (fast and personal with easy text notifications), and variety of great door products. After telling Ken, the owner, that I wanted carriage-style doors, he suggested we work with a company called Clopay because they are meant to be the best garage doors, with a massive variety of customization and styles (ours are vintage style, but they certainly have very contemporary and modern as well). They range in price, as expected, and ours are more than average, but for our style of property (more historic and antique), we felt we needed to pick something that really aligned with the property. Turns out even though I promised myself “I didn’t care”, more focused on function and speed – turns out I always care, always.
I chose the Canyon Ridge Elements garage doors, and to get all specific about them (should you want to copy them exactly), they are low-maintenance, insulated steel garage doors with composite overlays. We chose Design 22 (how the diagonal lines are designed) with the SQ23 windows (size and configuration style) and had them all painted SW Dutch Tile Blue (they can match any Sherwin-Williams color).
My goodness, are they beautiful. Ponderosa installed them in one day – ONE DAY!! They arrived, a team of 3, and powered through without me having to do a thing. And they were extremely professional, knowledgeable, and just so impressive. 10/10 service. They texted their eta, and were so easy to communicate with, with everything being electronic (so not a lot of annoying contracts and paperwork at the end). They offer a 5-star service program which provides annual maintenance and has the quietest motor (and it’s oddly quiet, not something I thought I’d care about, but it’s really lovely). They are also very hard to break into with high-end steel and mechanisms, which is clearly important.
We added the faux handles and strappings in black to make them look more vintage, working with the farm design of the property. And we wanted windows on top to add natural light inside (and charm).
Sconce | Doors | Door Color | Plants
They had a lot of options for all of these elements, both in style and color (we chose the spear style strap). I literally couldn’t be happier with what we chose and how they turned out – they add such charm and are super high quality. And there is a slightly “faux” wood grain finish to the garage doors that adds a really nice texture, which I was SO relieved looked fantastic in person (I’m always nervous about faux anything, but this is not cheesy, just subtle and nice).
We chose to have each controlled separately, with individual codes, and inside, there are convenient buttons to open and close.
The garage doors on the inside are clean, and the windows add nice natural light. Ponderosa really nailed the execution, and they function so perfectly, quietly, and just so seamlessly (zero annoyance to me and super intuitive to figure out). I wish I had more drama to tell you, more things I wish I had done differently, or lessons I learned. But I have zero regrets or lessons on this one! WAhoo! Just the best garage doors executed perfectly.
We left the last bay open as a carport. It was the original sheep’s barn and was never a garage. But we did this mostly for budget purposes. We saved on not having electrical, simple framing, finishes, and no cement floor (just gravel). It’s super bare bones, which we are fine with (we almost just tore it down, but my brother convinced us to keep it, just not really invest in it). Ultimately, we didn’t need a fifth garage, just a covered carport for Brian’s vintage truck and a great space for messy painting projects. And heck, a future owner might have a boat or something they want to store here (no intent on a future owner, but we always consider all the possibilities).
A few quick and dirty facts:
NEW FEATURE ALERT! We now have before and after sliders. Just use the arrow toggle button to see the transformation:)
When they arrived, I was oddly delighted by these garage doors, and I remain so happy every time my eye lands on them. The happy blue, the windows, the decorative strappings, and the super smooth, quiet function – truly the best garage doors. I feel extremely lucky and grateful. A huge thanks to Ponderosa for their excellent execution on our doors. Thank you, Clopay, for partnering on these beautiful garage doors, and Afore Construction for doing all the prep work and helping us fix up the garages. Interior reveal coming soon, I promise.
*Photos by Kaitlin Green
The garage doors are absolutely lovely, BUT we need to know about the sandals you are wearing Emily! They look very cute.
The garage and doors look amazing. But I’m distracted by the pups. Do they have haircuts that make them look like…llamas??? Pleeeaasse tell me that’s the case and posr more pics of them
LOL. they did get a haircut in April or May (they looked like baby lambs for a while and no one was happy about it). But finally back to the cute shag :)
Ohhhh!! I love the before and after slider! Nice feature!!
Me too, this is great! I literally gasped out loud, lol.
The before and after toggle feature is amazing! So fun to slide over and see your beautiful new doors! What a huge impact this change made.
This looks gorgeous. My garage is currently a spider haven as well. Maybe it’s time to Emily Henderson my garage so I’m no longer scared to go in there…
It looks like you chose jackshaft garage door openers? Which brand and model are they?
Everything was through Ponderosa and clopay so i’m not sure!
The doors look so good! I have SW Dutch Tile Blue in my bedroom and it’s such a good color.
I want it on our future shutters now – i LOVE IT.
Could you link the faux handle/hinges? I have been on the lookout and didn’t know if the ones from the big box stores looked terrible/fake on or not. Yours look lovely.
They are the Spear Strap Hinge and Spear Lift Handles from Clopay
WOW!!! What a transformation!!!
Ha! I figured Clopay. I did their trade marketing for years. Great Ohio company.
That blue is just the perfect Emily H blue… love them and can see why you do too!
They really transform the whole garage. What a difference. Lovely and I like the soft moody sea colour.
Not sure pretty is the right adjective for doors though. Now the flowers out the front of the doors I’d describe as pretty!
Above all, boy am I jealous of all your storage space!!!!
Dare I say these are truly dreamy garage doors! Any tips on making a 2-car door look nicer, proportionally speaking? 20 feet wide is a lot to work with and just never as cute as the single doors that can look like a carriage house. But ours is old wood that is literally falling apart and this post is timely!
We have a double width Clopay door. We did a modern one with windows on one side so the width looks like a feature. Looks proportional and all our neighbors have complimented us on it.
Yah I think thats a good point – having it be proportional. I wouldn’t be too scared about it – less ‘cute’, but still GREAT (again, we kept our small because we didn’t want to deal with restructuring the entire front so we kept the original posts that were in between the doors).
YOu know, we didn’t do double mostly because we didn’t want to re-engineer the posts and do a bunch of structural stuff. But I, too, wondered if a super wide ‘carriage style’ would look as cute as single ones. They can mock it up for you though! I bet it isn’t quite as cute but still pretty great because its high quality and the details can break up the length?
Sometimes, for me at least, the video never plays. It’s just ad after ad after ad. I watched four ad before I gave up–the last two were the same.
thank you for letting us know! flagging for our network :)
Yes! Happened to me too. Finally gave up after watching about a dozen ads. ☹️
Hi Caitlin! It was 4 ads for me this time too before video started. Hope this info helps.
I love Clopay garage doors! I have put them in desert homes where summer gets to 120°+ and I’ve put them in places where winter gets to -50°, and they hold up to everything. You will not regret this investment. And $11k for three sets of doors isn’t bad at all. I’ve found that $4k will usually cover a two-car garage front + motor, etc., but it has been a few years, so your mileage may vary.
Love the doors! (especially with the hydrangea blooming next to them). LOVE-love, in fact.
Planter links, by any chance? Toggle feature is amazing.
We replaced our garage doors last fall and chose exactly the same ones down to the windows and hardware. Though ours are white and yours are such a beautiful color. I smile every time I look at them.
I almost dropped my drink when I saw this one. Clopay is an amazing company here in Ohio. Our garage doors were made by them. Amazing product and company.
Where is the large fluted planter from???