4 Garage Door Styles

Raised-Panel Doors

One of the most common garage door styles is the raised panel. Raised-panel garage doors have really become the standard, the style most people think of when they think of garage doors. The original raised panel doors featured floating panels that fit inside a rail-and-style frame, but in the modern version—such as the very common fiberglass type—the door panels are often solid and are simply molded to resemble the classic raised-panel door. 

The popularity of this look ensures that you can find raised-panel garage doors in all materials, including wood, fiberglass, aluminum, or steel, and with a full list of garage door options from which to choose.

Traditional-Style Doors

Leading manufacturers offer garage door styles that will complement any major, well-recognized American architectural style (Cape, Colonial, Victorian, Ranch, Craftsman), or European style (French Country, Spanish, Mediterranean, Tudor). Almost all can be special-ordered in a variety of materials and colors, allowing you to closely match the style of your home, whether that means northern European Tudor, southern Mediterranean, or American Prairie style. The best availability will be with doors using the now-standard roll-up mechanism, in which horizontal, hinged panels bend at the seams as they roll up on overhead tracks. 

Carriage Doors

Carriage-style garage doors are very popular choices for a variety of house styles. They generally replicate the look of doors found on old carriage houses, but they can look quite good even on many contemporary homes. Traditional carriage doors swung open manually from the center, but you can find modern carriage door models that fold open with automatic openers while still offering the charm of traditional swing doors.

Contemporary Slab Doors

Matching house styles with garage door styles is perhaps never more important than with contemporary designs. A modern house design that features clean lines and high-tech materials should include a similar type of garage door. Doors with tempered glass panels (clear, frosted, or tinted) encased in painted aluminum frames are one popular choice.

Also returning to popularity in some retro-modern home designs are slab doors, in which the door opens by folding up as one single panel, rather than as three or four separate horizontal panels that bend at hinges as the door raises. Like carriage doors, slab doors require a specialized automatic opener.