Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Clopay. Clopay provided the three garage doors on our house at no cost in exchange for this post and other content. We paid for the installation and bought our garage door openers ourselves. Everything here is our own experience and opinion.
When we were planning our new house here in Tennessee, the garage doors were never going to be an afterthought. They’re a big part of how the outside of the house looks, so they needed to fit it just as well as the stone and the rooflines do.
We actually used Clopay Canyon Ridge doors on our last house, too, after I talked myself out of real wood (I wrote all about that decision here). In this post, I’m sharing how we chose the design and windows for this house, how we matched the color to our siding and trim, how we used Clopay’s EZDoor visualizer, what the doors are made of, and what to plan before you order.
How to Choose Carriage House Garage Doors for an English Cottage
Henry designed this house with garage doors on two levels: a two-car garage in its own wing off the stone main house on the main level, plus a drive-under garage in the basement. That’s three Clopay doors in all, and we wanted them to look like they belong from a design standpoint. Here’s how we chose them.
Narrow It Down, Then See It on Your House
Clopay’s Canyon Ridge line has a lot of looks to choose from. We originally wanted to go with the Canyon Ridge Chevron, but after using the EZDoor Visulaizer to try different designs and windows on a photo of our own house, we landed on a more traditional look. Our doors are the Canyon Ridge 5-Layer in Design 11 with REC14 windows. Seeing it on our house made the decision so much easier. (More on how we used EZDoor below.)
If you’re choosing doors for your own home, I’d do it in that order: figure out what your house needs first, and then try the options on a photo of your house. If you only scroll through every style, it’s easy to fall in love with a door that would look amazing on someone else’s house.
Get the Proportions Right: Single Doors, Each in Its Own Opening
On a cottage, Henry almost always chooses single doors over one double-wide door. A single 9′ x 8′ door is close to the proportions of an old pair of swing-out carriage doors. On our main-level garage, the wall between the two openings gives us room for a light above each door and a planter at each pier, which is one of my favorite details on the house. Each door sits in its own trimmed opening, so the garage wing reads as two separate bays rather than one long stretch of garage door.
Design 11 helps, too. The vertical boards, the center stile that makes each door look like a pair, and the simple top section are all details you’d find on a real carriage house.
Windows: Keep Them to One Row Up Top
REC14 is a single row of rectangular windows across the top of the door, and that’s exactly where we wanted the glass. It lets a little daylight into the garage, keeps the glass above eye level for privacy, and ties in with the divided-lite windows on the rest of the house. Big glass sections can make a carriage door feel modern really quickly, and with no windows at all, a dark door can start to look heavy.
Trying Doors on Our Own Photo With EZDoor
EZDoor, Clopay’s online visualizer, is how we chose our design and windows before we ordered anything. You upload a photo of your house, choose a door, and try different designs and window options right on your house. You can save what you come up with, share it, or send it to a local Clopay dealer for a quote.
A quick tip if you try it: use a clear daytime photo taken straight on, and move the cars and trash cans out of the way first. You want to be judging the door, not everything around it.
Choosing a Door Color: Matching Our Siding and Trim
The color was the one decision we’d made from the start. We already knew we wanted the garage doors to be the same color as our siding and trim, Sherwin-Williams SW 7020 Black Fox, a deep, warm brown-black.
Clopay’s Color Blast program is what made that possible, because it let us match our Black Fox exactly with a factory finish. Color Blast is available in most of Sherwin-Williams’ 1,500-plus colors. The finish is applied by professional painters in a controlled environment, and Clopay backs it with a five-year warranty.
What a Canyon Ridge 5-Layer Door Is Made Of
From the inside out, each door has five layers: a steel base, 2 inches of Intellicore polyurethane insulation, a second layer of steel, composite cladding and composite overlays. The composite is molded from real wood boards, so you get the texture of wood without the rot and warping that real wood can bring. Clopay recommended composite mahogany cladding and overlays for a smooth painted finish.
Plan These Before You Order Carriage House Garage Doors
- Let the dealer measure the openings. Your local dealer will schedule a site inspection prior to ordering your doors to confirm the measurements and any special requirements for the track. They will place the order based on that information and give you an estimated ship date.
- Plan for the lead time on a custom color. The standard lead time for Canyon Ridge doors is 6–8 weeks. A custom Color Blast finish can add extra time to the order. Our doors went on order in late January and were scheduled to ship from Clopay’s plant in Troy, Ohio, on March 20.
- Install after the messy work is done. You don’t want a brand-new factory finish sitting in the middle of active construction, so schedule the install around the trades.
- Budget for installation and openers. You pay the dealer directly for installation. Openers aren’t part of the standard garage door, even though a lot of people assume they are. If you’re replacing an existing door, you may be able to keep your current opener if it’s newer and has the features you want. On a new build, you’ll need to purchase openers separately, and Clopay doesn’t manufacture them.
The Reveal
Our Garage Door Specs
- Door: Clopay Canyon Ridge Carriage House (5-Layer)
- Design: Design 11
- Windows: REC14
- Doors and size: Three single doors, each 9′ x 8′: two on the main-level garage and one on the drive-under basement garage
- Cladding and overlays: Composite mahogany
- Color: Sherwin-Williams SW 7020 Black Fox to match our siding and trim, factory-painted through Color Blast
- Insulation: 2″ Intellicore polyurethane, R-value 20.4 (per Clopay)
- Dealer and installer: Doors Unlimited
Our Final Thoughts
What made the biggest difference for us was deciding on the doors early, while the house was still being designed, so they ended up as part of the plan instead of a last-minute choice. With the right doors, both the main garage and the drive-under garage feel like they’ve always been part of the house.
If you’re choosing doors for your own home, try a few designs on a photo of your house with EZDoor, or take a closer look at the Canyon Ridge 5-Layer doors. For more on the style, here’s how we design an English cottage. And if you love this house as much as we do, you can see the full house plan.
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