Should you match your garage & front door?

It’s a very common question! Urban Front co-founder and designer, Elizabeth Assaf discusses how to approach the particular challenge of matching your garage and front doors.

“I was talking to one of our clients the other day and it dawned on me how difficult choosing a garage door really is. There is definitely a tendency to match all the doors on the same elevation. But – and here is the million dollar question - is it necessary? What are the main elements that should be considered when making this tricky decision?”

Elizabeth advises the following:

This contemporary house features a minimalist colour scheme, so the owners have chosen to highlight their front door by choosing a natural hardwood finish

A different style front door creates impact in glass walling | Urban Front

1. Decide if one door is more important to you than the other

Consider whether the front door needs to take precedence. Should it stand out more than a garage door? If this is the case and the garage door could overpower or overshadow the front door. Then choosing a front door in a different colour, a different finish, or in a design that shouts ‘look at me’ would be the better option.

These matching front & garage doors work well in this property that features a lot of different glass and stonework

2. Match the door styles if the rest of your building features multiple design elements

Matching the front and garage doors can work really well if there are quite a few design elements going on in the building already.

If for example your property is made up of different combinations of stonework or wood panelling and there are different colours already vying for attention. Then you will probably want to add balance back in by maintaining the same design and finish across both your front and garage doors.

Matching front & garage doors positioned close together | Urban Front

Matching white front & garage doors positioned close together | Urban Front

These matching doors work well together in close proximity

3. Match the door styles if they are positioned very close together

When this happens, it makes less sense to choose different front door and garage styles as it will impact the overall visual appeal.

Here the front & garage door designs match, but the glass panel in the front door adds a point of difference and ties in with the contemporary glass styling of the rest of the building

A simple design difference but the same finish help the front & garage doors work well together in this farmhouse renovation

4. Minimise the risk by tweaking just one visual element

For example, you could consider changing the design but not the finish. So the front and garage door could both be in oak but have different designs – this could be because there is cladding and the garage door needs to blend in with it or it could be that there is a need for the garage and front door to blend in with the wall.

And there you have it!

There is no right or wrong answer when it comes to matching your garage and front doors. As our examples show, rebelling and being different could actually make or break the end result of your elevation.