From parking your car and lawn equipment to storing holiday decorations and baby clothes, the benefits of a garage are easy to see. Of course, maintaining the look and function of your garage is important for your home's appeal and value, so focusing on cleaning and updating your garage door is smart as a homeowner. While replacing your garage door may offer an 88.4 percent return on investment, the project is a large expense. Thankfully, making your garage gorgeous with a few simple, inexpensive updates is possible. Using these simple solutions for updating your garage door, you can boost your home's overall value and curb appeal.
Perfect with Paint
Using your pressure washer and a simple coat of paint on your garage door, you can add amazing appeal to your home.
To get started, use a broom to sweep away light dirt, dust, and cobwebs from your garage door and home's exterior. Use a light-duty pressure washer, which offers 2000 or less PSI, or pounds per square inch of water pressure. Attach the pressure washer's hose to your outdoor spigot before spraying down your garage door. Use side-sweeping motions to wash off a large area efficiently. Allow time for the garage door to dry.
Create an elegant, appealing look with a gel stain paint in a wood tone color. Apply a coat of primer first to prep your garage door for the gel stain. Once the primer dries, apply a coat of the gel stain with a foam brush. Use a combination of horizontal and vertical brush strokes to create a faux wood look. Be sure the gel stain dries overnight before applying a second coat.
Create Classic Carriage Style
Your garage door may be an ordinary piece of metal that lacks unique appeal, but you can create a classic look with a few inexpensive pieces of hardware.
Visit your local hardware or home improvement store and purchase a carriage hardware set for your garage door. Each set includes four, wrought iron accent pieces that resemble the hinges of a carriage door. In addition, the kit includes two matching handles for decorative purposes.
After cleaning the door, use your screwdriver or drill to attach the wrought iron hinges to the four corners of your door. Be sure the narrow end of each piece faces in towards the middle of your door. Then, affix the handles vertically in the center of your garage door.
The carriage hardware kits for your garage add a classic look to your home's exterior that will never go out of style.
Treat your Garage with a Trellis
Landscaping is also an important element of your home's curb appeal and value, so incorporating trailing plants and vines around your garage door offers the best of both worlds in terms of home updates. To build an inexpensive trellis around your one-car garage, complete the following steps:
- Purchase pre-made l-shaped brackets from your local hardware store. Use wood if possible. Connect a bracket to the top left and right corner over your garage door frame.
- Build the trellis top using 3 pieces of wood, sanded and painted to match the l-shaped brackets. Single car garage doors begin at a width of 8 feet, so the rafter boards should each measure 2x6x12. Run the 3 boards across the length of your garage door, connecting the ends to your brackets using wood screws.
- Finish the trellis design with purlins, which are thinner pieces of wood that cross the rafter boards on your trellis. Use 2x2 pressure-treated balusters from your local lumbar retailer for the purlins. Cut multiple balusters to approximately 28 inches. Lay the purlins across the rafter boards, measuring 6 inches between each purlin. Attach the purlins to the rafter boards using wood decking screws.
- Run trailing ivy or a climbing rose across the top of the trellis for a dramatic look that does not cost a fortune.
Enhancing your ordinary garage door does not have to be difficult or costly. Using these simple solutions, you can increase your home's curb appeal while making your garage gorgeous. Don't let the aesthetics keep you form focusing on garage door repair maintenance through a company like AAA Garage Door, Inc. however.
