Door Design Elements

Before getting into the details of your garage door design, you’ll need to choose a size. Many designs can be multiplied, stretched, or compressed to accommodate the dimensions you need.

For more specific information, please use our photo gallery and/or drawing gallery to get a better understanding of the size you want.

Single doors are typically 8-9’ wide and 7-8’ high, but they can vary greatly and may be up to 12’ wide.

Double doors are over 12’ wide, but are most often 16-18’ wide and 7-9’ high. In most cases, they look like two single doors placed side-by-side.

The majority of garage doors we construct are overhead-acting, sectional roll-up products that look like classic carriage house doors. However, we also offer true swing, slider, and pedestrian doors that are engineered to meet your specific needs.

Basic door styles like swing-out, bifold, trifold, and barn can be identified based on whether they swing, fold, or operate via a combination of both. It’s also important to consider how many implied moving parts there would be if the door were installed in a traditional carriage house.

Barn doors are usually swing doors that have fewer windows in them, but they can also be sliders.

A Traditional Stile and Rail door is a description of the way the first overhead doors were made and they are still in production today. The same style designations still apply but the doors look a little different. These doors visibly show the construction method with the very visible vertical stiles and horizontal rails. The rails become a design feature in any door style and will be noticeable at every section break in your door design.

The first overhead garage doors on the market were described as stile and rail, and they’re still in production today. Unlike some of our doors, these products show the construction method through visible vertical stiles and horizontal rails. In this way, the rails are design features that are noticeable at each door section break.

We also offer contemporary garage doors that offer a unique look for mid-century modern and craftsman homes. These fully customized products are available in nearly any size.

Designing the top section of your door starts with three basic questions:

1. Do you want windows, or do you prefer a solid top without glass?
2. Do you want a square top or an arched top?
3. Do you want an overhead door or a true-swing model?

Square top doors are the most common design on the market. Most arch top doors featured simulated arches, which means there is an arch in the top section, but the door itself is square. True arch tops are available only for true-swing doors, and overhead doors can only have square tops.

We offer both standard and custom arch tops designed to perfectly match your garage door opening. You can also opt for an ellipse top, which incorporates two different circle dimensions. Keep in mind that ellipse tops cost more to manufacture.

The number of windows you can add to your garage door depends largely on the style you choose. For example, swing doors have two areas for windows, trifold have three, and bifold have four. If you design a custom door, you can incorporate as many windows as you like.

Each garage door window has a certain number of panes, which we refer to as lites. We offer mullioned, prairie, and custom lites to meet the design aesthetic of any home. Mullioned lites are created when the door frame divides a window into more sets than is typical for that door style. And prairie lites are a window grille style with square corner lites and a large middle area of glass.

You can choose from two divided lite styles: simulated and true. Simulated divided lites have one large pane of glass and exterior grilles that divide the window into lites. With true divided lites, each lite in the window is a separate piece of glass with its own exterior frame and interior stop.

There are three important questions to ask yourself during the process of selecting the panel details for your garage door:

1. How many panels do I want?
2. What kind of panels do I want?
3. Will I be adding any trim boards on the panels?

The number of panels on your garage door depends largely upon its style, which dictates the minimum number of panels it can have. It’s also important to consider the relationship between the number of door panels you choose and their alignment with your window grille pattern.

Traditional Stile & Rail SWING style – Multiples of 2

Trifold-Multiples of 3

We offer a wide variety of panel options in multiple directions to meet any design requirement. Keep in mind that not all panel options are available for every door.

Trim boards are decorative elements that can be added to your carriage house-style door to enhance its visual appeal. We offer a wide range of trim options to frame your door, divide it into parts, or separate windows from the rest of the door face. Please note that the door style you choose will impact the way trim boards can be applied and that most trim boards look best in pairs.

Cross Buck examples:

V-Buck examples:

Z-Buck (A-Bucks) examples are:

Cross rail examples are:

Sprung Bucks: