These are my top five favorite carriage house doors. A carriage house door to me would be one that you’ll see paired with decorative hardware, the decorative handles and strap hinges made to look like a pair of swing-out doors rather than a standard overhead door. It is a standard overhead door and works just like your regular garage door, but looks like a pair of swing-outs.
5. Fimbel Euro Door
The Euro Door from Fimbel is my number 5 pick. Fimble is based out of White House, New Jersey, and is credited with some of the first overhead-style doors way back in the 20s. They’ve been around a long time and they make a product with composite material.
It’s a vinyl composite, almost like PVC. So if you look at it, it’s an insulated wood frame. Then on the front, it has a layer of their composite material. The design actually gets routered into the door. The nice thing about that is, especially if you keep it white if it gets scratched or dinged up, you really don’t see it just blends in since the material is white all the way through.
It looks very much like a real wood door. But the problem with real wood is it requires a lot of maintenance. These doors really don’t require any maintenance because it’s like a PVC material, almost like plastic. You just wash it down and keep it clean. There is not much you have to do with those doors and they look fantastic. They come in all different designs and sizes and Fimbel offers complete customization on most of their doors. it’s just a really cool, unique door you don’t see often.
4. Amarr Classica Carriage House Garage Door
Next, we move on to number my number four the Amarr Classica. Now, the Amarr Classica is an interesting door it comes in a variety of different designs that fall under the Classica line including, the Tuscany, Northampton, and the Lucern if you looking for crossbucks.
Built just like a traditional triple layer steel door where it’s a steal front skin, a steal back, and insulation in the middle. They do make hollow and vinyl back models, but we mostly stick to the 3000 model that only comes in a two-inch polyurethane so you get a great R-value. The nice thing with the Classica is it boasts a seven-foot tall and eight-foot-tall door They can do three-section doors. For the 8ft tall doors, they do three 32-inch sections. So you still have that traditional carriage house look with the nice big glass section with three panels, really looking like a swing-out carriage type of door. The Classica is a very popular door. We do a lot of them, and it’s just a unique look that you really don’t see from any of the other manufacturers in a stamped steel door. That is why I have it at number 4.
3. Overlay Garage Door (Clopay Coachman and Canyon Ridge.)
My number three favorite carriage house door would be your overlay doors specifically, I’d be talking about the Clopay Coachman or its faux wood grain brother, the Canyon Ridge. These are both overlay doors, which is basically when they take a flush steel door and then add another layer of the overlay on top to give it some depth.
You are going to have Built-In windows rather than an insert. It’s also going to have a lot more character to the design, having the overlays give it a lot of character rather than just being stamped into the steel.
We do a fair amount of them, and with these, again, similar to the Classica, there’s a whole range of different styles that you can get in just that one door. You can have crossbuck or vertical lines and a whole lot more. These doors give off a very unique look.
2. Wood Carriage House Garage Doors
My number two is going to be kind of a blanket term. It’s going to be your custom wood carriage house doors Now, we don’t do a whole lot of these, mainly because of the maintenance, and they’re a bit pricey. They’re all custom and made to order. You can get anything you want with these doors. You can even draw a picture of what you want and they’ll make it. They’ll make just about anything. You can pick your different woods all completely customizable. They add a lot of character too, especially for older historical homes.
Being in northern New Jersey, we have a lot of homes that are very old, 100 years plus, that these wood doors look gorgeous on. Built like a piece of furniture there is nothing like a true all-wood garage door, but again, the big issue with the real wood door is maintenance.
If you want that door to stay looking perfect and pristine like the day when it is installed, then you need to be addressing the door in some way, whether it’s stripping and restaining or, repainting every 3-5 years. As soon as moisture gets into that wood, it becomes a problem.
That’s the biggest drawback to the wood door, and they are very expensive being that most of them now are all custom made. We usually get them through Amarr by Design, which comes from Carriage House, or Artisan through General Doors.
They are fabulous doors that if the budget allows and the house calls for it, it’s definitely something you want to consider.
1. Amarr Hillcrest Carriage House Garage Doors
My number one carriage house door is the Amarr Hillcrest, which is your four-section carriage house door. Made very similar to the traditional raised panel door, but has the carriage house stamping patterns. These are very affordable. It’s only a little bit more than the traditional raised panel, and you can pair it with the straps and handles and get that carriage house look for not a lot of money compared to the other carriage house door options.
They do a couple of different stampings for this one like a short panel bead board, a long panel bead board, also a recessed panel, which is like a Shaker style. I personally like the long panel beat board, maybe because I’ve installed so many.
Every manufacturer has something similar to that, a four-section carriage house door. General also does their carriage house Advantage Estate it’s only offered in a short panel bead board, but they use a recessed bead board that has a lot of detail to it, which you don’t get from some of the other manufacturers. We do a lot of those and we love that door. It’s like I said, a very economical option to get that carriage house look but only be spending a little bit more than you would have for a standard raised panel door.
So that’s pretty much it. Again, those are my five favorite carriage house doors. Carriage House Doors, are very popular, especially in this area with a lot of older homes that really call for that carriage house look and really bring it home when you put that door on the front of your house and complete the look. Either a farmhouse or just your traditional house that you want to get a little of that country style going.
Please mentioned in the comments below your favorite carriage house doors and favorite garage doors in general or any questions or comments you might have.