When The Garage Becomes A Highlight of Your Home's Exterior

We purchased our garage doors at a discount from Cambek Designer Doors. All opinions are our own. 

The cold is rolling in quick here, but our exterior renovation is all but wrapped. We've been so excited to share all these details (like the gas lanterns we shared yesterday) and are ready to keep that rolling with our garage doors today! And you won't believe the impact they've had. But first, let's remember where we started:

Yes, I know this picture shows our license plate. On a vehicle long-since sold, with a plate longer-since replaced. So don't let that distract you from all the awkwardness happening in this photo. Lot's to unpack, but the garage itself is where we're looking. The white resin columns propped up an unnecessary overhang whose pitch didn't meet code. To combat that, it was topped with vinyl instead of shingles so snow and water would runoff better.

Fun fact - the columns weren't actually attached to anything. They were wedged in place, with some screws added around the edges to keep them from moving around. Not exactly standard procedure. The overhang also leaked like a sieve, because transitioning roofing materials and not maintaining proper pitch will always cause that, vinyl or not.

That picture gives me anxiety, my heavens. But it was a necessary stage in the process, and we're happy to be on the other side of it! We took out the columns, removed the overhang, replaced and unified the roof material, aaaaaaand... added stone:

And as amazing as that stone looks, the garage doors were unfortunately killing the vibe, big time. We knew the design really needed new doors to become what it could be, so after consulting with Studio McGee (in case you missed it somehow - they made the design plan for our exterior for us) we decided to swap the current metal doors with new doors from Cambek.

Mind blown. This was it. As soon as we saw the first panel going in on the first door, we knew the house we moved into was no more. This house was finally Our house. And when garage doors become one of the highlights, you know it's good.

We replaced the garage doors in our last home, but commissioning Cambek was a different thing entirely. Each door was designed and built to the exact curve and dimensions of each opening. Even a lot of "custom" garage door companies won't go that far.

Another challenge we threw at them was our stone. We wanted the doors sealing right against the backs of the stone so there wasn't a visible weather seal along the edge. Cambek worked in a Reverse Angle Seal, allowing the doors to seal flush to the backs of the stone, evening out the imperfections and creating a super weather-tight enclosure. Details you definitely notice, but don't notice that you notice. If that makes sense.

Knowing how to get garage doors to end up like what you imagine they should be is intimidating. Cambek worked with us through every step - they spoke with us, with our installer, made sure all of our measurements and mockups were accurate. As for color matching - we simply gave them the paint brand, color name, and sheen of what we wanted (Benjamin Moore, Graphite, Satin, to echo the paneled areas on our exterior) and the doors came perfectly matched.

Of course the doors are part of an entire ensemble. The roof tile, the new windows, the copper cutters, and sconces (ignore the white handrail and old kitchen window - those will both get replaced with our kitchen renovation in the spring).

And while we have almost always worked as we went, updating one thing one year, another the next, so on and so forth until an entire space is done - having all of these exterior details come together at the same time just feels... unified. Accomplished. On purpose.

So there it is. The eye-sorest part of our home, which faced directly toward a main road and was seen constantly, has now become a jaw-dropping moment causing 10-15 cars a day to slow down, to pull over, to take pictures. It's so fun to look out our window and see people across the street examining our home. Spouses and partners pointing things out to one another and nodding emphatically. Because what this house is turning into, is anything but standard.