The Craftsman architecture style has incredible longevity, looking just as attractive today as it did in the 20th century. If you own one of these homes, you live in a slice of American history. You'll want a garage door that honors the design and pairs well with your home, all while offering long-lasting materials that enhance your curb appeal.
This Craftsman-style garage door guide looks at some characteristics of this architectural style and how to choose a garage door for a Craftsman home.
Overview of Craftsman Architecture
With the name "Craftsman," these houses pay homage to the people who built things by hand. In the years before the Craftsman style emerged, Victorian-era homes reflected the new capabilities of the Industrial Revolution. They used mass-produced ornamental details and complex, multi-story designs. The Craftsman-style home rebelled against these concepts, celebrating hard-working artisans by emphasizing handmade goods, natural materials and simple shapes.
Gustav Stickley often receives credit for popularizing the idea and coining the name in his magazine, "The Craftsman." Stickley was a furniture maker who promoted the English Arts and Crafts movement in America. He also began publishing Craftsman home designs for readers. These options offered more accessibility and affordability than many Victorian options. Nowadays, you can find Craftsman homes throughout the United States, especially in California and the Midwest.
Characteristics of Craftsman Homes
The Craftsman home is all about simple and humble designs. Compared to heavily ornamented Victorian styles, the minimalism of the Craftsman style introduces clean lines and openness, leaving plenty of room to appreciate the beauty of organic materials like wood and stone. Craftsman homes also strive for balance through consistency and symmetry while building an inviting, comforting atmosphere with natural light and earthy tones.
Here are some of the design elements you can expect to see in different parts of a Craftsman home:
Roofs: A Craftsman-style roof is low-pitched with single or double gables. Its eaves overhang past the home's walls, showing off exposed rafters or beams and decorative elements like brackets and lintels.
Porch: Thanks to the overhanging eaves, Craftsman homes usually feature large porches. Tapered, thick columns surround the porch area.
Exterior walls: Wood siding is a popular fit for Craftsman homes, often paired with accents in stone or stucco. Historically, paint colors usually featured earth tones, such as green, light beige and white. While those options still work well, today's homeowners have a rainbow of options for painting a Craftsman house.
Windows: Many Craftsman-style homes have large bay windows to let natural lighting in. The windows mirror the roofing with small overhanging roof ledges and rafter tails.
Size: Craftsman houses usually stay simple, with just one or two stories that offer a stark contrast to tall Victorian homes.
Key Design Characteristics of Craftsman Garage Doors
Craftsman-style garage doors provide plenty of options for homeowners. From the cozy glow of a window to clean, repeating elements, garage doors can support your Craftsman home through complementary design elements, such as:
Symmetry: Since they take up so much space, Craftsman garage doors are a great way to establish symmetry in your home's exterior. You could paint it with colors that balance out your siding and trim, or you might break up the large space with multiple garage doors instead of one.
Consistency: Use elements that complement similar components of the house. For example, if you have black light fixtures on your home's exterior, use black hardware on your garage door. Try mirroring the shapes or materials of the door panels or windows to other elements of your home.
Natural elements: Celebrate natural beauty by incorporating the warmth of natural wood, either through a solid wood door or wood paneling. A Craftsman-style wood garage door may work especially well if it complements other natural elements. For instance, you could make your garage door the same wood species as your entryway door. These homes can mix many natural materials like wood, stone, metal and glass.
Lighting: Natural lighting works well in Craftsman homes and garages. Incorporating windows can connect your garage door to the rest of your house's design. It creates a cozy feel while providing more architectural variety. Use the garage's window to echo window shapes elsewhere in the home and maintain consistency.
Depending on the design of the rest of your home, you can achieve a Craftsman-style garage door in several ways. If you're not sure which approach to use, try a garage door visualizer tool to see how these different elements might look on your home.
Pairing Craftsman Garage Doors With Exterior Design Styles
Craftsman design overlaps with many other styles from the Arts and Crafts movement, so you can easily pair a Craftsman-style garage door with the following types of homes.
Bungalow
Is your home small and uncomplicated, with a low, sloping roof and wide porch? You might have a bungalow. This term refers to the form of the house, and the Craftsman style's cozy simplicity works well with bungalows — so much so that many people use "Craftsman home" and "bungalow" interchangeably. Still, bungalows can use many other architectural styles.
Complement a Craftsman-style bungalow with natural materials and horizontally lined panels. A carriage-house door can add a traditional element, and window panels with geometric designs offer simple, clean lines.
Foursquare
The American Foursquare home, featuring a boxy style, was popular in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Like Craftsman homes, it offers simplicity and affordability but adds a second story to maximize vertical space. The square-shaped design offers neatness and symmetry. You'll often find Foursquare homes with Craftsman design elements on the windows, eaves and porches.
Craftsman-style garage doors can complement the sturdy, robust feel of Foursquare homes. Wood and steel work well for offering this solidness. Consider raised panels or a carriage house door for a more traditional feel.
Mission Revival
Mission Revival homes draw inspiration from Spanish architecture, with elements like arched entryways, hand-carved detailing and stucco exteriors. You'll find plenty of overlap with Craftsman homes through exposed beams, natural materials and earth tones.
Like Foursquare, Mission Revival leaned on strong, sturdy appearances, so hefty wood doors often pair well with these houses. Try adding ornate decorative metal accents, such as grilles and straps, to tie a Craftsman garage door to a Mission Revival home.
Prairie
Prairie architecture uses low, wide structures emphasizing horizontal lines, like those common in the Midwest landscape. It shares the Craftsman focus on simplicity and functionality.
Complement a Prairie-style home by adding a garage door with clean, geometric patterns that go with the lines in your home's overall exterior. A prominent aspect of many Prairie homes is a large wall of windows placed in a row. Consider mirroring this design by adding multiple small windows to your garage door.
Craftsman-Style Garage Door Types
Even within the Craftsman style, you'll find many variations of garage doors. Here are some material options you can use to tailor your Craftsman garage door to your home's unique style.
Wood
With the Craftsman style's love of natural materials, solid wood is an excellent choice for this type of home. Handcrafted options are especially useful for emphasizing the elegant artistry of your house. Craftsman-style wood garage doors come in many tones and wood species, and you can paint or stain them to achieve earthy Craftsman colors. These doors work well as accents or larger elements of your home's exterior.
Functionally, wood is an insulator that can help reduce energy costs and noise levels. A wood garage door offers long-lasting beauty, but you must perform regular maintenance to keep it looking its best and combat the effects of moisture.
Consider the Clopay® Classic™ Wood garage door for traditional elegance. Another classy Craftsman option is the Reserve® Wood Custom and its timeless design.
Wood Composite
A wood composite Craftsman garage door offers the elegance of a wood door with the easy maintenance and affordability of another metal, like steel or aluminum. It has the warm, cozy aesthetic of wood and fits the Craftsman style's affinity for natural materials.
Some excellent choices for Craftsman-style wood composite garage doors include the Bridgeport™ Steel series and the Canyon Ridge® Carriage House. The Canyon Ridge® Carriage House design moves upward while offering the appearance of traditional swing-out doors.
Steel
Steel is extremely durable and stands up well to dents and changing weather, making it a good choice for homeowners in all-weather environments. A steel Craftsman-style garage door is lightweight, too, which can reduce strain on your garage door opening system.
While often used with wood composite, steel also looks great on its own or painted with the earth tones of this style. When paired with insulation layers, it offers strong energy efficiency.
The varied panel options and clean lines of steel Craftsman-style garage doors can effectively complement the linear elements of a Craftsman house. For example, the Gallery® Steel door series does an excellent job of incorporating lines through unique grooved panels. Also, consider decorative hardware, which can add traditional appeal.
Glass
If your Craftsman home leans toward contemporary, a garage door with large panes of glass can offer cozy natural light. At night, these windowed garage doors can provide an inviting, attractive glow from the curb. During the day, they let in sunlight, and you can maintain privacy with clear or frosted glass. Other glass options include colored tints and lined panels.
Aluminum frames offer lightweight, sturdy grids and varied colors for glass garage doors. In the Avante® series of doors, for instance, you can choose from anodized or painted frames with colors like bronze, chocolate, black and white and clear.
Cost Components of Craftsman-Style Garage Doors
Like most home investments, the cost of a Craftsman-style garage door can vary widely depending on your specifications. Whatever your budget looks like, you can find a garage door that complements a Craftsman home — and remember, a garage door replacement is one of the top remodeling projects for recouping your investment, so you might earn the money back when you sell. In 2023, Americans earned an average of 102.7% of the cost of a garage door through increased resale value.
Material
As you might imagine, high-quality materials will increase the upfront cost of a garage door, but they'll likely help it last longer without frequent maintenance. They may offer more security and stand up to the elements more effectively. Your material choice will affect cost significantly, but it also makes a big difference to the door's performance and aesthetic.
Additional elements, like windows, premium finishes and customizations, can contribute to the cost by increasing the required materials.
Size and Design
A larger door will naturally increase costs, with single garage doors costing less than double or specialty doors. Some panel and window styles are simpler and cheaper to manufacture than others, which can affect your overall costs. If you opt for Craftsman-style garage door hardware, like handles or rings on carriage-style doors, some options may also differ in price.
Insulation
Insulation is a crucial aspect to consider when buying a garage door. Since the door covers such a large portion of the wall, sufficient insulation blocks outside temperatures from driving up your energy bills and straining your heating and air conditioning system. Insulation also protects the contents of your garage from the effects of extreme temperatures.
Some materials, like wood, offer natural insulation, while others, such as steel, need additional insulation layers or specially designed materials. You can often choose how much insulation you want. For example, if you have a detached garage and don't store any temperature-sensitive items in it, you may be able to save with less insulation.
However, higher insulation could offer significant savings if you have an attached garage that would affect your home heating and cooling. You might also want more insulation if you spend a lot of time in the garage, such as working on cars or projects.
One other element to consider in garage door insulation is the seal between the door and the floor and sides. High-quality weatherstripping will cost more than a low-quality one that might wear out quickly.
Additional Security Features
Keeping your car and other pricey items safe is an essential role of any garage, and you may want extra security if your garage offers entry to your home. Some rugged door materials provide more security by being harder to break through, but you can also add items like:
Safety brackets to prevent injury when working with a closed door under tension.
Sensors to prevent you from leaving the door open or closing it when an object or person is in the path.
Pinch-resistant panels and hinges.
While you'll find basic options like an emergency door release in any garage door, higher-end security features might increase the price.
Trust Distribudoors for Your Craftsman-Style Garage Door Needs
Craftsman-style garage doors fit this timeless architectural style with modern functionality and plenty of options. Whether you want to embrace the elegance of hand-carved wood or achieve cohesive linear designs, Craftsman doors are a great choice. Whichever design elements you choose, you'll need a reliable partner on your side.
DistribuDoors has been bringing high-quality garage doors and in-house expertise to the greater Seattle area since 1985. As a Clopay Master Authorized Dealer®, we offer a vast selection of garage doors and services for installation, maintenance and garage door repairs.
Reach out today to request a free estimate, or visit our showroom in Algona to see some of our Craftsman doors in person.
The Craftsman architecture style has incredible longevity, looking just as attractive today as it did in the 20th century. If you own one of these homes, you live in a slice of American history. You'll want a garage door that honors the design and pairs well with your home, all while offering long-lasting materials that enhance your curb appeal.
This Craftsman-style garage door guide looks at some characteristics of this architectural style and how to choose a garage door for a Craftsman home.
Functionally, wood is an insulator that can help reduce energy costs and noise levels. A wood garage door offers long-lasting beauty, but you must perform regular maintenance to keep it looking its best and combat the effects of moisture.
Consider the Clopay® Classic™ Wood garage door for traditional elegance. Another classy Craftsman option is the Reserve® Wood Custom and its timeless design.
