Siding color. You don't want them white because if they are white, it will be the first thing you see on the front. Our eye is always attracted to the lightest object in a sea of dark. Unless of course you want the garage doors to be the focal point of your house.

Can't tell from your drawing if there is trim around the garage doors like you have on the windows. If so, you'll have crisp white outlining your dark garage doors (if you do siding color) and that always looks off to me and makes them stand out. With dark siding and front facing garages this is often an issue. You might pull one of the darker tones out of your stone for the garage doors - straddle between your white trim and your siding color. Don't think of yourself as limited to either/or siding/trim colors - gradations can add interest and depth.

eta - I love your house! can't wait to see more.

CP..I do not want them to stand out. So you do not think the color is too dark. Thank you. Right now there is white trim around the opening...and the frame for the garage door is white. Do you think that should be dark too?

ETA..what color did you decide to paint your garage doors? Thanks.

DLM...yes, there is white trim around the door and the framing for the doors.

I hadn't even considered using a different color other than white or the dark color of the siding. Great idea. I will start looking for pictures. In either case it makes the decision easy to order the primed door. So far no one thinks I should have a white door...except dh.

Thanks for the kind words on my house. Martha did a great job. I am happy with it. More pics as we progress.

Siding color - my neighbors have their garage doors painted black and they are a direct southern exposure. They also have white trim around them, The shutters on their brick front house are black (thus the color choice). They look really nice. I'll snap a pic later if I can do it unobtrusively.

Thanks Janni..that would be helpful.

ETA..what color did you decide to paint your garage doors? Thanks.

The house color. This was before the rock trim was added.

Here is a corner with the trim added. The problem is the painters need to come back and paint the sides of the trim the dark green to give the trim depth. They painted the sides of the trim the house color which flattens the look of the trim.

Looks awesome. I can't believe how much difference your stone makes.

DH didn't believe me that the door should be painted the same color as our dark house siding. I showed him your post then showed him your website and some of your artwork to give you cred!

Of course he wouldn't take my word for it, lol.

PPF...I just saw this. Bless you! This helps so much. I really appreciate it so much. I think your renderings clearly illustrate that dark is the way to go.

PPF...I hate to be a pest but can I ask you a favor? Will you take rendering #3, and make the garage trim the same color as the garage door? Essentially change the white to match the garage paint.

thank you again.

"Does this make the garage shape too big and over scaled for the rest of the house", he asked? "Yes", he answered! "Don't do it--it dwarfs the rest of the facade!" :-)

Agree with Virgil. You need the trim to break up the large mass of space.

I choose view number three. Dark doors, white matching trim. The doors do recede in a good way, but the mass doesn't overwhelm. I was surprised by the last rendering. Who would have thought the mass would become so huge? I'm glad you asked for a rendering. A picture is worth a thousand words.

People often forget (and some never knew), that garage doors are often the single largest architectural element on the façade of a house. When there are more than a single car garage door, the dominance is usually overwhelming.

Compare the image of a house with 2-3-4 or more garage doors visible from the street with older houses which had an alley and the garage behind the house. Which of the two houses looks more appealing and retains its inviting residential image longer over time?

So...add to the size, scale and proportion of the garage door(s) the façade in which the garage doors are located, and you usually have a scale buster (architectural jargon) on your hands!

It's one of the primary reasons many professionals on this forum advise against having the garage doors visible from the front of the house, especially if they project forward of the rest of the house and create the dreaded "snout garage".

Yes, I definitely agree with you all that we need to keep the white trim but it took the rendering without the white trim to actually visualize it. So thanks PPF.

so, I will do the dark garage doors with the white trim. And thanks to all for helping me work through this decision and not feel like I will be second guessing this one.

Virgil..I agree with you. I really would have much preferred to have a side or back garage but my building envelope limited what we could do on our lake lot.

and I didn't want to have this view out the back of my garage ;-) It would have been so wasted!

here's the neighbors house.... I find the black look much more appealing than the white blobs.

I agree Janni (the sleuth ;-)

Siding color, or a darker color, with trim as white.