Definitely hide them if you can! Carriage house doors are more attractive than standard doors, for sure, but not as pretty as the rest of your house. Because of their size, they also tend to draw attention away from the rest of the details of your house. When you see a house with a front loading garage, the garage doors are what you notice, not the front door, windows, landscaping, etc.

Nothing says you can't get carriage house doors on the side - that is what we are planning to do . . .

ahhh.. yes, guess you're right come to think about it! I WAS noticing the garage's more than the houses! LOL.

Due to the width of our lot, our garage doors are in the front. At first we were really hesitant about them being in the front. To minimize it's presence, we built it about 30 ft back from the house. We also attached it with a little hallway so that it has the appearance of being a detached garage. We also did carriage style doors that we might paint. We are satisfied with how it turned out.

Here is a link that might be useful:

What a beautiful, traditional foursquare, mgabriel!

I am in the minority. I actually chose my garage door to be in the front of the house. I wanted to see who pulled into my driveway from my front windows. I wanted people to come to my front door, even if my garage door was up. For some reason I just like the feel of having all the "action" in the front of the house, rather than the side. But that's just me! :)

While the carriage ones are more attractive than their brethren, I don't know of anyone who thinks any garage doors are attractive enough for "font and center" street display. Way too many homes on smaller lots with front entry doors look like garages with the attached houses done as an afterthought.

Mgabriel, you've done a wonderful job at minimizing your front entry garage doors and emphasizing the house. You might want to play with Photoshop and see what the doors would look like painted the house body color. You might also paint the trim around them the house color, or a slight variation of that if you'd like them to recede further into the background and leave the emphasis on the beautiful home.

Have you looked at courtyard style garage (side loading but on the front of the house)? It really adds to the amount of house visible upon approach. We loved how this looks, especially with a circular driveway and made it a requirement when we were selecting plans.
Here's a pic...
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mgabriel, you really did make your garage look detached!

aduncan, yes - we currently have a courtyard garage. We are building on 5 acres, so we will go with a side entry garage. I wish I took a few pictures of the 2 homes I saw with the front loading carriage house garage doors. Thinking about it - it was the whole setting that made these look more beautiful than normal. Big, live oak trees, brick paver drives, etc... it was the "whole' package, and the houses were older, well established, and just oozed charm.

The usual architectural preference is to reduce the visual impact of the garages with the courtyard arrangement (as above) or putting them to the side or rear.

However, even in uber luxury homes, the front placement is still seen.



Interestingly, on the architect's webpage none of the photos of the above home show the garage placement.

By contrast, luxury bungalows of the 1950s usually featured a prominent row of garages. The more doors you displayed, the more obviously affluent you were.

I am actually in the process of deciding whether I should do courtyard style or use beautiful carriage doors on the front (but they will be built 20-30 ft back from the house like mgabriel). We at first preferred the garages on the sides but due to the lot size, if we do that it will make the home smaller. If we still want to keep our home a decent size, we will pretty much have to show the garages. Still doing research to get an idea of what fits better. If anyone has images of beautiful garages on homes that can share on here that will be greatly appreciated! Or if you images of homes with garages built a few feets back from the house to share? Thank you!!

We have 2 garages that are side entry and one that is front entry. Hopefully they do not dominate the front elevation.

Front entry:

topman, you can do courtyard style WITH carriage house doors. Thats what we're doing.

@aduncan81: Our builder told us that if we do courtyard style, it's going to make the heated area in the home too small so they won't suggest that (though doing courtyard style is an option). Now I'm facing a dilenma, if I have to be stuck with having garages facing front, I want to see what kind of things I can do to make them look nicer apart from setting them back a few ft from the house front. If it's hard to make them look nice regardless, we may go for the courtyard style and get a smaller heated space.

@pps7: Beautiful!

if room is an issue put them in the front. you will grow to hate a situation where it tough to get in and out of.

topman, I don't think you have to feel "stuck". I have seen some BEAUTIFUL, very expensive homes with fantastic looking garage doors! So pretty looking that it actually made me think about putting them on the front, and the reason I even started this thread. I'm sure it's the "whole" package thing that will make them look the nicest, right color, right style for house, etc.. just need to spend lots of time googling for pictures.

Some more than decent doors here.

And nearly 8 million door picshere.

Nice treatment on the brick pps7.

@tinker_2006 - yea I really like the lot that we are going to build the house on but the garage issue is something that is bothering me now. I agree with you that I should take a step back and not to think of having them built up front as a situation that I get stuck in. I hope to see some more beautiful pictures of front loaded garage home plan to change this mindset and to enjoy more if a home will have to built this way! =p

@worth - thank you!

pps7..nice doors and brick!

we insisted on side entry (and rear), but in hindsight would have been OK with front entry since the doors look good (IMHO).

It all depends on your situation, and sometimes the style of your house.

If you are building an "old new house", or a very traditional house, you definitely do not want a front facing garage. For that matter, detached or backyard attached garages would be best. In my searches, and IRL, I've seen quite a few plans for Queen Anne victorians with a giant front load garage tacked on!

For most homes, I think a side-load garage is preferable.

Sometimes the situation calls for something different. If your lot is narrow a side-load isn't practical.

Or, if you are building on a lot that you want to keep as many trees/forest as possible, and the house footprint as low as possible, that person may choose to have the garage under the main roof.

I think a lot of it just depends on the style of house and your particular situation.

Tinker, what style will your house be?

milz50

An inventive detailed consistent build on an interesting site. But then I'm a sucker for traditional and lots of masonry. (I checked out the link too.)

@krycek1984: The house will be built with a mix of bricks/stones/cedar shake with the 2 single-door garages set back 20-25 ft from the front of the house. Apart from googling pictures of nice garage doors, I am also looking through pictures if paving the driveway with bricks/flagstones etc may help beautify curb appeal. I also wonder if paving the driveway that way will help make the garage less dorminant. A friend also suggests using gas lantern by the garages to give that side of the home a more grand feeling or to not to set back both garages at the same distance to give more elevation. What do you all think these suggestions? Looks like there are many options, and I agree with you that it will all depend on the style and how the whole picture looks. Looks like a lot of research/digging through pictures need to be done here! :) The hard part of customing a home is that a lot of imagination is required!

I'm in the minorority with teach207. I *like* and *prefer* front entry garages.

I am a function over form person, and with few exceptions, I think side entry garages are hard to maneuver around, especially if you have to park a car in the driveway as well. Since they are hard to use, I consider them unattractive--I see the house and think "that doesn't work". The ones that have enough room for maneuvering tend to have a *whole lot* of concrete.

The only time I'd personally consider a side entry garage is if I could still have a straight driveway entering into the garage (a corner lot or a large lot with plenty of approach room).

The other thing is that I like people to approach my house from the front, not from the side. I want them coming to the front door--I especailly dislike side entry garages that "lead" people to a side door of the house.

Yes, I have strong opinions about this :-)

We wouldn't have had room to build the house we wanted on this lot if we'd used a side entry garage--but that was okay with us--since we didn't want one. (My husband doesn't object as strongly as I do, but he's a better backer-upper than I am). That may mean difficulties selling some day (and I like kitchen peninsulas better than islands, too) but unlike most of my friends with side entry garages, I haven't had a fender bender in my own driveway.

bethohio, those are all reasonable and good observations. Well said!

Speaking of which, in my neighborhood, there's an old Gothic Revival Victorian with a side-load carriage house, but it's on the corner and the lot is so small, it may as well be front loader. If you guys are interested, I can take a picture of it. It actually looked really nice.

Yes I would like to see more pictures with nice front entry garages if not too much troubles.

OK, here it is. It's a Gothic Victorian down the street. I love this house. The garage matches very well. This is the "side" of the house but might as well be the front.