It's hard for me to picture it all, but I'd vote for the one with the least directional contrast. When we bought our house, it had vertical siding and a curvy and rectilinear patterned garage door. The details were outlined with a contrasting color, which called further attention to it. It was very ugly!! The house was a nightmare of varying directions and textures. I'd go with "not busy".

opinionatedly yours,
stubborn taurus

We chose no windows simply for security reasons. Even though we're in a relatively low crime area, it's nice to be able to leave town and nobody can ever see whether the car is in the garage or not.

I liked the mock up that someone did of your house with the commercial door with the the 4 windows on top. I see where that would be three different directions of siding but I think that adds to the look.
Now I could be all wrong, I am really not sure. Just my first thought was that it was nice looking.
I know I am no help at all.

Ah, egganddart, DH is taurus--we get along *fabulously* :) I can hear you on the least directional contrast; I'm glad that you affirm that there are indeed design issues to be considered re the multi-directionality.

mimi, good point: we're planning to frost them inside so they'll be translucent but not transparent.

lyban--that would be the ribbed door. You think it's o.k.? It does look good in the mockup...argh...

Here is a link that might be useful: wish we could have 3 windows--unfortunately, it's 4

The trend is towards carriage-type doors (with hasps and handles) and no windows. As someone above mentioned, having no garage windows is an added safety feature.

Flyleft,
Did you see that Wayne-Dalton have a virtual mock up page where you can upload your own house and play around with the garage doors.
I still like the comm. ribbed door on your house. I love the carriage doors with their colonial type hardware but I don''t see it on your house.

lyban, we *wouldn't* use the hardware (hasps, handles, as kswl mentioned). It would be simple stiles/rails and no "jewelry". Think just rectangles. In that way it look most like the actual wood doors that are original to houses like these. But insulated :)

and lyban, meant to say that *yes*, I did see the visualizer--it's *great*, compared to others. We uploaded one of the photoshopped pics of our house and I have a flush door with windows all mocked up, colored in the same paint as the house color, ready to be printed out. Unfortunately, they can't show a ribbed door there, but that's where the great mockup in that second thread comes in. The W-D simulator has been a *huge* help, and I even have told the W-D dealers I've spoken with to pass that on if they're so inclined.

Flyleft,
Why not post the mock up you did with the W_D simulator and the one that spanky md did on here so that everyone can see the comparison.
It is very hard for us to visualize without the photoshopping. I so love your house that I hope you get good advice from everyone on here.

I just had new garage doors put up last month and if I must say so they are fabulous. A LOT of compliments, etc. I love them. My garage is side entry so as you drive down the street the garage door is the first thing you see. I dont' know how to post a pic or I would but it is a carriage style BUT NOT with the diagonal bars, etc. Has 4 long windows across the to and raised panels but then I did add the hardware to give it the barn door appearance (straps and hinges but NOT the fake door lifts at the bottom. that was a little busy looking...). But it just looks fantastic. I love the carriage style look but the traditional ones with the x thru the door or diagonal bars were just a little busier for me on my house so this was a compromise of sorts!

Gosh, lyban...you're asking a lot of my limited picture skills :) I'll try and figure out how to do it. I couldn't even find in my own files the pic I'd sent to my DH's computer so he could print it out. (And DH is in IT. It's completely embarrassing.)

And scottmel, how wonderful about your doors. Funny how important they are!

And an update of sorts: Taurus DH has decided overnight that he really prefers the ribbed, partly because we *still* haven't seen any flush doors, even new steel ones, that don't look "unfinished". He wants the ribbing rather than the Westfield stiles/rails because the ribbing with windows calls less attention to the door, weights that side of the house down less, than the thick painted stiles and rails of the Westfield would.

Hmmm, so now that makes me think should we maybe consider no painting of stiles and rails, so we'd have the rectangles without the weight-adding dark color? Or would that be inconsistent since we're now contrast-painting the trim lines?

Here is a link that might be useful: I'm really new at this...

Now, looking at your post that you just posted and the one from up above that Spanky did, I am still pulling toward the ribbed door. I do not understnd why you say you need 4 windows when W D site shows it with 3.
Also what do you mean by painting the stiles and rail. Are you considering two paint colors on the garage door. I am not a big fan of garage doors in two colors. I think it just draws your eye too much to the garage.
I also am not from your area so take what I say with a grain of salt.LOL

Ah, thanks for responding, lyban :) Well, we need 4 windows because we found a residential ribbed door that is *better* built than the "commercial" door I first found (except for insulation--but it's got a lifetime warranty on *everything* including springs, and is thicker steel--it's the Amarr Heritage 3000, if anyone's interested), and it comes with 4 windows rather than 3. I really wish we could do 3 but we can't. 3 would have made it unique.

What I mean about painting the stiles and rails on the Westfield is that what happens a lot is, instead of painting the whole door the same color, painting the raised crosspieces the same color as the house trim color.

So it sounds like the many directions of siding and ribbing don't bug you--I just wanted to make sure that it wouldn't have the effect egganddart had mentioned--but now I think it will actually work, since it's not an interruption of the lines of the house but rather a continuation. I guess the flush panels could be seen as more of an interruption, actually, since we don't have any flush areas on the house.

lyban, I owe you one :) (and spanky, and eggandddart, and scottmel and kswl and mimi and squirrel and lindybarts and amysrq and so many other folks here -- I feel like my soon-to-be-restored house facade should have a credits page :))