{friday finds: diy carriage garage doors}

 What’s the first impression people have of your home? For many homeowners it’s their garage door as it’s placed closer to the street than the rest of the house. Beth (Hirshfield’s Woodbury) fell in love with this great DIY project and wanted to share it with our readers. Whether you’re looking to upgrade your home’s curb appeal or you’ve always loved the look of carriage garage doors, revamping your plain-Jane garage door doesn’t have to be expensive.

Terry, from foreverdecorating.blogspot.com, posted a tutorial on her faux carriage doors. The top image is from Terry’s post, and in addition to painting on the windows, she even painted on the hardware.

Over at Two Peas In A Bucket, “Blue Tulip” posted photos and information on her garage door transformation. Read down through her comments as she responds to questions posed by readers. I liked her dog comment.

What do you think? From a distance you can’t tell these carriage garage doors are faux. You can go on a vacation with the money you save on the cost difference between the DIY project and real carriage garage doors. No more staycation for you.

I spoke with “the Hirshfield’s guys” and they had these tips:

• make certain the surface is clean
• use 3-M ScotchBlue™Painters Tape – orange core, meaning the inside of the roll of tape is orange or FrogTape
• take extra care to press down the outside seams of the tape
• take off your tape when the paint is wet; don’t let it set up and you’ll end up with a crisper edge
• use Benjamin Moore Acrylic Metal & Wood Enamel Gloss or Hirshfield’s Satin Trim

Thanks to Terry and Blue Tulip for sharing their DIY projects. Great job, ladies.