Jeff Doubet Spanish-style garage doors: Pro tips on how you can dramatically improve the design of your own project. Quality photos and direct, how-to info. In this article I share Before and After photos, and how clients were able to dramatically improve their homes and landscapes by incorporating custom Spanish-style garage doors.
LISTEN TO JEFF DOUBÉT NARRATE THE FEATURED PHOTO, ABOVE.
ABOVE: This is a BEFORE photo of a local Santa Barbara, CA home. The owner wanted to improve the overall aesthetics of the exterior.
AFTER: The installation of high quality wood garage doors dramatically improved this front facade.
See and listen to how this special Spanish arch entry design came about.
More Custom Spanish-style Garage Doors Designs
The garage door design below was part of a larger project that included completely reconfiguring the approach to the garage itself.
You can see and learn more about this Spanish-style courtyard home, HERE.
This photo illustrates how the stained wood garage door was recessed into the stucco plaster opening. A cobble driveway and drought tolerant landscape also add to the authentic Santa Barbara look of this home.
Here is a close up of the exterior material selections chosen for the project. Smooth troweled Santa Barbara Mission finish exterior plaster, 2″ thick Tecate clay wall cap, Steven Handelman Studios hand-made lighting, and a custom wood Spanish-style garage door.
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How To Specify High Quality Spanish-style Garage Doors
I believe the best Spanish-style garage doors have these things in common: 1) Solid wood components 2) A custom design 3) High-end hardware 4) Specialty glass (when desired).
To help illustrate, please scroll these brief notes and photos shot at local Santa Barbara and Montecito, CA project sites.
This close up image shows a custom Spanish garage door designed with extra thick, solid wood “jambs”. I wanted to create an illusion the double pairs of doors swing open like authentic carriage house doors.
The homeowner invested in these hand-made, wrought iron decorative hinges. The oversized hinges mount up to the faux jamb. The faux jamb is actually part of the roll up door.
This photo shows the custom tempered and textured glass specified for the project. The glass is much thicker than standard garage door glass. One side has more texture than the other, so the notes instruct the manufacturer how we wanted it installed.
Clear Western Red Cedar is the material of choice when designing and fabricating high quality Spanish-style garage doors in Santa Barbara and Montecito, CA. Cedar is a very stable wood, and the “clear” designation is the best grade of wood for staining and painting. Here, the staining crew preps the many garage sections a dark brown stain.
Additional Advice for Achieving Quality Spanish-style Garage Doors
Learn more by scrolling additional custom garage door photos, infographics and design comments, below.
No longer just a functional entry, a quality Spanish-style garage door can become a wonderful asset to the design of your home. Today there are custom manufacturers and high quality fabricators that can work with your design concept and build a beautiful door.
As seen in other photos in this post, a Santa Barbara Spanish home design often has a recessed garage door in a clean plaster opening. In other words, there is no exposed wood jamb or surface trim… just exterior plaster.
This small two story Spanish-style home renovation has a high quality, paint grade wood garage door. It was painted to match the Santa Barbara green, specified on the window and door package.
Click to see and listen to my photo blog post about a beautiful Santa Barbara Spanish garage door painted a classic “Santa Barbara Blue” color.
How-To Tips for recessing a Spanish Garage Door in a Plaster Wall
Here are a couple of infographics to help you better understand how Spanish-style garage doors can be recessed into wood jamb and trim-free openings.
In Santa Barbara, we often “double frame” important window and door openings. Here is one way to do it when you have a deep enough garage (and room) to frame the interior side of the garage door opening. *Please Note: Consult with your architect and structural engineer for your specific project needs. The infographics are provided as a general reference only.
Here is how the framing project turned out. The custom garage door is deeply set back into the plaster opening.
Here is a different example: In it, you can learn how to thicken a wall by double framing the exterior wall (in front of the existing garage door opening). This photo was taken prior to additional construction steps taking place. This included cutting rebar, epoxying and tying it into the existing foundation (before a new cement footing was poured the next day).
This is how the renovation project turned out
More Construction Photos Spanish Garage Openings
Here are other construction photos that help illustrate the technique of double framing a garage door wall.
Now, the Spanish-style home is nearing completion in beautiful Santa Barbara, CA. You can see many more photos of the Casa Corazon project at my other website Santa Barbara Home Design
The Spanish-style garage doors and facade at Casa Corazon is nearly complete. The plaster columns with wood arbor structure add to the design and interest to these custom garage doors.
Jeff Doubet Spanish-style Garage Door Signature Designs
Here are a couple of Jeff Doubet high quality Spanish-style garage door designs incorporated into local area projects.
This carriage house style garage door was part of a larger home renovation up in the Santa Ynez Valley.
For this custom garage door design I proposed substantially larger component pieces to make the single roll up door feel like a pair of double doors, hinged on heavy wood jambs.
More Before and After Spanish Garage Door Projects
Changing out a stock aluminum garage door for a Spanish-style custom door can dramatically improve your project. This Before and After series of photos helps illustrate this point.
Above: the BEFORE photo. Your standard stamped and painted aluminum roll up garage door.
Here is the AFTER photo. A custom designed wood garage door with heavy trim boards installed over the existing.
This is a photo as the first sectional piece was being installed. You can see how much solid wood goes into a custom door like this. Here, you can also see a close up of the “faux jamb” the new decorative hinges will install up to.
The homeowner also invested in the additional step of painting the interior of the door. By matching the white paint on the walls, the painted garage door made the interior of the garage feel more high-end.
Adding Custom Hardware to a Spanish-style Garage Door
In this series of photos is the process of determining the ideal placement of the high-end decorative hardware.
Using blue tape, we studied how the placement of the decorative hinges would basically look (before drilling holes into the expensive garage door).
This parting shot shows how the garage door turned out. The wavey glass and heavy wrought iron decorative hinges, installed.
Additional Resources for Spanish Garage Doors
Where to buy Spanish-style garage doors? Here are recommendations for garage door manufacturers that build quality Spanish-style garage doors.