10 Before-and-After Garage Makeovers That Add Major Curb Appeal

Before: Dull and Drab

Clean lines gave a tidy appearance to this otherwise drab and dull garage facade. Though the house and garage are connected, a too-small sidewalk and driveway combo gave off an awkward and divisive feeling.

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After: Bright and Beautiful

A new multipane garage door helps to lighten the home's front facade, while a fresh coat of yellow paint gives the existing siding a cheery new life. A slightly wider drive -- just the width of the single-stall garage -- connects easily to a more expansive sidewalk, which creates a natural transition between garage and house.

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Before: Nothing Special

Plenty of garages are just fine -- painted a fairly unobjectionable color, detailed to respectfully match a home. This ordinary space didn't do much to detract from -- or add to -- the quaint Colonial-inspired lines of this home.

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After: Deft Details

That old adage is true: The little things matter. In the case of this garage, that equaled a couple of dramatic changes. For starters, the homeowners added distinctive color with a rich, blue-green hue on the doors. Framed in a new facade of brick to match updated columns, the garage also benefited from a narrow overhead trellis to define and set off the space, as well as classically-inspired sconces.

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Before: Boring and Dominant

What's distinguishing about this home's garage? Not much, except its imposing exterior and lack of notable detail.

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After: Connection to Home and Street

A garage that takes center stage for a home's curbside view is in particular need of a welcoming face. Here, the homeowners used the driveway and the garage as a dual design opportunity, setting up a geometric scheme that influenced subtle details, such as reveals on the new garage doors. The warm neutral on the garage ties in with the hues on shutters and brick accents, and a minimalist landscape accent of short, trimmed shrubs offers subtle separation between drive and sidewalk.

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Before: Hidden in Plain Sight

Bulky and unattractive, this imposing garage door lacked any distinctive details -- and an overgrown assembly of palm trees and uncomplimentary landscape adds to the drab streetscape.

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After: Character Reveal

A stripped-down landscape filled with a repetitive collection of interesting textural plants offers clean-lined design accent to this refreshed garage. New garage doors -- these with ever-so-slight reveals and minimalist windows -- offer a contemporary streetside view. Oversize lights lend balance and beauty to the grouping.

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Before: Overwhelmed by a Roof

An imposing roofline contributed to a feeling of disconnect between home and garage in this Cape Cod-inspired home.

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After: Tied Together

A revamped roofline creates a continuous design line between home and garage, and two windows in place of one offer welcome symmetry. In addition, a narrow portico over the home's main entrance makes a repeat appearance over the garage door, offering a pretty design parallel.

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Before: Worn and Weary

A cracked surface and tired paint created a cast-off and forlorn feel to this ranch-style garage.

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After: A Lift from Paint and Landscape

Although a garage is often viewed as a separate entity, its overall look can and should work in tandem with the landscape to provide a welcoming curbside view. For this garage, that meant a fresh coat of paint and a more sensitive integration with the landscape. A newly planted garden bed, filled with loads of textural plants and tress, offers a less abrupt transition between garage and driveway to house and front yard.

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Before: A Ho-Hum Facade

Boredom can be the design death of many a garage door. This home's car entrance did its job just fine but did little to add interest to the streetside view.

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After: A 21st-Century Welcome

Specific use of just a few details and materials helps to create masterful curb appeal in this redone garage. Trim makes its appearance in the new garage door -- this one with subtle detailing to repeat the lines of the updated accent brick. A revamped roof also ties into the color scheme and establishes a contemporary connection between house and garage.

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Before: Weary and Worn

With a rock-bottom garage door and scruffy siding, this tacked-on garage dominates a tired-looking front facade.

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After: Breathtaking Transformation

There's power in design -- even for those must-haves like garage doors. Here, a new door, with bold accent and airy paneling, gives a color and style boost to the completely revamped front face of this home. Pretty shake siding and horizontal and vertical accents connect home to garage, as does updated landscaping, which adds a welcoming feel to the home's entry.

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Before: Lost in the Woods

Covered with overgrown shrubs and with a sliding garage door, this tumbledown space needed both aesthetic and functional updates.

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After: A Brand-New Garage

There's little in this new garage to resemble the old. A popped-up roofline gave the homeowners flexibility to add traditional style, such as a small window and pretty cupola. Mindful of the power of natural light, the homeowners also added windows to each side and updated the garage doors with classic elements that included two rows of small panes. Cross-hatching on the doors and siding at different planes and angles offers detailed interest that ties into the home, too.

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Before: Dark and Depressing

More utility shed than garage, this dull, uninventive space had little in the way of either detail or style.

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After: An Amazing Transformation

This garage project demonstrates that it really is possible, with flair and ingenuity, to make design lemonade out of disastrous lemons. This space bears almost no resemblance to its former incarnation. A multimaterial facade gave it a careworn, been-there-forever aesthetic. One door and a built-in multipurpose space took the place of two existing doors, and a vine-covered pergola and landscaping added depth and texture.

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