How to Decorate Garage Doors

Creative garage door designs give individuality to a house and the people who dwell inside.

Garage doors are a part of the scheme of things when it comes to having a house. They are rarely anything special except a door that gets you from outside to inside with your vehicle and gives you a space to store things you use for building and maintenance, including lumber, tools, lawn care equipment and those miscellaneous boxes of yard sale items. It doesn't have to be that way. Show your creativity and decorate the doors with your own personal touch.

Things You'll Need

• Decorating Items
• Adhesive (gorilla glue)
• Hooks
• Imagination
• References (books/magazines)
• Wire (strong or reinforced)

Instructions

1. Decide if the garage door is going to be a functional piece if you are going to decorate or if the door will be strictly unused. This is an important step in the process. If you will still use it, then you have to measure clearance for the opening and weight distribution so that the door opens at a level.

2. Develop a central theme to use as a focus. If you like beaches and boats, then a nautical theme would be your inspiration. Choose an object that will give the surrounding objects a branch to revolve around. If you use the nautical theme, Use a boat as the central figure of your creation.

3. Experiment with different ways to place your designs before attaching them to the garage door. Once you decide on placement, temporarily place the items on the doors with hooks and take a photo of it to see what it would look like from a distance. Rearrange the motif any way that seems fit until you have the look you want.

4. Remove the temporary fixtures, and reference the photo again before you make it permanent. Use a Phenolics type of adhesive because it is successfully used to join metals together and wood to metal. Phenolics will require pressure and heating to cure.

5. Anchor each piece that is curing with at least a strong wire to give a secure and even bond that will last as long as you want to display the piece. Wrap one end of the wire to a rafter or beam, and tie a tight loop around the item you want to secure. Make sure that the weight is evenly distributed, and the bond will hold tightly on all parts of the piece.

6. Once the piece is cured and bonded tightly, ask someone to help you unwrap the wire from the rafter and the piece. One of you can keep the item still while the other unties the wire around the rafter first, and then carefully unties the wire around the object. This ensures that pulling and tugging will not cause the bond to break from the garage door.

Tips & Warnings

• Measure twice; cut once.

• Make sure the weather is fair before starting this project. Wait awhile if it is too cold or too warm outside, or this project may not turn out the way you want.

References

• Garage Wow Now