Do you want some ideas to improve the curb appeal of your 1950s or 1960s house? Here are some ideas from a seven-page brochure of mid century garage door designs from Raynor Manufacturing Company, Dixon, Illinois. Let’s take a look…
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Everyone has always gone nuts over my single little garage door post — showing colorful vintage Crawford garage doors. So, I’ve been on the lookout for more vintage marketing materials that could offer some more ideas if you want to update your garage door.
This brochure is interesting, I think, because while it’s short, it show that how playing around with wood molding makes the number of possible designs are almost infinite. And I believe it — I certainly see tremendous variety when I am out and about in mid century subdivisions.
Look at some of these designs and you can see ways to get a snazzier mid century look. If you are handy — or have a good carpenter — you can take your lead from these ideas and add molding directly onto your garage door, then paint it in either a single- or two-color design. Carry the design motif over to your front door or window boxes, too — designs that repeat create harmony.
Note: If you have an old garage door, get with a professional to ensure it’s safe. Be Safe/Renovate Safe!
Jean says
Our double garage doors from 1965 were in terrible shape and had been non operational for close to a year. After finding a garage repair company that was able to fix the springs and get the doors working quite well, I decided it was time for cosmetic repairs. I spent a good amount of time sanding, filling, repairing the doors, although the Masonite panels on the bottom 3 door sections still will have to be changed out at some point, but overall they came out great. The old locking hardware needed new cylinders, which I changed, and the doors look and work great. So happy I didn’t give in and replace with steel doors that I would have hated!
Jeff Alterman says
The 1950’s and 1960’s Crawford Doors were generally of high quality. I have such a door in the house I live in. The house was built in 1954 and I believe that the garage door is probably the original. It is still in good condition. It once had torsion springs. One broke and it was decided to replace the torsion springs with extension springs. The roller for the torsion spring was used for the cables so it could be converted back to torsion springs.
John says
We are renovating a 1956 home with a Crawford door that needs some parts. We think this is a replacement door, not the original, but still old. It’s wooden and made in sections like a rolltop desk. The problem is there are some oddball hardware things in the middle of the sections–these are in two parts–the top part is a sort of flat hook that slides in and out of a bracket and engages with the bottom part, which is a one-piece bracket with a slot–and one is missing the bottom half. So is there anyplace on the web or the planet where there is like a clearinghouse of old garage door hardware? Failing that I may try taking one of the parts we do still have to a machine shop and seeing if they can fabricate a new one.
pam kueber says
I don’t know the answers to any of these questions, John. We got a new one, for safety as well as falling-apart issues.
Jeff Alterman says
Try to keep the door if possible. Someone could have the parts you need as in some areas, the Crawford doors are fairly common. I’m in the Westchester County area of New York and there are still a fair number of surviving Crawford doors. Sadly, they are disappearing little by little. There were a few hotspots where the Crawford doors were fairly common. A fair number of them have been replaced, usually with much less attractive metal doors.
pam kueber says
I don’t know the answer to this one, David. Have you tried a local garage door company? Please note: Modern day safety technologies may provide benefits well worth the investment…. we upgraded the old door when we moved in for this reason…
Dawn Simpler says
I love these ideas. We have an old Florida Beach House that my dad built in 1966. The garage doors are so weathered and need to be replaced. But, perhaps they just need a facelift. These are wonderful ideas.
Shane Walp says
Dog gone! I didn’t think about the door being wood! Now I’ll have to get a wood door together, except my garage door is a big one – not the usual 16-footer.
Also, next spring, I’m thinking of building a cupola for the house and garage. I’ll stick a weathervane of one of them….maybe the house? I’ve still retained my aluminum TV antenna too!
Jamie says
There’s a garage door in our city which is marked with “his” and “hers” in script. Pretty fantastic and very 50s!
pam kueber says
oooh, can you get us a photo, jamie?
Jane (aka Elvis) says
Our garage door was replaced before we bought the house with a not-very-nice metal one. I think it would be pretty expensive to replace again, but I wonder if it’s possible to add molding or windows to the metal…I suspect it would be difficult, at best.
Still, if we ever do replace it with wood, this post is a great place to start!
Robert says
The garage door on my 1955 Houston home is a blank slate. This post is definitely one I’ll keep in mind.
Flickr user Repowers has some great shots of Mid-Century garages on his site as well…
http://www.flickr.com/photos/repowers/tags/garage/