Door Panel Style

Door panel style describes the visual pattern designed into the face of a garage door section. Manufacturers press, stamp, or route the steel or wood surface to create recessed areas (called panels) bounded by flat or molded rails and stiles. The arrangement and shape of those panels define the door's style. From the street, two doors of identical material and color can look completely different based on panel style alone.

The most common styles for residential steel doors are:

Raised panel - The center area of each section sits slightly higher than the surrounding frame. It is the most common residential style, with a classic look that suits traditional homes.

Recessed panel - The center sinks below the surrounding frame, creating shadow lines. Also called a "carriage house" base when combined with decorative overlay hardware.

Flush - No panel pattern at all. The section face is a flat, unbroken plane. Flush doors look contemporary and are common on modern and mid-century style homes.

Long panel / short panel - Describes the horizontal layout of panels across the section width. Long-panel sections have few wide panels. Short-panel sections divide the same width into more, narrower panels.

Panel style is stamped into the steel at the factory. It is not a surface coating and cannot be changed after manufacture. When a homeowner replaces one damaged section, the new section must match the original panel style exactly to avoid a visible mismatch across the door face.

On commercial pan doors, the section face is a flat sheet metal skin with no panel embossment. On wood carriage-house doors, the panel shapes are routed or built up with applied moldings rather than pressed in.

The end stile and top rail frame each section and serve as the boundary of the panel design. The stop molding around the door frame frames the entire door visually when closed.