Many people use their garages exclusively to enter their homes. With a car full of kids, pets, and groceries, it's usually easier to drive into the garage and unload everything from there. Your garage takes a lot of wear and tear over the years, so why not give it a little TLC? Use one or a few of the following ideas to make your garage door prettier to look at, more energy efficient, and just plain better. 

Garage Overlay System

Many older garage doors are made out of thin, cheap material or have outdated styles. When you don't want to replace your entire garage door, you can give it a little facelift with a garage overlay system. You can buy skins made out of magnetized wood veneer to stick straight onto your garage door. They come in large panels that easily adhere to any garage door that can hold a kitchen magnet. The panels lock into place, creating a modern look for your old garage door.

Pergola

If you're looking for more curb appeal from your home, but your garage door isn't necessarily old, you can build a little pergola to go over the garage opening. Build large wood brackets on either side of the door and nail a trellis over the door. You can plant vines in the ground or pots on either side of the garage door and nurture them to grow up and around the trellis. 

Insulate 

This next upgrade isn't cosmetic, but helps keep your garage and home at a comfortable temperature year-round. Many garage doors are too thin to really be considered energy efficient. You can block out or trap heat in different seasons with the following projects. 

The Entire Door - You can buy an insulation installation kit at your local home store to cover the entire backing of your garage door. These kits are made specifically for different types of garage doors, like steel, wood frame-and-panel, or flat doors. 

The Edges - Once your door is insulated from weather and street noise, you might notice a gap around the edges of the closed door. If you feel a breeze coming through the opening, install weatherstripping to create a tight seal. These two projects combined will reduce your heating and cooling bills and keep you comfortable while you're working on projects in the garage.

Don't just tolerate your ugly or inefficient garage doors. Do one of the above upgrades to beautify and update your home.