Houses
where the garage door(s) are the prominent feature are gradually being
replaced, both in new construction and renovations, with something more
pleasant to look at and which does not shout, "hey, we own a car(s)!"
Driveways
are becoming part of the yard and/or garden.
Nature,
human and otherwise, is benefiting.
Something
as simple as making the garage doors blend with the rest of the house with a
coat of matching paint can make a difference. Our first home in Georgetown, Ontario, a sprawling corner lot 1867
Craftsman house, had a double garage attached to the side of the house, one
door still resembling a stable entrance (which it likely was!) and the other a
‘modern’ roll-up door (likely from the Fifties). When we painted the house both doors got the same colour as the
main part of the house and the doors ‘disappeared’. More than once, someone,
seeing us open a door to put the car in or take it out, remarked, "Oh, I
didn’t realize those were garages." It helped that the space in front of the garages was packed cinders with
things growing here and there in it and the area flowed nicely into the patio
of flagstones we put beside it.
Paint
is magic. We once painted a driveway in
Toronto (this was the era of front yard parking giving a solution to finding a
spot on the street) from the conventional blacktop to a pleasant brown –
instant ‘trompe- l’oeil’ (as the French would say which I translate to ‘sneaky
cleverness’).
Breaking
slightly into the straight line edges of the ‘driveway’ and planting clumps of
perennial flowers furthered the illusion. The car could still be parked there but when the car was absent (or
found a space on the street) the spot became ‘garden’ and we added some comfy
beach-combed stumps of wood where we (and frequently the mailman) could (and
would) sit. It became like a veranda
with a view of our world and encouraged communication from friendly nods to
conversations with neighbours and passersby.
Here in
Victoria (and I cannot remember where – darn! – or I would go and take a photo)
I saw a garage door with a door and window and flowers painted on it to
resemble an English cottage complete with garden. It was truly lovely.