It all began with one man and his vision. In the late 1980s, Kent Forsland, Founder of Designer Doors, noticed two remarkable things about carriage house doors from the 1880–1920s:

• The doors’ architectural details fully complemented the home and other exterior doors
• Even though the doors were about 100 years old, they were solid, functional, and usually 90% rot-free

This was a sharp contrast to the wood garage doors being manufactured at the time. And, as it happened, Kent started to come across homeowners who loved the appearance of authentic carriage doors, but desired the functionality and convenience of modern engineering.

Opportunity was knocking on Kent’s door. Starting with handcrafted garage doors designed and built to complement the home’s architecture, he then added push-button, overhead operation by building the door with nearly invisible horizontal section breaks.

Designer Doors, Inc. began selling handcrafted garage doors in 1987, and incorporated in 1989. Today, we’re proud to be 100% employee owned. And we still work as hard as ever to infuse every job we do and all of our products with the essence of Architectural Harmony™.