Our Screened-In Porch Addition

Over the winter we crossed off one of the biggest projects from our wish list for our home – we built a screened-in porch. This was high on our list when searching for a new home but our house checked off so many of our other important boxes that we compromised with the intention of adding one later.

We have two beautiful sets of French doors in our living room that opened out onto a large deck. The deck was original to our older home and had been well maintained but still wasn’t in the best condition due to its age. We purchased a large outdoor umbrella for our first two summers in the home while we saved for such a big project. Then, last year we moved our focus to the outside of our home. All of the must-do projects inside are complete. Of course there is more I’d love to do one day (kitchen and bathrooms, I’m looking at you), but we were finally ready to create the outdoor space we’d been envisioning since we purchased our home. And even before actually!

We interviewed several builders before choosing the right one who shared our vision of a beautiful outdoor entertaining space that looked natural as a permanent addition to our older home. 

Our porch is the same size as the deck before except that it is a perfect rectangle now and the door is in a different location than the previous stairs. This gave us such a large entertaining space and it really has been a dream come true. 

We chose dark Trex composite decking (in the color spiced rum in case you’re curious) on the floor so that it would never need to be restained or painted, aluminum railing, and an off-white for the walls and beadboard ceiling. Then we added a dark beam and bronze hardware for a little contrast. I am so pleased with how it came out and it does look like such a natural addition to our home as if it was always meant to be there.

We repurposed the furniture we had before, using our old conversation set on the small open porch, turning our old coffee table into a child-sized table for Madeline and her friends, and keeping our old dining set just as it was. 

We did purchase a large new sectional. We purchased it sight unseen online after reading dozens of reviews and just crossed our fingers. We needed something large – at least eight feet on each side yet didn’t want to spend a million dollars! While I’m a believer in “buy it once and buy it right” I also really try to balance that with practicality and this sectional gave us so much bang for our buck. We are so pleased with it and it really is perfect for the space. The blue color ties in so nicely with the decor inside our home, too.

I recently purchased this rug. It was such a steal price-wise and now I feel like our porch is complete. Or almost complete – I do have some outdoor curtains on my wish list for the fall so we’ll be able to block the sun while watching afternoon football games. I picked up the tall rattan planters for next to nothing from Aldi and stumbled upon the lantern at HomeGoods. We have spent so much time out here already and it might just be our favorite room of the house. Or at least my husband’s!

Transforming the outside of our house has been a labor of love and we are still not quite done. The front landscaping needed to be ripped out to just the foundation plants and is finally almost finished and the backyard is so completely different from where we started! We previously had tunnels and archways cut into shrubs to create kind of an English garden. It was beautiful when perfectly trimmed and I know it was a labor of love for the previous owners but unfortunately it was just too segmented and high maintenance for us as a family with young children. Landscaping is far from my specialty but I have learned a lot about it and am so pleased whenever I sit on the porch and stare out into the open, green space that Madeline and Riley so love to play in. 

Next year we hope to add a small grilling patio over to the left before calling our outdoor project complete!

Now, what fun is any room tour without showing you where we began? So, here’s a few “before” photos from our house’s listing.

Obviously lots of overgrown bushes and a few trees were removed to make this project possible but I am so pleased with the finished result. And in the spirt of keeping it real, I snapped these photos in a hurry and shared them with you in all their unedited glory – leaves, dead parsley, and toddler toys and all. But such is life!

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