Our House

We have a functional but no longer charming front porch. I remember being enchanted with it when I was a kid, the scrolling ironwork was straight out of a story book (and I could walk on it like it was my own personal balance beam) but now it's wobbly and rusting out from the bottom; plus it seems to lack scale or something. I'm sure the beat up gutter doesn't help its tired look. It needs a facelift and I've been thinking about simple {affordable!}ways to dress it up.

First off, the 3 bushes directly in front of the porch are coming out. A few more foundation shrubs will be planted in front of a walkway that connects the porch to the garage. The railings are coming off and staying off, making the porch sort of spill into the yard {plans for that later}.

Southern Living White Plains house plan

I'm a sucker for metal roofs, so that might be part of my draw to this Southern Living house. I'm not crazy about the lattice work between the columns, but like the idea of having something for vines to climb. The size of the porch seems pretty close to our own, so it's easy to imagine these in place of our current supports.

RBVa front porch restoration

RBVa's front porch restoration is probably closest to what our house would've looked like with wooden columns rather than metal work. Without the railing, though, I'm not sure a design like this would look like an upgrade from our current porch layout.

Sears kit home

I love the sizable columns on this Sears kit home, but also wonder if they would be too clunky for our porch. I also love the simple, Craftsman details and the clapboard wrapped pedestals on each column.

Image from the HGTV website

Perhaps the best solution? Simple columns with arched details, like these found on the HGTV website, at the top would add shape and architectural interest to the porch without adding too much visual weight.

Since porches are on my mind, The Porches Inn popped up as a link in my flickrstream, and reinforced the porch update obsession.Above all else, though, I blame Aesthetic Outburst for making me think of ways to charm up our porch.

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