The Porch
When we moved into our house, our dream was to build a lovely porch on the back. Something we could use 3 seasons of the year. Something that would make for an excellent photography studio. And a space to throw killer parties! We hired a contractor [Artisan Construction] and our vision for cottage meets barn came to life.
Before, we had a little covered stoop with steps leading down to an existing wooden deck pathway that met a floating deck in the yard. Our goal was to connect them into one massive deck playground.
During Construction
[Which took about 2 months]
After!!
I don’t know all the finishes or fixtures, so unfortunately I cannot recommend them. But hopefully if you’re interested in a similar project you can show the photos to your contractor for inspiration.
New bright + sunny full glass door
Patio furniture and stars from Pier 1
Skylights
Modern fan. We also have outlets on the sides for computers, fans or music!
Sliding barn doors
Door stopper
Table also from Pier 1
Craftsman eves
Artistic beams
Reddish stained floor
With screen underneath
Note the food photography table in the corner
Super wide steps!
Blends into existing deck
Beadboard back
Storage underneath
For beer equipment
Chain drainage
A happy place to spend the days!
{ 69 comments… read them below or add one }
Gah, it’s beautiful! You make me want to go beg my husband for one.
I love it! It is too cold here to even think of enjoying something like that most of the year! But I would still love one
Absolutely gorgeous!!
Love it!!! My favorite is the sliding barn doors
Something you can sure be proud of. It’s beautiful and so are the photos you take when you’re on the porch. All that light – it’s such a happy place.
Your porch is beautiful! It would never match my stucco home here in the desert (nor would my Homeowner’s Association approve something like that) but it is stunning… maybe someday when I’m rich and powerful and have my mountain escape, I can have something like that! Nice work!
That looks stunning!
Wow, this is truly beautiful Kath! I would love to have that porch for our house.
I love your porch and love seeing these photos. I think the barn inspiration is really what makes it.
Wow! I would love that! BEAUTIFUL!
I love the porch and I am heading to Pier 1 tomorrow! Time to update some patio furniture.
this is so gorgeous! i love all of the attention to detail. i bet you’ll spend countless hours out there!
First of all, this is gorgeous! Magazine quality beautiful. I love those light fixtures.
I do have a question though, and I apologize if this is too personal – how much did this cost and how are you guys able to afford this?! My boyfriend and I are currently saving up to buy a house but the expenses are adding up so quickly. Between starting a business, buying a house, building a beautiful addition, getting all new appliances, AND saving up for a baby all within a year or so – how do you make it work? Are you lucky enough to receive family help, or are the blog and bakery covering the costs of all this?
We were looking for houses in a higher price range then this one, so when we decided on this one – and got a great deal due to a somewhat desperate seller and really long time on the market – we were able to put the money we saved on the downpayment into the porch. It was over $15,000, but worth every penny, especially considering the use we’ll get out of it and the resale potential. [Although the thought of selling it someday breaks my heart!]
I was wondering the same thing! Glad you were able to afford it, it is a work of art, really. So beautiful.
I am kind of obsessed with your porch. Every time you post a photo of it, I think about trading in my beloved patio for a porch just like it. I would definitely be living out there all summer long!
That’s the only thing our home doesn’t have. I’d love to have a porch for sure! Gorgeous!
Absolutely heavenly!
Sorry if I missed the explanation in another post, but what is the deal with the chain drainage?
The deal is it’s a much more decorative option than a plastic drain spout
[Water trickles down the bells]
Makes so much sense! Thank you for clarifying. I love that concept.
It’s so lovely! Our deck/porch on the house I grew up in was my favorite part of the house in the summer and spring.
There is nothing I DON’T love about this. Oy. I want to live on it.
I really, really love your porch. It’s absolutely beautiful and so well-done. It’s amazing how different it makes the back of your house look! I like the fan a lot – I’m not sure I had seen that before. Thanks for the descriptions and pictures – I always love your house posts!
I am seriously in love with barn doors right now. I’m really hoping we can do some in our master suite at some point.
New house, add on porch, new appliances, trip to Jamaica, weekend in NYC, trip to Califorrnia, weekend trips to Baltimore and the beach and baby on the way, all within the last 6 months or so – do you wonder why some of your readers might be envious. Hope you are grateful for the charmed life you live and have some empathy for your readers who work at jobs every day, have young children and are trying desparetely to make ends meet. You are definitely blessed.
I would say professional bloggers most certainly work full-time jobs! Posting up to three times a day, taking and editing beautiful photographs, managing busy sites with sometimes hundreds of comments to moderate, even posting multiple times on the WEEKENDS when most of us have the luxury of completely detaching from work. In addition to being dedicated and hard working, bloggers are also brave. It’s tough to put yourself completely out there, opening yourself up to harsh criticism from people who don’t even really know you.
Lastly, no woman should be put in a position of having to apologize for her success. I have no doubt Kath is extremely grateful for her happy life, but she and Matt have also worked really hard to follow their dreams and see them achieved.
“reader”. I hope that you can take the time today to stop being envious of others (and rude towards them) and to try and see the many blessings that are present in your life.
Kath is definitely blessed to have so many nice things in her life! She shows them on the blog all the time, so of course readers will notice. It is hard when you work full time and don’t have as many nice things to see posts filled with pics of trips and expensive things, but I choose to read here so I don’t let it bother me. I know I have a really great life, even if I don’t have as many material things. I’m sure Kath knows how blessed she is. With so many trips and such a nice house (and a family that seems very close and supportive) how could she not?
Hello
LOVE LOVE that you had mac & cheese the other day 
Have a great day!!!
Been reading your posts for a while! Thanks for the inspiration to eat more “real” food! I had spinach in my smoothie for the first time yesterday- today I cut it down to 1 cup rather than 2- LOVED IT!!
Thanks for all the inspiration…. also
Kath does eat “real” food
Beautiful!!!! I love the floor and the doors. What a huge difference from what was there before.
Ok realllllly dumb question, but is the porch screened? Or it is more like a sunroom? Wow, I feel like an idiot but I can’t tell! I am obsessed with the ceiling and all the hardwood. Really is beautiful, kath, and I am loving that you’re spending so much time out there. I would too!! My parents have a screened porch and it is easily my favorite part of the house.
I apologize in advance for the dumb question….screen or glass?
Haha yes it is!! Fully screened. Glass would have been nice in the winter!
love!
such a gorgeous space!
So beautiful! What a happy little place to be! I would do anything to have a space like this to nurse and play with my baby!
Leave it to you and Matt… Perfection!!!
The screen underneath the floor is a cool idea.
http://faithfulsolutions.blogspot.com/
This is just amazing! I want one!!
Never thought of putting a screen underneath! Brillant!
Kath: I, like everyone else, L O V E your porch—-it’s brilliant and gorgeous. I can see it soon with toddler toys all over. . . heaven!
The stars look great!!!
Your porch really is gorgeous! I can imagine living out there all spring, summer and fall! My parents had a screened porch built on the back of the house I grew up in and we loved it. Except that one had an astroturf floor! 8-\ (We’re drinking smoothies with spinach several times a week now… who knew it was a simple, tasty way to get free spinach in us – and our kiddos?!)
That’s a great use of space! Is your front yard bigger than your back yard? (Porch is in the back right?)
It’s in the back, the front yard is pretty small and we have a front porch too (but it’s not that big)
Th eporch is beautiful and I’m sure you will be spending A LOT of time out there in this nice weather! I especially love the beadboard
Perfection! Great job Kath and Matt.
I absolutely LOVE the porch! It’s so beautiful! This is exactly something that I want when my fiance and I are able to buy a house. I love how you decorated it too. So beautiful!
Love it. Amazing.
I would spend every available minute there!!
It’s gorgeous! (I love the photo with your baby bump and your Toms)
AH! i love it! i have major porch envy!
Kath, thank you SOOO much for putting the porch renos in one place… LOVE seeing the transformation process! When you come to Atlanta we’ll have to tour the homes of all my friends and coworkers who are inspired by your design choices…oh if only that could start with MY house!
Our tired-out open deck needs a FACELIFT!
I can’t wait to see a pack n’ play or bassinet in a corner… I’m imagining the porch will make for some great nap times!
LOVE it and thanks so much for sharing!!
It was all for you Susan! I’d love to tour your homes. Might be in ATL this summer with Larbs and Matt!
Gorgeous!
I have been wanting to see more of the porch since we hope to add one onto our house, too, and now here it is, all put together nice and tidy. I’m eager to show this to husband. I was not looking forward to searching all over your blog looking for the various photos to give him a feel for what I’ve see a little at a time through your various posts.
Thank you for taking the time to put this together with angles, details, etc. and especially thank you for answering another commentors question about cost. That will give all of us who desire such a beautiful space for ourselves a guess as to what something similar might cost for ourselves.
Glad it was helpful : )
Wonderful post, I am sure you will all get a lot of use from such a beatiful space
if you need shelter in the colder months there are clear plastic “Cafe” blinds that roll up and down and are reasonably priced, they are very hard wearing.
What a lovely addition to you home – beautiful space!
Another fan of your porch over here! I’m a big fan of the farmhouse look, too. We have a lovely enough patio (and need all the sun we can get since most of our yard is shady) and plenty of other renos to work on instead, but it would be nice to have such a perfect spot for food photography!
Very beautiful!! So jealous
I find myself daydreaming of your porch when my husband and I talk about replacing our deck off the back of our house. I showed him this post today and man did he fall right in love with your porch! It’s just so gorgeous and useful.
Ah, so glad I could find this post. We’re buying a new house and I would LOVE to add a porch like this. I know you don’t like to talk specific finances on here (uhm, UNDERSTANDABLY!) but I was wondering if you could give me a ball park figure on what this cost? $5000? $10,000? more? Less? (oh please less!!
never mind! found the info in a comment above — thanks for sharing!!
I have been oohing and ahhing over your porch pics for months… Having a screened-in porch already I didn’t have much hope of mine ever being quite as beautiful. It is, hands down, my favorite part of our house, but it was beginning to show it’s age.
My husband built an amazing (!) deck last year and we wanted to spruce up the porch so that it didn’t look so shabby in comparison. A couple weeks ago my husband started on the “small project” of replacing some rotten boards. When he started taking things apart, more and more rot was revealed, and within a couple of days our porch was totally gutted!!! (Apparently the person who built it 20 years ago didn’t exactly know what they were doing because they constructed it in such a way that allowed water in every time it rained.) SOooo, quite by accident we are renovating the whole thing, and were able to use your pictures as inspiration! I was a little overwhelmed at first, but now am so excited I’m going to get what I really want!
Thanks so much for sharing your renovation pictures. My husband is using them as he plans and they have been enormously helpful! (Every few days he asks, “can you pull up those porch pictures again”?)
It’s going to take a bit longer than yours did since he’s doing all the work himself, but I’ll have to send you some pictures when it’s completed – hopefully without snow in the background! ; )
-Ashley
We are starting on a similar project on our home and am very inspired by your screened deck! I especially love your sliding doors and wondered where you found them. I don’t want to “waste” the space on my deck space outside the screened deck to allow for a swinging screen door.
I honestly don’t know because our contractor put them in. I believe they are just regular screen doors put on a track.
I went out to Menards Home Improvement (I’m in Wichita Kansas) and showed them the photo I pinned from your site. They said it is a barn door track system with regular screen doors hung on the track. Menards had all the supplies we would need. I am showing this to my contractor!!
Oh good!