Room by Room: The Porch

Is there anything more wonderful than the family porch? City families probably enjoy the back porch best because it lends privacy from the close-living, while country families tend to utilize the front porch to welcome distant friends. Some homes have tiny side porches, some have wrap-around porches that hug the house all around. Some have small porches on the second floor for the secluded use of the spouses, while some homes have off-home decks and pergolas. However our porches are laid out, they all serve as outside rooms perfect for sharing a cold beer, iced tea, lemonade, morning coffee, or evening bonfires. They’re typically sheltered enough for enjoying mild rain, watching the birds, and tending more exotic plants. Porches are perfect places for blending play and conversation making them ideal gathering spots for families and friends.

Function: to provide a casual and comfortable place to enjoy the outdoors.

There is something about the way God put us together that a large portion of human sanity depends upon our connection with nature. It’s almost as if He designed this beautiful and diverse place specifically for us to delight in, and when we don’t delight in it, we all start to go a little wonky. Hence the phrase, “touch grass” or moss, or trees, or flowers. There is something about our engineering that’s refreshed by green-growing things, birds, blue skies, vacillating weather, flowers, breezes, and the world around us. We need grass under our feet and trees over our heads. We need butterflies and bird songs. We need violets and roses. Nature is calming, soothing, and inspiring, just as it can be awesome, terrifying, and out of our control. Enjoying a little bit of nature can change our whole perspective on life for the better. Sitting on our porches is a wonderful way to enjoy God’s creation.

A porch creates a place for sitting, storage of tools, grilling stations, and relaxing retreats. Your porch should be relaxing. Relaxing to sit in and to look at. It also should be a place to host people. There is inexplicable magic that happens when humans gather on a porch that is different than the living room, different than the table. The conversation is lively, things are pointed out and admired, silliness and running and loud voices are allowed. Spills aren’t a big deal. The conversation is free to be more rambunctious outside.

There is also a peacefulness to having special nooks on the porch that encourage aloneness and a lack of conversation, that encourage silence and contemplation. A porch should be a spot you can listen to the leaves dance in the wind.

Beauty: Our porches, dear ladies, are a bit different than many of the rooms in our homes because they are outdoors. Things you would never allow in your home are acceptable on the porch. Bugs, spider’s webs, leaves, and dirt will invade every nook and cranny of your porch. Wrens will poke about looking for things to eat. Wasps will buzz through. Lizards will sun. That’s okay as long as it isn’t out of hand. Keep a broom or blower handy for a quick brush of furniture, rugs, and floors. No one expects to sit on pristine outdoor furniture. But, no one wants to get filthy or fight creepy crawlies.

·        Decorating outside requires a certain balancing act. A decorated porch entices friends and family to step outside. It even gives us something delightful to gaze at from inside. What you want to do is keep the elements in mind. Anything out on the porch will be susceptible to wind, rain, squirrels, bugs, heat and cold, not to mention yellow oak tree dust, here in the south. Hold even more loosely to things on your porch. Look for things designed for outdoor use. Invest in furniture for your porch but not in throw pillows. I don’t tend to want to buy expensive pillows for outdoors. I might buy a hand-painted or embroidered one to use on my couch but the decorative pillow outside is likely to be eaten by squirrels, so I’m not looking for expensive, simply inviting. Don’t be afraid to thrift your outside décor. (Or any décor, for that matter.) I found a cute chandelier for just a few dollars to hang on my porch. No worries if it is ruined.

·        Keep the sunlight in mind. Pay attention to when your porch is getting sun. Does it take the brunt of the afternoon sunshine? Maybe it only gets a little light in the morning and evening? Noticing this will help you determine which plants to get and what might fade over the years.

·        Grilling stations often find a home on the porch. Play around with them until you have a good system for cooking burgers, brats, and more. There are small storage units and trash cans designed to look like wicker so your environment feels polished instead of junky.

·        Nothing creates more welcome to your porch than plants. Ivy, vines, small trees, flowers. You can grow herbs and have water fountains. The more of a green oasis you produce the more people will migrate outside. Plus, if you live in one of the hotter places in the world, it will keep things feeling mentally cool even if they don’t physically feel cool. Growing things delight all people. If this isn’t natural to you, ask for help.

·        Lighting is a fun way to personalize our porches. LEDs, naked bulbs, fairy lights, candles, lamps, and even a firepit can provide quiet, primitive light that encourages conversation.

·        For those of us who take every season as an opportunity to decorate, porches extending out our doors give us extra places for pumpkins, Christmas festivities, spring flowers, and summer growing seasons. Looking out your backdoor at little seasonal highlights is a great way to brighten our days and our families. Always keep in mind the outdoors. Don’t use breakable things or things that are treasured. Hold loosely anything you put outside.

Porches should truly be considered rooms in our homes. They’re one more place we can gather and tend our families. They’re one more place we can help our people rest and regenerate. They’re one more place we can offer to friends and family to enjoy. My porch is one of my favorite places to be. My parents (now my sister and her family) have a huge front porch that is easy to fill without being in each other’s laps. Don’t neglect your porch because it’s outside. Create beauty all around you, not just inside.