Before and After: 3 Screened-In Porches for Indoor-Outdoor Living (9 photos)

1. Luxe Lounge With a View

Porch at a Glance
Who lives here: A retired couple
Location: Prior Lake, Minnesota
Size:About 300 square feet (28 square meters)
Designer: Tracy Hains ofChe Bella Interiors
Builder:Ed Hatterschiede

Before: A retired couple’s spacious back deck served as a great space for entertaining and hosting friends and family, but its exposure to the elements meant guests baked in the summer sun and also were pestered by mosquitoes. “[The homeowners] never sat out there,” designer Tracy Hains says. “That’s where the idea was born. They wanted to sit out there and enjoy the pond, walking path and trees.”

Hains, who owns Che Bella Interiors in Burnsville, Minnesota, worked with her team to design and build a screened-in enclosure for the existing deck. As part of the renovation, they also updated the home’s adjacent interior spaces to better reflect the homeowners’ style and to improve the flow between the inner rooms and the outdoor space.

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After: Hains enclosed the deck with new aluminum-framed screened walls and railings, and topped it with a vaulted ceiling painted bright white.

The expansive screened openings frame the spectacular views of a tree-lined pond behind the home and welcome plenty of natural light, with a statement-making chandelier illuminating the space when the sun goes down. “From the porch, you see a lot of color,” Hains says.

The team also added new indoor-outdoor furniture. Throw pillows, plush cushions, an outdoor rug and a blanket complete the scene, resulting in a luxurious lounge space that the family uses for much of the year.

Decking: Trex; ceiling paint: Snow White, Benjamin Moore

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2. Airy Space for Living and Dining

Porch at a Glance
Who lives here: A family with two kids and a dog
Location: Apex, North Carolina
Size: Screened porch: 850 square feet (79 square meters); deck: 400 square feet (37 square meters)
Designer: Catherine French

Before: When these homeowners in North Carolina hired designer Catherine French to add a screened porch to their home, they requested a space where they could entertain, eat and lounge while the kids played, and where one of the homeowners could work from home. They wanted a space that would allow them to connect with the woodland that surrounds their home while also protecting them from mosquitoes and pollen.

There had been a smaller deck where the porch is now, but it sat much lower than the house, didn’t provide enough space for the family, and didn’t cover or protect anyone from the elements or from mosquitoes. “We were trying to bring it all back up on one level, where they could entertain and hang out,” French says.

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After: From the comfort of their new screened-in porch, the family of four can dine, relax and take in the surroundings year-round.

French kept the porch’s lines clean and the spaces open, design moves that work with the modern Scandinavian style that one of the homeowners likes. The porch’s exterior, though, matches the home’s traditional style more closely, as contractor Architrave Construction matched the new and existing siding.

Steps from the screened porch lead down to a small outdoor deck, made of Trex decking and featuring the same vertical black balusters — made of powder-coated three-quarter-inch aluminum — used throughout the project.

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3. Riverfront Retreat Under the Oaks

Porch at a Glance
Who uses it: A couple who are empty nesters
Location: Edina, Minnesota
Size: 256 square feet (24 square meters); 16 by 16 feet
Architect: Christopher Strom
Contractor: Crown Construction

Before: A couple bought this house overlooking Minnehaha Creek, which flows between Lake Minnetonka and the Mississippi River in Minnesota, for its location and beautiful views. They hired architect Christopher Strom to make the most of their waterfront views by upgrading an existing deck, screened-in porch and riverfront landscape.

While the home already had a deck and screened-in porch that overlooked the creek, the design’s chunky railings, staircase and overgrown shrubs obscured the vista. Plus, “the back of the house looked like a big white box,” Strom says.

After: Strom replaced the original deck and screened-in porch with new structures in about the same spot. He relocated and changed the style of staircase that led from the deck down to the water; it’s now behind the porch and is a spiral version that has a much smaller footprint and stays out of view. He also did a lot to upgrade the landscaping beneath the deck and porch, including opening up views to the water and expanding access to the creek.

The new deck cuts toward the house at an oblique angle to reduce the property’s impervious surfaces, which were limited due to Edina and Minnehaha Creek Watershed District restrictions. As mentioned, Strom rebuilt the new porch in about the same spot as before. “The homeowners liked it off to the side because it preserved the views from inside the house,” he says.

Contrasting materials for the new porch and deck help minimize the big-white-box feeling of the original deck and porch. Strom also replaced some of the home’s bay windows and sliding doors, and removed the rest of the recessed bays to reduce the home’s imposing feel. He also added a skirt roof between the second and third stories to break down the scale of the house and add contrasting color and texture.

The homeowners can sit on the new screened-in porch during warm months and take in the unobstructed view of the waterway that flows right in front of their house. The 16-by-16-foot porch features upholstered lounge furniture and a small cafe table and chairs, which the homeowners stow away during winter. Otherwise, the porch doesn’t need to be winterized.

The steel cable railings and wood handrail keep views open. “Because the impervious surface requirements limited the size of the deck, we used a facia-mounted system for the railings,” Strom says. The railings are mounted to the front of the deck, rather than the top. The team used a composite material made of recycled plastic and bamboo for the decking.

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