Less Is More When It Comes To Our Front Porch

If this post doesn't epitomize the whole "less is more" idea, I don't know what does!  Adam and I decided to make over our front porch with this idea in mind.  When we were looking for the house that would become our home, one of the things I really wanted was a welcoming front porch.  I envisioned sitting on the porch while watching my future children play and enjoying summer evenings on the porch with Adam.  So it's no surprise that our house has a lovely front porch. 

Over the last few years, the porch posts and railings started to show their age.  We're not sure if they were original to the house, but they very well could have been.  Ants and chipmunks (we think) started to eat away at parts of the posts.  And some of the railings were suffering from water damage.   It was definitely time to address the issues and bring our front porch back to life. 

When Adam and I first started talking about fixing our front porch, we knew we wanted to remove the woodwork at the top of the porch near the ceiling.  It gave off more of a country cottage vibe and made the porch look and feel more closed in.  So we knew that definitely needed to go.  We also wanted to replace the posts with something less ornate.  Adam wanted to go with meaty 8x8 cedar posts.  Initially, I was worried the posts would look too big for the size of the porch and end up making it look more squat.  But after Adam created some drawings on the computer, I was sold with the look.  

The next thing to decide was what to do with the railings.  We threw around the idea of replacing them with wrought iron or even creating a different design using wood.  But then I got the idea of removing them all together.  When you sit on the porch, you definitely see the railings front and center.  Being rather short, the top railing was right in my sight line, which kinda ruined the view.  When I suggested just removing the railings and not putting anything in their place, Adam wasn't sold.  He worried it would look unfinished.  

So as a compromise, I suggested we build some lower plant boxes that would mimic the idea of a railing, but would open up the view a bit.  So Adam added some plant boxes to his computer drawings to give us a visual.  We came up with something we liked, but then got busy with other projects.  So when this summer rolled around, we got back to work on the porch.  We looked back at what we had come up with and I wasn't sure I still liked what we came up with.  I felt like our whole goal with redoing the porch was to open things up.  Adding plant boxes would still make things feel pretty closed up.  Besides, our porch is on the narrow side and I wanted to make sure we would still have a decent walkway.  

I managed to convince Adam to start the project by taking down all the railings and replacing just the posts.  Once we got to that point, we could reevaluate whether or not we needed to add back railings.  

So late in the summer, Adam took down all the railings and woodwork up top in a matter of an hour.  As soon as they came down, we both realized there was no way we were putting railings back!  It opened everything up and looked like it was meant to be that way.   

 

I should mention our porch is about a foot from the ground and well within our city codes for not needing safety railings.  So we weren't worried about a steep drop-off or anyone falling.  

Once the railings were down, the next step was to replace the existing posts with new 8x8 cedar posts.  Adam's mom kept an eye on the kids one weekend while Adam and I got the posts put in place.  Adam also added a faux beam at the top, right below the ceiling.  This helped finish off the space and make the posts-only look intentional.    

Over the next several weekends and during some late evenings, Adam added trim to help dress up the posts and the overhead beam.  I must admit, I wasn't sure all this additional trim work was really necessary, but seeing the finished product has made me a believer!  

Adam does such beautiful woodworking and it truly makes the front porch shine.  The trim around the columns make them look more stately.  The dentil molding detail on the beam ties in nicely with the other dentil molding on the right side of the house above the garage.    

Allow me to show you a before and after to fully appreciate the new front porch.  

We had planned to have some painters paint the new posts, beam, and ceiling white to match our other trim work on the house.  But due to tons of rainy days, they weren't able to fit us in this season.  So our new plan is to wait until the spring.  We are even throwing around the idea of painting the whole house!  

But in the mean time, we can still enjoy our new porch in all it's open glory.  I can sit on the front porch and watch Archer and Lyla play in our front yard.  They like to jump off the porch and can manage it just fine.  My view is no longer obstructed by busy railings.  Our front porch looks and feels like the welcoming front porch I always imagined our home would have.