We’ve been working on adding a new side porch on to the house this summer! Read on to see the progress we’ve made with this latest project!
We finished up our big mudroom renovation a couple of months ago and almost immediately jumped into this next project, which is the side porch leading right into the mudroom. The setup we had out there previously was definitely less than ideal so we’re pretty excited about having a place that’s big enough and un-rickety enough to properly welcome people into our home. Our old “side porch” if you can even call it that was just basically a teeny tiny leaning deck off of the old mudroom, with some cement steps leading up to it that would rock back and forth if we walked on them the wrong way. It was an adventure just getting into our house. 🙂
After we finished ripping the mudroom off of the house and completely rebuilding it, we decided to make this side porch quite a bit bigger, add some big wide steps, and include some proper railings around it as well. Because, you know, safety.
I’m pretty thrilled with the way things are shaping up and if we can get some nice weather, we should be able to share the completed project really soon! I thought I’d share a few “in progress” pictures with you today before we get to the end of the this project.
Progress on the Side Porch
So here’s how this area looked right after we finished up the mudroom. We had these little temporary stairs to help us get in the house, but no landing area outside whatsoever.
It’s funny how a project like this seems simple enough, but when you really get into it, there are actually about a million little details that need to be taken care of to make the finished project look really sharp.
One of the things we did was adjust the roofline a bit, removing the part that covered it up in the front of the porch roof overhang and making it a bit more open. This made a huge difference visually and I’m so glad we did it, but getting all the metal soffits to fit just right and be properly vented takes quite a bit of planning and some carpentry magic too, especially with these old wonky houses. Obviously this is Chris’ area of expertise, not mine. I’m actually not even sure if “soffits” is the right word for this area, but you know what I mean. 🙂 I love how clean and fresh it looks though!
We obviously still have quite a bit of trimming out to do and we’re also replacing quite a bit of the siding in this area, which I’m pretty happy about. We have plans to do this in a few other areas of the house because this old white siding can get to the point where you can only power wash so much grime off before it decides it’s not going anywhere. 🙂
You can see there are quite a few areas that could use that same treatment. We’re going to get rid of all of the shutters eventually too when we re-side everything, which will be such a relief.
Anyway! Back to the current project!
I stained the decking in Cordovan Brown by BEHR, which I was lucky enough to have BEHR provide for this project, and I love the color.
As you can see, one downside of going with a dark color like this is that you’ll definitely see some dirt showing up when you walk in from the garden, but this can be easily rinsed off when you’re out watering everything at night. 🙂 It’s totally worth it to have this dark, rich color leading up to our door. So many deck stains can look really flat and kind of hide the beauty of the wood, so I love that this stain really brings out the grain.
Finishing up the Side Porch Renovation
We’re going to be painting all of the white vertical surfaces of the porch white in a few days, which I think will be a great farmhousey look and will really help tie everything in with the rest of the house. I’ve been sharing more frequent updates for this project on Instagram, so follow me over there to see how that turns out in between blog posts!
We’ll be (theoretically) finishing up this project in the next few weeks, as long as the weather co-operates. It looks good so far! We’ll be doing the painting I mentioned before, adding in some railings, finishing up all of this paving stone work that we did around the bottom, and filling in the landscaping all around on both sides.
This is the main entryway that we use all the time so it’s really going to have an amazing impact on our everyday life. Can’t wait to see it all done! I’ll check back in with you about this side porch renovation in a few weeks hopefully!
MORE POSTS LIKE THIS
- Our Farmhouse Kitchen Makeover: Before and After
- Why We Chose Laminate Flooring Instead of Hardwood
- Our Grey and White Master Bathroom Renovation
- The Mudroom Features That No One Realizes They Need
- The Creek Line House DIY and Renovating Archives
Courtenay Hartford is the author of creeklinehouse.com, a blog based on her adventures renovating a 120-year-old farmhouse in rural Ontario, Canada. On her blog, Courtenay shares interior design tips based on her own farmhouse and her work as founder and stylist of the interior photography firm Art & Spaces. She also writes about her farmhouse garden, plant-based recipes, family travel, and homekeeping best practices. Courtenay is the author of the book The Cleaning Ninja and has been featured in numerous magazines including Country Sampler Farmhouse Style, Better Homes and Gardens, Parents Magazine, Real Simple, and Our Homes.