My wife and I are going to be building a home resembling a simple old farm house. We’d like to put a deck off of the dining area on one side of the home, but I can’t picture how to do one which looks appropriate to the structure. We’re planning a porch across the front of the home, but I wonder if a wrap-around from the front to the side, rather than a deck, might look better and function as we want.
Earlier this year there was an article in This Old House magazine about decks on houses and they had one for a Victorian house, but this is more ornate than we are planning.
Suggestions?
Replies
Since you haven't had a lot of response to your question: try asking it at Breaktime. May get better response. In my opinion, an open deck won't match the "farmhouse look". I like wrap around porches. They look good, plus they have the advantage of sort of buffering the outside from the house itself. Even if the porch is open, with a roof and some posts or partial walls, it feels more sheltering and I think you'd use it more. I really like the looks of the old farmhouses with such wrap around porches, and their roofs at a slightly lower pitch than the roof of the house itself.
Thanks. I agree with you about the asthetics, but need to convince my wife. She wants a place for me to grill and is worried about the fire potential on a covered porch. I can't see this being any more of a problem than on a wooden deck.
I'll try putting this out on Breaktime. Just figured House Chat was more for design.
You are right about House Chat being more for design, but I was thinking some builders at Breaktime may have had experience with this. There may even be a couple architects who frequent that site.
As far as fire, I agree with you too, but maybe you could build using fire resistent materials (at leat around the grill area).
I'm with both of you on this one - the deck looks inappropriate but the fire potential is greater with the covered porch. You're joking about not seeing a difference with the deck, I hope? One solution could be to have the porch and put a brick grill pad just off the porch. You can dine on the porch, but remove the cooking from the hazard area. Another possiblity would be a patio instead of a deck. To my mind a patio or courtyard is more in keeping with the house style and has the benefit of fire protection besides.