How to Design a Glassed in Front Porch
- 1). Measure the front porch area to enclose. Figure out if you want most of the porch enclosed in glass or only a portion of it. Plan to enclose only the top half, for example. Consider making the front porch part of the living room as well.
- 2). Review options to buy sections of glass made for sunroom enclosures. Look at insulated opaque panels sold by sunroom manufacturers as well. Devise a budget and an overall basic design from the dimensions you have in place.
- 3). Draw the porch with the home exterior in further detail. Use graph paper to create a layout of the home's front façade and new porch design. Draw glass sections, solid sections to enclose them and a door space. Sketch the bottom one-third of the room covered by insulated panels, as one choice. Add double French doors leading to the lawn, for example. Choose premade glass panels to fit the top two-thirds of the room, if the bottom one-third is solid.
- 4). Select construction materials carefully for the porch. Plan to use cut stones around the porch foundation, as a possible choice. Select roofing materials in standard lumber with cedar shakes covering the roof, for example. Decide if glass sections might be energy-efficient roll-out windows, or use fixed panels of glass with sliding sections that hold screening materials sold by a sunroom company.
- 5). Create an appropriate interior that will look right from curbside. Design a small seating space with two chairs for relaxing, a small dining table for two made of ornate metal and glass shelving to hold a collection of indoor plants. Install a couple of hooks overhead to hold hanging baskets of petunias or ivy. Add a bamboo room divider roughly 5-feet high on the curb side of the room, if you need privacy for watching a small television.
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