The Joys of a Screened Porch: This Old House Architect Offers Tips on Construction and Design

My husband and I love a screened porch, even though we live in Wellesley, Massachusetts which has a limited porch season. We contemplate enclosing our current porch and turning it into an office which would definitely increase our home’s market value, but we can’t bring ourselves to give it up

This Old House’s architect Jean Rehkamp Larson agrees: “I grew up in a house with a screened porch, and they’re near and dear to my heart… In my part of the world, where winters are long, most of my clients quickly calculate that they will only be able to use a screened porch for half the year, and they succumb to practical, left-brain logic. I suggest throwing out the quantitative calculations and instead imagining the invigorating day in early spring when the French doors from the house are thrown open and the smells and sounds of the outdoors come swaggering in with the freshness of the new season.”

For tips on building a screened porch and having it meld with the construction of your home, go to This Old House.

Jane Neilson, CBR

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