Photo of a mid-sized arts and crafts front yard verandah in Boston with decking and an awning.

Quick facelift of front porch and entryway in the Houston Heights to welcome in the warmer Spring weather.
Design ideas for a small arts and crafts front yard verandah in Houston with with columns, decking, an awning and wood railing.

Phantom`s motorized retractable Executive screens deliver protection from the sun and the bugs at this New Jersey home. Only there when needed, the screens are recessed, maintaining the design of the home. Photo credits: Phantom Screens

Steve Akin
Design ideas for a mid-sized beach style front yard verandah in Austin with decking and an awning.

Brett Patterson
Mid-sized contemporary front yard verandah in Sydney with decking and an awning.

This is an example of a mid-sized contemporary backyard verandah in Sydney with decking and an awning.

Atlantic Archives Inc, / Richard Leo Johnson
Inspiration for a large country backyard screened-in verandah in Charleston with decking and an awning.

Design ideas for a large country backyard verandah in Salt Lake City with decking and an awning.

Design ideas for a traditional verandah in New York with decking and an awning.

This modern home, near Cedar Lake, built in 1900, was originally a corner store. A massive conversion transformed the home into a spacious, multi-level residence in the 1990’s. However, the home’s lot was unusually steep and overgrown with vegetation. In addition, there were concerns about soil erosion and water intrusion to the house. The homeowners wanted to resolve these issues and create a much more useable outdoor area for family and pets. Castle, in conjunction with Field Outdoor Spaces, designed and built a large deck area in the back yard of the home, which includes a detached screen porch and a bar & grill area under a cedar pergola. The previous, small deck was demolished and the sliding door replaced with a window. A new glass sliding door was inserted along a perpendicular wall to connect the home’s interior kitchen to the backyard oasis. The screen house doors are made from six custom screen panels, attached to a top mount, soft-close track. Inside the screen porch, a patio heater allows the family to enjoy this space much of the year. Concrete was the material chosen for the outdoor countertops, to ensure it lasts several years in Minnesota’s always-changing climate. Trex decking was used throughout, along with red cedar porch, pergola and privacy lattice detailing. The front entry of the home was also updated to include a large, open porch with access to the newly landscaped yard. Cable railings from Loftus Iron add to the contemporary style of the home, including a gate feature at the top of the front steps to contain the family pets when they’re let out into the yard. Tour this project in person, September 28 – 29, during the 2019 Castle Home Tour!

This is an example of a mid-sized traditional backyard screened-in verandah in Wilmington with decking and an awning.

This cozy coastal cottage plan provides a guest suite for weekend vacation rentals on the second floor of this little house. The guest suite has a private stair from the driveway to a rear entrance balcony. The two-story front porch looks onto a park that is adjacent to a marina village. It does a very profitable airbnb business in the Cape Charles resort community. The plans for this house design are available online at downhomeplans.com

A view of the outdoor living room looking toward the front courtyard and the swimming pool. The area is raised on wood decking and covered by a large canvas canopy to provide protecting from the sun and rain.

Back porch continues Craftsman theme but with a slightly more modern twist - Architecture/Interior Design/Renderings/Photography: HAUS | Architecture - Construction Management: WERK | Building Modern

Three pieces of colored, tempered glass form a sculpture/awning/water feature that floats above the front door of this Boulder home. The oak screen/storm door was designed to complement the the awning above. Daniel O'Connor Photography

This new, custom home is designed to blend into the existing “Cottage City” neighborhood in Linden Hills. To accomplish this, we incorporated the “Gambrel” roof form, which is a barn-shaped roof that reduces the scale of a 2-story home to appear as a story-and-a-half. With a Gambrel home existing on either side, this is the New Gambrel on the Block. This home has a traditional--yet fresh--design. The columns, located on the front porch, are of the Ionic Classical Order, with authentic proportions incorporated. Next to the columns is a light, modern, metal railing that stands in counterpoint to the home’s classic frame. This balance of traditional and fresh design is found throughout the home.

Casey Dunn
Inspiration for a country side yard verandah in Austin with decking and an awning.

Ryan and Michael, two software development engineers who commute from Hoboken to Manhattan, originally came to Decor Aid solely for a backyard redesign. The couple (and their dachshund, Frankie) envisioned their backyard area as a place where they could hangout after work, grow their own vegetables, and entertain on the weekends. A metal fire pit was added, to offset the wood floors and walls, and an outdoor canopy was brought in, for additional privacy. A wicker couch and a few copper elements pulled the space together, and turned their backyard into the perfect summer hangout spot. Another designer had already been hired to redo the interior, but once Ryan and Michael saw the finished backyard, they decided to hire Decor Aid to redesign the entire apartment, which included gut renovations of the kitchen and bathroom, a custom-made bar in the foyer, and a restyling of the bedroom and living room. The apartment already featured some wood and leather furniture pieces, and so the redesign had to incorporate these existing pieces, while balancing the couple’s neutral palette and welcoming personalities. Darker elements in the kitchen and bathroom were brought in to fit the couple’s modern, yet masculine style, and were contrasted with lighter, airy pieces, to keep smaller spaces from feeling claustrophobic. White marble and grey-washed wood tile was used to balance the matte black accents in the bathroom, while white cabinets and stainless steel appliances were used to balance the black tile backsplash and black countertops in the kitchen. To fit the hip industrial vibe of Hoboken, rustic wood details were incorporated to offset the sleek modern finish that is consistent throughout the apartment. A lighter wood flooring was used in the bathroom, to complement the other wood elements in the apartment. The living room and bedroom had already been repainted and refurnished, and so the restyling of each space had to feel cohesive with the existing elements. An organic cowhide rug offset the crisp lines in the bedroom, and dark linens were used to compliment the wood dresser and leather chair. The custom-built wood bar fit Ryan and Michael’s desire to transform their apartment into a space ready for entertaining, while tying together the apartment’s modern industrial look.

Design ideas for a mid-sized traditional backyard verandah in Orange County with decking and an awning.