Screen Dreams There’s the obvious advantage of a screened porch: no bugs allowed. Custom home pros tout screened rooms for other reasons as well. “Screened porches are great transitional spaces between indoors and outdoors,” says architect Phil Eagleburger. “Screening gives a sense of security—literally and visually—while letting in light and air.”
Wide Angle Despite its northern location, homeowners and guests enjoy this screened porch nearly year round thanks to the long fireplace. “Being on a lake in Minnesota, the porch is the best place to live and the fireplace really extends the season,” says architect John Barbour. A slate surround maximizes the fireplace’s heat conveyance. The architect selected cedar to complement the slate and add to the room’s visual warmth. Set a few feet above grade, the porch offers enhanced lake views through floor-to-ceiling screen openings. Barbour kept the focus on the lake with steel bar railings that almost disappear. Builder: Boyer Construction, Excelsior, Minn.; Architect: Barbour LaDouceur Design Group, Minneapolis; Photographer: Gallop Studio.
Curve Appeal This almost-in-the-round screened porch enjoys a panorama of Rhode Island’s Narragansett Bay. Bay views are due west, so a screened porch that would offer respite from the afternoon sun made more sense than an open deck. But the porch provides a comfortable spot in all kinds of weather. The living room fireplace backs up to the porch wall, where it gives off a little radiant heat in cooler months. A ceiling fan cools the porch on hot days. Like all of the home’s public rooms, the porch sits on the second story to maximize water vistas. Its vaulted ceiling features exposed rafters that fan out toward the screened wall and draw the eye toward those views. Architect William Burgin likes to keep screened porches cozy but not cramped. He prefers intimate dimensions, but no smaller than 7 feet in width, he says, for functionality. Builder: Case Construction Co., East Providence, R.I.; Architect: William L. Burgin Architects, Newport, R.I.; Photographer: Warren Jagger.
Breeze Catcher For this Cape Cod summer home, a screened porch was designed specifically with fresh air in mind. Architect Phil Eagleburger oriented the porch toward the northeastern side of the house to catch prevailing winds. The second-story porch sits at a diagonal to the square house, where it can catch breezes and distant views of the shore. To shed any rainwater that blows in, Eagleburger designed the porch floor to float above the first-floor roof. Access to the yard is via a spiral staircase. The porch is ringed with concealed uplights to highlight the exposed rafters that feather down from the center peak of the roof. The fixtures add subtle illumination and show off “the great care taken by the contractor to make the rafters line up and look good,” says the architect. Builder: John Squibb, Barnstable, Mass.; Architect: Treacy & Eagleburger Architects, Washington, D.C.; Photographer: Maxwell MacKenzie.
