London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Oct 09, 2025

How to Plan and Design the Screen Porch of Your Dreams

How to Plan and Design the Screen Porch of Your Dreams

Designing a screen porch? Use these tips for planning the location, choosing materials, and decorating your new indoor-outdoor space.

A custom-built screen porch gives you an outdoor living space you can enjoy almost year-round. It's the ideal setting for a cool lemonade on a hot summer afternoon or a warm mug of coffee on a crisp autumn morning. Your screen porch can serve as a quiet, private spot to start your days and an insect-free entertaining space in the evenings.

Depending on your climate and lifestyle, you might prefer a true screen room with no windows or a three-season room with windows that can open and close. Either version can be an attractive way to extend your living space. With careful planning and a few design tricks, you can create an ideal screen porch that bridges indoors and out. Use the following tips on planning and designing a screen porch to get started.



Best Location for Your Screen Porch


Deciding where to place your screen room can be crucial to your enjoyment of it later. First, consider the climate. A porch with a southern exposure is likely to get too hot in southern regions, whereas a northern exposure will likely be too chilly for homes in the North.

You should also consider the view from the screen porch and how secluded the area is from neighbors or the street. Take into account the direction the breeze usually comes from, and think about where you might place an outdoor grill. You don't want smoke to blow into your screen room on barbecue nights.

It's best to place a screen porch near rooms that you use often, such as the kitchen. This makes eating meals out on the porch convenient. However, if you'll be blocking the kitchen's only source of natural light, you might want to place it in front of an adjacent mudroom or laundry area.



How to Design a Screen Porch


When determining the size of your screen room, decide whether you want only a sitting area or a place to dine, too. Keep in mind that a long, narrow porch (at least 8 feet wide) can provide adjacent spaces for seating and dining and lets more light into the house than a square room.

If possible, build a room that is open on three sides. This increases the feeling of sitting outdoors (sans bugs) and helps air circulate. A peaked roof will allow you to install high windows, which also help with air circulation, and provides space for a ceiling fan. A gas or wood-burning fireplace will ensure the room is comfortable on chilly spring and fall evenings.



Ideas for Screen Porch Windows


Screen porch windows that can be removed and clipped back in during cooler weather also extend the screen room's use. However, they can limit design possibilities. In a room that's fully outfitted with screens, you aren't limited by window sizes and can use larger pieces of screening to provide more of an outdoor feeling. However, this will also require all-weather furniture and lead to more dirt and dust in your screen room.



Screen Porch Decorating Ideas


When decorating a screen porch, first determine how the room will typically be used. A screen room dedicated to entertaining will need enough comfortable seating for guests and a coffee table or a few side tables for setting beverages or snacks. Add warmth and personality to a screen porch with a large indoor-outdoor area rug and cozy pillows or throws on furniture. Be sure fabrics are outdoor-safe if the porch has no windows. If you plan to dine out on the screen porch, make space for a table and chairs. When decorating a small screen porch, keep in mind that a circular pedestal table, as opposed to a rectangular one, will be easier to navigate around in a tight space.



Choosing Screen Porch Materials


Building materials will have a large impact on the style and cost of your screen porch. Wood is a popular flooring choice for these indoor-outdoor spaces. Cedar is more expensive than some types, but it will stand up well to the elements. Plastic decking made from recycled materials is typically more expensive than wood, but it's virtually maintenance-free.

If the screen room is built on grade (at ground level), it can be built on a concrete slab, which is the least expensive flooring option. Staining the concrete adds a more upscale look. Stone, slate, or porcelain tiles also are good choices for screen porch flooring. On the walls, beaded-board paneling provides a cottage look, while wood produces a more rustic appearance.

The overall cost of a new screen porch can vary greatly, but for a starter 12x12-foot screen room that matches the style of the house, expect to pay $5,000 to $10,000. For a custom look, you could pay up to $25,000 or more.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
×