Perfect Porches: Designing Welcoming Spaces for Outdoor Living

A well-designed porch is like a welcoming committee that invites friends and family to share stories, catch up on neighborhood news, or quietly enjoy the breezes of a sultry summer evening. Porches bridge our public and private worlds, and convey the essence of one’s home.

In more than 250 stunning photographs of forty homes, Perfect Porches illustrates how varied these iconic American spaces can be. A wealth of structural appointments are presented, such as the extended eaves of a rain porch along the Gulf Coast, the shimmering copper flooring of a converted Amish cattle barn in Bluegrass country, and Outback-inspired painted thresholds in California’s wine region. Unexpected ornaments, including Moroccan pendant lamps, a vintage watering can collection, or a majolica menagerie can transform even the most modest porch into an oasis. This book also reveals a host of practical ways to bring privacy to urban porches, chic accents to old-fashioned verandas, and coziness to modern environments. Home owners share colorful stories about using their porches as communal stages for magical and sometimes mythological events, telling of ghosts encountered, arias sung, and families reunited.

Whether you seek to reawaken a cherished memory of a childhood porch, create an adorned haven of your own, or take an enlightening journey across the nation, this volume is certain to become a treasured companion as well as a source of fresh inspiration.

PAULA S. WALLACE is president and cofounder of the Savannah College of Art and Design. Under her leadership, SCAD has received awards for architecture, design, and sustainability from the American Institute of Architects, the Art Deco Societies of America, Fashion Group International, and the National Trust for Hispanic Preservation, and she is the recipient of Elle Décor’s Vision Award for her work fostering emerging design talent. Wallace is the coauthor of A House in the South.

CHIA CHONG’s fine art, portraiture, and lifestyle work has been shown internationally and has appeared in numerous publications, including Cosmopolitan, Elle Décor, and Vogue. Since earning her BFA degree in photography from SCAD, she has traveled worldwide on photography assignments. A native of Penang, Malaysia, she now lives in Savannah, Georgia.

ADAM KUEHL’s atmospheric landscape work has been exhibited widely and is featured in both private and corporate collections. His fashion and interiors work has appeared in numerous publications, including Metropolitan Home, the New York Times Style Magazine, and Vogue. He is a graduate of SCAD’s BFA program in photography and has been recognized in 25 Under 25: Up-and-Coming American Photographers, Volume II.