With the return of beautiful weather comes the desire to spend long summer evenings out on the porch, patio, or terrace of your comfortable custom home. Is there anything better than dining al fresco on any night of the week, elevating Tuesday night dinner to a romantic date night? And what about Friday night cocktails spent in a comfy rocking chair on your patio, watching the sun go down with your loved one at your side?

There’s a lot of memories to be made on a custom porch, which is why its important to consider what you would like from your porch in terms of both form and function when you are building your luxury custom home. To help, here are five key questions to consider when designing a custom porch for summer.

Questions to Consider When Designing A Custom Porch for Summer

1. How will you use the porch?

Do you want to use your porch for entertaining or for an evening cocktail with your spouse? Answering these questions will help you determine how deep and long your porch should be.

2. How often will you use your porch?

Do you want to sit out on your porch in the spring, fall, and summer, or would you rather save your porch for only the summer? If you’d like to make your porch usable in the spring and fall, you may need to consider details like a fireplace and insulation in the ceiling.

3. How will you get to the porch?

Consider traffic flow. How will you enter the porch and how will you exit? Think about where the best entry and exit point will be from your custom home.

4. Where will the porch be located?

Do you want a front-door porch or a wrap-around porch? What about on the second story – would you like a porch there? Answering this question can also help determine the usage of the porch, whether it will an outdoor extension of your home, or simply an exterior pathway to your front (or back) door.

5. What creative design elements do you want to incorporate?

For example – will there be lighting on your porch? What kind of flooring will you use: natural wood, cement, tile, or carpet? Will you want an overhead fan? What about a bench swing? If you start thinking of the specific additionals you want to be included with your porch now, things like cable television, an audio system, pull-down shades, and insect screens, you’ll save yourself time in the future – time that can be well spent sitting on your beautiful custom porch.

For more examples of porches by Colby Construction, visit our Porches, Patios & Terraces Ideabook on Houzz.