Pretty Vintage Porches

I worked on the design of this cute, vintage home located in a historic area of Houston a few years ago.  It had been damaged by fire and water, the fire having been caused by old electrical wiring.  The home was over 100 years old, so lots of work had to be done to update it as well as correct problems like leveling the floors, new wiring and plumbing, etc.  Finally finished for a young family, it has a cheery facade and adds value to the neighborhood.

Part of the appeal of this home are the porches.  It was so much fun to work on an exterior, something I don't do every day, but as part of being the resident aesthetician (see previous post), I became involved. 

When the homeowners came to me about this project, they showed me their exterior paint color selections and said they were happy with them. They were basically much brighter versions of what we finally did.  Think school bus yellow and baby blue. We had so much to do and since painting the exterior was about the last thing in the process, I let that slide and we forged ahead to work on kitchen, bathrooms, etc. When we finally got to the exterior, I was excited to be able have input on mouldings, trim, railings, door and window selections, and paint! 

They wanted a yellow house and I thought it was very appropriate for this type of home and this neighborhood, but we had to tone down the schoolbus color.  Then we added some punctuation and seriousness with the dark blue/gray for the trim and lighter blue/gray for the porch.  It was quite an involved process placing just the right paint colors on just the right features or mouldings. 

The railings were designed, scaled, and detailed for the contractor.

We made some decisions on site.  (See the paint samples on the wall?)

Before photo of the back porch balcony.

Back screened porch - Before

My details of the back screened porch.

Back screened porch - After

It was a long process, (there was a hurricane in the middle of all this!) but I think it turned out to be a happy looking house with some nice vintage appeal.  I think we brought the house to the place it should be. It was really a unique project for my portfolio and one I am very proud to have been involved with.

"After" photos by Miro Dvorscak.