Custom Search New Articles Decorating Tips for Your Front Porch or Sunroom Pillows, upholstery, slipcovers, shades and blinds, lighting, flooring, and rugs all make a sunroom or a porch lush and comfortable. Creating a Beach House Bathroom Decorating Theme, Part 1 Bring a breath of fresh air to town bathrooms with a breezy beach-house theme, or create a soothing mood inspired by the natural colors and textures of the seashore. A Better Life Through Interior Decorating The way your home looks can have an intimate impact on the overall quality of your life. This is a concept which may not seem obvious at first, and yet when you come to realize what a home really means on a psychological, a functional, and even a... Home Decorating: Choosing The Right Lights for Your Look and Needs A successful lighting scheme that meets practical needs and creates atmosphere plays an important part in establishing the style and character of your home.

How to Decorate Sunrooms and Porches

Attached outdoor spaces that provide total or partial shelter should be considered an extension of the home's interior design. In most cases these areas embrace an entrance or serve to join two interior areas--a breezeway, for example. Traffic patterns figure importantly in overall furniture arrangements, as does the selection of furniture, durable fabrics, and other elements.

Document your ideas. Keep a folder full of your inspirations and any ideas you may have. Photograph the area you want to decorate from both inside the house and facing toward it from the outside. Keep clippings of similar spaces and furnishings, shades, and lighting that you like from magazines and product brochures; collect paint color chips and samples of fabric and flooring, too. Don't forget plantings, including window boxes and potted plants, and anything else influencing the design. Consider all the seasons the space is used. Will you want to add curtains to a sunroom for insulation come winter so that you can continue to use it longer into the cold weather? Will blinds or curtains add to a porch's comfort by blocking spring and fall winds?

Make a floor plan. Add special features unique to your space, such as notations indicating good and bad views. You will want to arrange furniture to take advantage of a good view or to face away from an ugly one.

Indicate the sun's exposure throughout the day, and note whether it should influence furniture placement. For example, you may need shades for the southern side of a porch, or you may want to group furniture to face fabulous sunsets in the west.

Make furniture templates. Make templates of the furniture you plan to use, as well as of other elements, that require clearance space, such as planters, window boxes, or blinds. Group them on the floor plan; try different configurations to see which is best.

Factor in traffic patterns. Indicate pathways to and from the house. Take into account the swing of each door because you cannot place furniture in those spaces. For sliding glass doors, indicate which side is the entrance.

Arrange furniture so that conversation areas are not interrupted by traffic to and from the house. For instance, a common problem is a porch with a central door and a stepped entrance directly opposite the door. Rather than arranging furniture in one big grouping, create smaller areas at each end of: the porch. Suggestions include a table with chairs on one side and a conversational grouping on the other. A table just outside the door can double as a buffet table. Plot any other traffic aisles, and make sure that you have not blocked passages to the cords for adjusting blinds or for watering plants.

©2007, Kathy Burns-Millyard. Want more great Outdoor Decorating Ideas, tips, and advice? Visit the Do It Yourself Home Decorating Network (http://www.diyhomedecorating.com/) now to see what's new!

Related Articles

Decorating Your Childs New Home
Your little bundle of joy will finally be in your arms soon, and you want to make sure his or her new home is absolutely perfect...

Spare Room Decorating
Every home has that one room that no one wants to go into. Some call it the junk room, others call it the spare room, let's decorate it like the rest of your home.

Decorating a Girls Room
Your little girl love flowers! So why not surround your little girl with the things that she loves the most. Most little girls like flowers of all sorts, but some have one particular flower that they love the most.