Have you ever wondered what the difference is between a porch and a portico?
They’re similar, but they do serve two different purposes.
A porch is an extension of your home’s living space.
Porches are usually covered and may be used for sitting, relaxing and depending on the size, may be used for entertaining. Porches can vary greatly depending on the style of the home. They can be small, they can run the whole length of your home, or fall anywhere in between. Styles run from casual to formal and are often used to enhance the overall look and curb appeal of a home.
A portico functions as a way to shelter your doorway, you and your guests from the elements.
A portico is a structure built above the front door of a home. It may have room for a chair or small bench, but the size generally doesn’t allow for relaxing and entertaining. While size is generally restricted, a portico can add beauty and character to your home with a variety of shapes, sizes and designs, from traditional to super modern.
When deciding whether you would like to add a porch or a portico, below are a few items to consider:
- Size of the home. Scale matters.
- Style of the home. Just like size, style many times dictates whether you should add a porch or a portico. Go to my Pinterest boards to begin looking at homes with porches and homes with porticos to help you determine which may work better for the style of your home.
- What is your goal for the space? Do you want to enjoy time on a front porch or just providing protection from the elements.
- Budget. That blasted B word always sneaks in!
For our European Tudor, a front porch isn’t a viable option.
TJ and I want to build a structure that will provide guests with protection at the front door. We both feel that the front of our home is (or, has potential to be) lovely, but it is a bit plain and for lack of a better word, flat, near the front door. We want to add some dimension. I also want a covered area to place seasonal items to enhance the entrance. I love seasonal decor, especially in the Fall!
The decision to build a portico rather than a porch was pretty straight forward for our home.
When looking at our list above, size didn’t impact our decision, but style did. A porch won’t look good on our home. Tudors generally have very high pitched roofs and our front gable is no exception. We have several reasons to go with a portico rather than a porch, but the short list is:
- Placement of the front door and large front window.
- Steep roof line on our front gable.
- Limiting how much of the stone is hidden by the roofline of the new portico or porch.
So, we’ve shared how we came up with our decision and we’re sharing a simple sketch of the planned portico below. All you need to do is . . .
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