Tag Archives: screened porches

Screen Porch Ideas

If you are thinking about building a screen porch, you likely wonder what will make your porch perfectly your own.

Looking for screen porch ideas? Archadeck of Kansas City has been designing and building screened in porches since 2001 throughout the Kansas City area. We have built porches of every shape, size, and orientation. We have a good grasp on what homeowners are looking for in a new screen porch design for both aesthetics and function. Check out these fantastic ideas for your new porch!

Here are some great screened in porch ideas to inspire your own porch design.

screen porch ideas

Screen porch idea 1: Beautiful outdoor fireplaces

One of the most popular options for the screened porches we build is an outdoor fireplace. Not only does an outdoor fireplace add a bit of warmth on cool days, it also provides a beautiful focal point and ambiance abound. That is why adding an outdoor fireplace is one of the most popular screen porch ideas around!

Screen porch idea 2: Radiant porch heating

Radiant heating is one of the newest screen porch ideas that is trending in the Kansas City market. While building an outdoor fireplace into your new screened porch will add a bit of warmth, including radiant heating will really warm up your porch. About 60% of our screened in porch clients choose to add heating to their porch plans, which gives them much more time spent outdoors each year.

Screen porch ideas - radiant heating

Screen porch idea 3: Finished porch ceilings

Porches in days of old might have excluded intricate porch ceilings, or even finished ceilings altogether. Today, however, clients want complete electrical installations. Not only does adding a finished tongue and groove ceiling accommodate wiring, lighting, and fans, it adds a lovely custom aesthetic to any porch design. In addition to tongue and groove porch ceiling finishes, some clients wish for exposed beams to offer a rustic or farmhouse aesthetic to their screened porch.

Screened porch idea 4: Painted ceilings and trim

One of the benefits of hiring a screened porch design firm is that we can help you achieve a cohesive aesthetic between your home’s exterior and your new porch. While some of our clients love the look of pine or cedar ceilings and trim, others like the appeal of a porch that is painted in the same color palette as their home. In addition to achieving a complementary or matching porch design, paint can bring a more contemporary flair to a porch. A painted white ceiling, like the ones you see below, will even help an otherwise dark porch appear brighter.

Screen porch idea 5: Mixed materials and finishes

While it’s true that screen porches can be painted for color harmony, they can also be finished to include complementary colors and finishes. The screened porch below is a great example of mixing materials and finishes. The stark white paint and fireplace are beautiful complements to the Ipe hardwood flooring, as well as the tongue and groove ceiling. These mixed-materials porches can provide a refined and rustic aesthetic together.

Screened in porch idea - mixed building materials and finishes

Screened in porch idea 6: TV walls

This is one of our clients’ favorite screen porch ideas. Often, they wish to add a fireplace to their porch, partly to accommodate an outdoor TV. However, a fireplace will add a lot of cost. Whether you prefer your new porch without a fireplace or a fireplace does not fit into your budget, a TV wall can be added instead. TV walls can be constructed on your exterior porch wall or on a more interior wall for ample protection. They can be constructed of natural wood, painted wood, drywall, or your choice of material. TV walls, like fireplaces, can become a focal point on your porch, and can additionally provide privacy to your porch.

  • Screened in porch idea - TV wall

Screen porch idea 7: Custom lighting

Screened porch lighting can come into your porch design in many ways. Many of our clients love having overhead lighting by way of recessed lights or ceiling fans, which is great for task lighting. For more ambient porch lighting solutions, clients also love choosing beautiful sconces, pendant lights, and our custom porch perimeter lighting, for which we build a special ledge around the exterior porch walls.

  • Screen porch idea - custom lighting

Screened porch idea 8: Surround sound installation

Since our screen porches are built with finished ceilings, many of our clients love adding extra electrical amenities. In addition to TVs, lighting, radiant heaters, and ceiling fans, our porch clients also love to have surround sound installed. Adding speakers to your screened porch will help you ramp up movie night or enjoy sporting events viewing without outside noise distractions.

Screened porch idea - surround sound

Screen porch idea 9: Comfortable furniture

Not every screen porch design need have run-of-the-mill outdoor furnishings. Many of our clients choose high-end indoor/outdoor furniture, which provides as much comfort as their indoor sofas and chairs. This provides a supremely luxurious aesthetic, as well.

  • Screen porch ideas - comfortable furniture

Screen porch idea 10: Porch sunshades

As much as our clients love spending time outdoors, harsh sunlight can prohibit use during certain hours of the day. Therefore, they choose so to have custom sunshades installed on their porches. These shades can also help protect furniture and finishes within the porch from sun and rain.

Screened in porch idea - custom sunshades

Which of these screen porch ideas was your favorite?

If you are searching for screen porch builders in the Kansas City area, choose Archadeck. We are locally owned porch and deck contractors in the Kansas City area, who have been designing and building custom outdoor spaces since 2001!

Call to schedule your deck design consultation at (913) 851-3325 or email us at kansas-city@archadeck.net.

Also read: Is a screened in deck worth it?

Why the rebuilding in Japan means you should build your new porch or sunroom right now!

Overland Park KS Screened Porch with Treated Wood Floor and Knee Wall

Overland Park KS Screened Porch with Treated Wood Floor and Knee Wall

The devastating Tsunami in Japan seems so fresh in our minds but also so long ago. When we are hit with a major devastation, the feelings and emotions seem so fresh in our minds yet we know intellectually that these events happened much longer ago. I watched an episode of 60 Minutes a week ago that surprised me. Japan is not in the rebuilding stage but yet rather still in the cleanup stage. What this means is that soon raw building materials are going to be in tremendously high demand on the International market. What this means for us domestically is prices are getting ready to increase.

Thirty years ago, prices on raw materials such as wood were influenced by domestic demand. Now, the prices of raw materials in the States are widely determined by world demand. Many of us are staying in our homes because of the challenge in selling our homes right now at any sort of attractive price. We’re also vacationing less because we want our dollars to last longer than the span of a vacation. We want to invest those dollars into creating a relaxing or seemingly luxurious space at our own homes. What better way to do this than to build a porch or sunroom to both expand our home and enjoy a greater view of our yards and a better connection with the outdoors. Visibility to our yards and to more sun has a relaxing effect and our porches or sunrooms can give us the feeling of vacationing at home.

Kansas City Screened Porch with Screened Gable Roof and Sky Light

Kansas City Screened Porch with Screened Gable Roof and Sky Light

Prices of raw materials are getting ready to go up. I always tell my prospective customers who are thinking about building in the Fall or Winter that it might be one of the best times to build because of impending first-of-the-year price increases. The material manufacturers not only commonly increase prices at the first of a new year but some get a jump on the annual price increase by raising prices at the end of the year. Where do the rebuilding efforts in Japan come into this equation? Many of us suspect that the effects of the increased demand on raw materials from Japan’s rebuilding have already been felt. Instead, Japan is nearing the end of their cleanup and is forecasted to have a surge in demand at the beginning of 2012 at which time raw material prices may likely increase.

Now is the best time to build your new porch, sunroom or room addition.

In addition to material prices, there are a few other reasons why now is the best time to build your new porch or sunroom.

Least amount of landscape damage

When you are building a backyard structure, there can be literally hundreds of trips from your backyard to front yard. If we are demolishing your old deck or structure or replacing parts of it, the materials need to be carried out of your yard by a person. In addition, the material is carried through your yard with many trips from front to back. The best time for lots of traffic across your yard is when the grass and plants are dormant and the ground is harder. It’s easier for the lawn to recover.

Large Gable Roof Sunroom with Attached Deck in Lee's Summit MO

Large Gable Roof Sunroom with Attached Deck in Lee’s Summit MO

Easier for the carpenters

We all have this scene in our minds. Carpenters sitting on a hot roof or in a chair drinking a Gatorade and wiping sweat of their face This is not for being lazy. The heat of summer not only necessitates more hydration breaks but it also slows the carpenters down.

Much shorter waiting list

We all know the best people are busy. When we’ve heard about a great new doctor or landscaper, we expect to be put on a waiting list and we’re ok with that. We expect a waiting list from the best. In the Spring, any reputable contractor is going to have a substantial waiting list. If you call in April, it may be highly likely that your project cannot be started until early summer. As a matter of fact, if you call a contractor in the Spring and they can start right away – buyer beware. In the Fall and Winter, reputable contractors will still likely have a waiting list but it will be substantially shorter.

Ability to control your schedule

Now comes the frustrating part of building in the Spring. You’ve signed up to have your project built and you anxiously wait to hear when the contractor can start only to find that’s the week you will be on vacation or the couple of weeks when you are going to have loads of people in your back yard and cannot have builders around during that time. Similarly to the point above, shorter waiting lists mean a better ability to control having the building done at a time makes the most sense for you.

Bonnie and Dan Hall, Archadeck of Kansas City Owners

Bonnie and Dan Hall, Archadeck of Kansas City Owners

When you call for a free consultation, we can help you determine what makes the best sense for you. The disruption on your lives and back yard will be much less. And, you’re likely to pay significantly less.

Call us now for your free consultation at (913) 851 – 3325 or email us at kansascity@archadeck.net.

To see more examples of our work, check out or photo galleries.

Kansas City sunrooms photo gallery

Kansas City 3-season and 4-season image gallery

Kansas City screen porch picture gallery