AboutRichard Taylor, AIA Expertise Ask me about all aspects of house, remodeling. , and room addition design and construction. Ask me about historic homes, renovation, and restoration. Ask me about materials and techniques, and about how you can get the best value for your design and construction dollar. Ask me how you can make your home a very special place. I can't, however, answer specific structural engineering questions in this forum - that's something you'll need on-site observation for.
Experience I own a five-person residential architectural firm, and have been designing custom homes, remodelings, and room additions across the country since 1983. Check us out at Richard Taylor Architects and RTA Plans. I have written and been published extensively on the subject of residential architecture.
Organizations American Institute of Architects, City of Dublin Architectural Review Board, City of Dublin Planning and Zoning Commission, American Planning Association, Past Editor of SPLASH (a software forum), Past Editor of Open Directory Project, Boy Scouts of America
Education/Credentials Bachelor of Environmental Design (Architecture) Miami University 1983
For more about home design, check out my blog at Richard Taylor Architects Looking for great Luxury Home House Plans? Try ours at RTA Plans.
I am interested in adding on a covered front porch or a portico to our Colonial. I am having trouble finding pictures of this and I want to make sure it blends with the house and doesn't look out of place. Attached is a before picture of the house. I have replaced the original door, removed the door trim, and will replace the brick stoop as they have suffered water damage. I will be changing the color palette to white trim with dark olive shutters. Can you advise what style of portico or porch would be most appropriate? Thank you very much!
The basic proportions of your house are pretty sound - except for the door surround, which is pretty badly out of scale with the house and door. A new entry portico will make a dramatic difference, as will the color scheme you've chosen (and get rid of the railing!).
They key here is simplicity and proper detailing. A classic flat-roofed entablature supported on doric or tuscan columns will do the trick (you probably don't have room for a gable roof). The most common mistake homeowners (and builders) make is undersizing the columns and skimping on the details of the roof/entablature.
The appropriate column diameter is a function of it's height; diameter should be about one-seventh to one-ninth of the height - anything less and it looks cheap and skimpy. Additionally, the face of the column shaft should align with the face of the entablature above - this means the column capital will stick out past the entablature, which is correct.
I've attached a typical detail of a portico to help you make sense of what I wrote above - you'll have to adjust the dimensions for your situation, this was for a much larger porch.
For more information, see "Get Your House Right" by Cusato - the best reference around for how to get the details and proportions just right.
Hope this helps,
Richard Taylor, AIA
www.rtastudio.com
www.rtastudio.blogspot.com
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