are the porches going to prohibit the light, even with the large windows

Absolutely. But if the porch faces west or east, there will obviously be more sun for part of the day.

I once lived in a deteriorated Long Island Gold Coast mansion overlooking the Long Island Sound with a terrace the full 50' width of the living room, all glass. Who needed direct sun with that view?

Here is a link that might be useful: Gold Coast Mansions (Video)

Thanks, guys! I guess I didn't really think about how the position of the home would affect the sunlight.. and since we own the surrounding 500 acres, we can really turn the house how we like!

I like the idea of skylight tunnels in the porch, too. I'll have to run that by my husband!

And, yes, I love how cozy a porch feels so I think I'm just going to try to make my windows/view as awesome as possible and enjoy the view and coziness of a porch in one!

Thanks so much for your input!

We have a deep back porch as well. We live in a climate where we would get little use from a porch or patio if it weren't covered. The roof of the porch is the main roof; the floor is part of the main foundation. The living room windows look out onto the porch and beyond that to a nice view of our yard, the birds,etc. But we had to plan more lighting in the LR due to the porch, even with large windows. One thing that helps us is that we bumped the dining portion of our kitchen out beyond the porch and gave it six windows. We gave up a formal DR in order to have the one large eating area with great light and windows. One option.

Hmm, that's a good idea. One area that I've juggled around a dozen times in my floor plan is the dining area. I don't do a lot of hosting and don't see that changing, even with a newer/nicer home. Although my family is big on meal times together, we don't need to eat too formally. I would think that we'd rather enjoy a great view of nature and wildlife than of formal dinner sets! Maybe I can see how I can work the floor plan to make the eating/dining area more light filled, too. Thanks for the input!

I had this same question about our potential porch. It was great to get the positive responses that I did. Here is the link...it had lots of great information!

Here is a link that might be useful: 10' deep porch

Check out his website where you can input your particulars (latitude, Longitude, window height, overhang length, space above window) and you can a result which details how much sun and shadow will penetrate into your room.

If you want more tools be sure to check out the other tools on the website, some will give you a graphic image of how the sunshine will lay on your floor and how deep into the room the sun will shine on any given day of the year.

I'm in the exact same situation. That's why I found this sight. If I weren't so far in the process, I would see about turning that dining room that just out into a living room , with the windows not having any porch on the side that faces the backyard, and turn the living room, into a dining space - so the dining space would have the windows that are facing the porch and the living room would not - if that makes sense.

An eight year old thread!

Natural light in a house depends firstly on orientation. The optimal orientation for natural light is for the public rooms (living, dining, kitchen, etc) to face south. West is the absolute worst orientation.

Thereafter, window head height is a key factor: the higher the window head the more light. A porch will shield much of the direct natural light, but still allow bounce light, assuming windows have been properly selected and designed.