Porch of the Week: Relaxed Indoor-Outdoor Living in New England

“After” photos by Emily O’Brien of EO Photo Studios

Porch at a Glance
Who lives here: This is the summer home of a Texas couple with a teenage son and a college-age daughter.
Location: Charlestown, Rhode Island
Designers: Dana Amato of Purple Bike Design (interior design) and Leslie Architects (architecture)
Builder: SR Fine Home Builders

Before: The family owned the house for 18 years before tackling the sunroom and exterior renovation. During that time, they remodeled a millhouse on the property and updated the main home’s interiors. A lack of indoor-outdoor connection, though, made everything feel incomplete.

There was a sunroom (seen here on the left) but no porch. Existing windows along the back of the house were small and sparse. “The house abruptly stopped,” interior designer Dana Amato says. Once the design team set to work, “there was a plan to create a space that was as much a part of the house as the indoor space,” she says.

After: A new porch spans the back of the house, with cedar shingles and arched openings enhancing the home’s classic New England feel. “We had an opportunity to create continuity between the sunroom and the open porch,” Amato says. You can see how the sunroom’s roofline falls in line with that of the porch extension.

Known locally as King Tom Farm, after Thomas Ninigret, onetime sachem (chief) of the Narragansett Indians, the historic property is where Ninigret built his home in the mid-18th century. Ninigret’s sister Esther succeeded him after his death and was crowned at Coronation Rock, the large granite outcropping seen in the foreground of this photo. The property was sold after the death of Esther’s son, who was sachem briefly as well. The home burned down twice, and the most recent version was built in the early 20th century.

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After: The renovated sunroom has the same footprint as before but feels like a different space. All-new windows offer an indoor-outdoor connection and a beautifully framed panorama. Gridded panes on the top half of the windows lend a traditional cottage feel, with single panes on the bottom offering unobstructed backyard views. The ceiling line matches that of the new porch, easily accessed through the propped open door seen here.

Amato envisioned a space that would embody indoor-outdoor living in a classic New England summer home. She wanted to “make you feel elevated but relaxed enough to spend the day your pajamas,” she says.

She used a mix of vintage finds, strategic investment purchases and some pieces the homeowners already had to create a comfy space for napping, reading and enjoying outdoor views. Patience is key, Amato says, when pulling together a layered, lived-in look like this.

Windows: Pella

A patterned sectional sofa draws people from the home’s back hallway through French doors into the sunroom. “[It’s] this comfortable setting where you can just walk out and feel like you’re outside,” Amato says.

The designer created the coffee table by adding a piece of glass to a chest the homeowners already had. A vintage apothecary chest provides plenty of storage. A space-saving vintage pedestal table offers a spot for dining or playing games, surrounded by caned chairs from McGuire.

Sunroom sconces: Visual Comfort

Friends are always coming and going throughout the year. When guests visit for the first time, the homeowners have them collect a stone from the beach and paint their name, the date and their favorite activity. The painted rocks (seen here along the windowsills) serve as mementos of the many houseguests over the years. The homeowners say they also are tributes to Coronation Rock and the site’s significant history.

Willoughby, one of the homeowners’ dogs, enjoys the porch view here.

This space off the sunroom has a Dutch door that opens to the kitchen. The team considered enclosing it and connecting the sunroom directly to the kitchen, but ultimately opted against it. “Who doesn’t want to walk through a Dutch door? To get the full effect [of the home], you really need to go outside or go into the sunroom,” Amato says.

An oversize chalkboard can act as a place to keeps score for backyard games or share messages. For now, it’s used to track the lunar phases.

Door paint: Treron; trim paint: Pigeon, both by Farrow & Ball

A mudroom with limestone flooring lies beyond a door at the farthest end of the porch. One of the homeowners brings all her vegetables from the garden to the mudroom to prep and clean them. Shoes are stored on a vintage baker’s rack.

The homeowners like to ring the bell next to the door to invite everyone to gather for dinner. Here we also see Lilly, another one of the homeowners’ dogs, taking it easy.

Before: The renovation also involved replacing the home’s exterior cedar shingles, which originally covered only the front facade. “We knew we wanted to continue the cedar around the back. We wanted to maintain a historical feel that felt authentic to New England,” Amato says. The original shingles were red cedar, but Amato and the homeowners opted for something that would age to a lighter color.