Add kerb appeal with a practical

This bespoke porch required planning permission and has Everest uPVC double glazed casement windows either side of a composite door in Raven’s Wing with chrome furniture. Price on application at everest.co.uk CONSIDER THE BENEFITS

2There are many pros to a porch. If it’s designed and built to a high standard using thermally efficient materials, it can reduce heat loss in your home and help keep the bills down. A porch also provides extra storage space – perfect for shoes, coats, scarves and all the messy bits you don’t want inside the house. They are especially handy if you have a dog, as you can leave the wellies and dog lead in the porch when you get home.

Porches can complement your property’s exterior too, adding kerb appeal for visitors and passers-by. As well as giving you a more attractive house, they can even add value. What’s more, it acts as an extra barrier to any unwanted visitors so security is another good reason to consider adding one. Even if it’s simply an overhang above the front door, just think how grateful you’ll be when you’re trying to find the house key in the pouring rain.

THINK ABOUT DESIGN

3You want your porch to be in keeping with the style and structure of your property but there’s no reason why you can’t make it more of a statement with something really special or personal. Don’t just choose an off-the-peg box design if you want to make yours stand out.

The latest trends include natural-looking porches with treated wooden roofs leaning out from the front exterior standing on two sturdy wooden columns, a burst of vibrant colour with an eye-catching front door and statement knocker or an oversized front door with a clean, contemporary feel.

Look at Pinterest for ideas and consider your window, door and roof options. Window frames come in a range of finishes – uPVC, wood or aluminium with decorative and obscured glazing for privacy, roofs in pitched, gable end, double hipped and flat, plus there are an endless variety of wonderful front door designs on offer.

Lights in the porch or by the front door add security and a safe, well-illuminated welcome. Swan Neck waterproof brass wall light, £95, Industville Paint the hallway in a striking colour, like Elemental AF-400 paint, £24 for 0.94L, from Benjamin Moore, to add warmth

Enhance your home’s privacy and security with Frostbite window film from The Window Film Company, priced from £30

EXPLORE OTHER OPTIONS

4As well as adding a new porch, there are plenty of other ways to boost your home’s kerb appeal. Take a look at the front door – is it looking drab? You can either replace it altogether or give it a fresh lick of paint if it’s a timber design.

Consider changing the letterbox, doorbell and knocker as well as your home’s number or house name plate, too. Add some smart new outside lighting. Move bins round the back and fix any fences that have seen better days. Check if any guttering needs to be replaced or repaired, wash windows and sills and trim back hedges, overhanging trees and bushes then mow the lawn. Add some potted plants or mini shrubs around the front door and finish with a new doormat.

For a bigger project, consider laying new block paving or stone slabs on the driveway, patio or path. Again, complement your property’s existing architecture and choose materials that balance style with practicality.

Cuckooland’s Artsy Oh Hello doormat, £24.95, will give your doorway a pop of colour and greet guests in style

For a modern approach, go for an openended canopy roof like this sleek design from Weru. Atris front door in Anthracite Grey with electronic biometric finger scanning for secure keyless access, from £3,500 A lick of paint can give your home an instant update. Door in 10 Year Satin Seclusion, from £37 for 2.5L; surround in Pure Brilliant White Ultra Smooth masonry paint, £29 for 5L; walls in Gravel Ultra Smooth masonry paint, £40 for 10L, all sandtex.co.uk

EXPERT ADVICE

SET A BUDGET

‘A porch needs to be sympathetically designed so that it is in keeping with the rest of your home and not be oversized or out of proportion with the overall building. It’s important to consider how you’re going to use it before you start. Porches can be multifunctional spaces used for anything from a smart meet and greet area, a place to store coats and shoes or even somewhere to clean the dog off after a long walk, while keeping out the cold and adding an extra layer of security to the home.’ Jill McLintock, Head of Product Marketing for Everest 5 Building a new porch from scratch isn’t a cheap DIY solution. There’s the cost of the materials to start, plus the labour as well as the finishes, any electricals, the cost of the porch door and maybe even a new front door if you fancy a change or a matching look. According to myjobquote.co.uk, the average cost is £4,000 and it takes one to two weeks. Make sure you use a qualified tradesperson or specialist company and go over all USEFUL CONTACTS ● For information on planning permission visit planningportal.co.uk. ● Find out about labour costs and timescales at myjobquote.co.uk. ● Look for ideas and inspiration at pinterest.com and houzz.com.● Check out the latest front door designs at diy.com, doorsuperstore.co.uk and justdoorsuk.com. the details including design options, price breakdown and timescale. A lean-to uPVC porch or brick design averages around £2,000-£3,000, an aluminium porch, £2,500-£3,000 ADD A PORCH EXTENSION

and a flat gable roof porch, £3,000-£4,000. 6You’ll definitely need planning permission for this but if you have the space,

If you don’t have the funds right now, there are a few tricks budget, time and inclination, a porch extension can be a wonderful asset you can use to create a porch effect for less. Think about to your home, especially if it includes a cloakroom to provide you with a an open design – just two walls extending out from your downstairs WC. Expect to pay between around £1,000 and £1,200 per square front door with a roof can provide shelter. Or how about a metre. If space allows, try to incorporate a little boot room or coat cupboard too, storm porch – a small roofed structure that will protect your so you can hang things up. It will push the price up but having a rooflight in a entrance from the elements? Once you add a potted plant sloping porch extension roof plus a window in the cloakroom will not only add to and a new doormat, it can really boost your kerb appeal. its appeal and value but it will also let more natural light into your home.

This five-bedroom Nottinghamshire home shows how attractive a porch can look if it complements the rest of the property. It was on the market with Gascoines for £575,000 The garage has been painted in Inky Blue Exterior Eggshell, £25 for 1L, M&L Paints to match the front door for a co-ordinated look

CA SE ST U DY

‘We lost out on a holiday but secured a real asset to our home’

Retired teacher Charmian believes the outlay of around £1,500 was more than worth the expense considering the current value of the property

Feature and photos Gill Rothwell

The countryside farmhouse as it looked in the estate agent’s brochure back in 2012

Moving to a 17th-century stone farmhouse in the heart of the Somerset countryside was a dream for retired teacher Charmian Cowper. ‘I’d always fancied the idea of country living,’ she explains, ‘and of being self-sufficient with a vegetable patch and a few chickens.’

The dream came true with the purchase of Home Farm close to Wells eight years ago. Built in 1648 and originally with a thatched roof, it was ‘structurally sound but had suffered somewhat from the previous owner’s attempts at DIY.’ Putting things right has taken Charmian and her partner, Jules, who is also a teacher, several years. ‘We just do jobs as needed,’ explains Charmian, and they’re both hands on, tackling everything from decorating to plastering and even putting up a stud wall.

The original house has two upstairs bedrooms while a third is in the later single storey addition, which was once the farm’s buttery and now houses the kitchen, cloakroom and a small lobby. With its white rendered exterior and contrasting traditional stone, the property has an attractive outward appearance but Charmian and Jules always felt there was something lacking. ‘It needed a focal point and a way of encouraging visitors to come through the front door, rather than the one that leads into the lobby where we leave our muddy boots,’ says Charmian. ‘The couple had discussed the idea of a porch for some time and when the lockdown put paid to their holiday plans last year, they decided to splash out on some home improvement instead.

Online research led them to Shropshire Door Canopies, which offered a range of options at a price they could afford. The Blakemore canopy was ideal for the back door and took less than a day for Charmian and Jules to install. ‘It was quite straightforward as the surrounding wall is flat,’ explains Charmian, ‘whereas the uneven stone wall beside the front door made installing the porch a lot more complicated.’

With the help of a builder friend, who lent them a powerful electric chisel to chip away at the stone, Charmian and Jules managed to put up the Grosvenor porch in a couple of days. They sourced some slate roof tiles from a local reclamation yard and applied three coats of wood preservative, which not only protects the wood but matches it to the existing external doors.

For more information about this porch range visit shropshiredoorcanopies.co.uk or call 01691 623737.

The exterior of the old stone and rendered building has two new focal points – a canopy over the back door and full porch framing the front door, both made from kiln-dried redwood

Charmian chose the made-to-measure porch at the front door for both aesthetic and practical reasons – firstly for its kerb appeal and secondly to give callers protection from the elements