How to Make the Best of Your Car Porch Design
Sure, a porch just a space for your car – how fancy does it need to be? For many people, the car porch is the least of their considerations when planning for their home renovations. But most of the time, the porch is going to be the first thing your visitors see when they come up to your house – and we all know how much first impressions matter!
With just a few simple considerations, you can be well on your way to making the best of your car porch design and creating something you’ll look forward to seeing every day. Let’s get to it!
Lighting is King
Very often, how a space is lit can make or break the whole look of a space. While overhead lights are a given so that you have full visibility during the dark hours, uplighters and spotlights also present ways you can add depth and drama to your porch.
For a different feel, you could also play around with lanterns and fairy lights, which tend to be very affordable and can be installed creatively along your walls to give your porch a festive, or even magical look.
Proper lighting is also essential to your safety – if your porch paving is on the darker side, you may want to consider cranking up the brightness of your outdoor lights, whereas you could get away with dimmer lights if your outdoor flooring comes in lighter shades.
Let us worry about your renovation – you just enjoy the rest!
Choose the Right Paving
When it comes to paving your car porch, durability and strength are the key considerations – while a wooden deck may look nice, it might not be able to withstand the weight of your vehicle, not to mention the wear and tear of your car driving in and out on a daily basis.
Comfort and safety are also valid concern: while loose stones or gravel may be cost-efficient and easily replaceable, they may not be comfortable to walk on, and could even pose a danger for those wearing heels or with mobility issues; whereas concrete porches, while cost effective, can become slipping hazards during the rainy seasons.
Concrete tiles with structured surfaces like Cementous are classic solutions that balance both aesthetics and function in this regard. For added safety, you could also consider Pedregal and Legacy, both part of our slip-stop series that also looks incredible outdoors.
Introduce Some Greenery
A little greenery goes a long way towards softening up a space. Potted plants or creepers along the walls can be a great way to introduce some greenery without taking up too much space.
In terms of crafting the overall aesthetic, we love the look of lively greenery on rock, something like Hardrock or Summer, which can be installed on the walls for the best effect. Depending on the type of plants you go for, natural sandstone effect tiles like Tribes could also be a good option for a more rugged look.
If you have more of a green thumb, adding flowers to your porch will not only soften the look, but is also a great way to add pops of colour that will make it all the more visually pleasing. Just watch out for allergies if you have any!
Pay attention to the roofing
If your porch has roofing to protect your car from rain and shine, you may want to look at matching surfaces for your outdoor walls, floors, and even the beams and columns – and think about how they can be dressed up to match with the rest of your porch’s design. A quick and easy way would be to deck them out in in matching colours. If your columns are wide enough, let your imagination run wild with ideas of how you can make them into a feature piece.
One method we are fond of is the use of big slab or large format tiles that exaggerate the size of your columns, giving them an air of grandeur and splendour.
Discover our big slab collection with Vogue Grande.
