Porches are often among the first architectural elements to be sacrificed on an old house — both because they require a lot of maintenance and because they are obvious candidates for conversion to year-round living space. On a recent job, we went the opposite way: We were asked by the owners of a 1928 Colonial revival to convert a sunroom back to an open-air porch. Design Meets Demo During the design phase, we presented a half dozen alternatives. The client narrowed them down to two choices — a porch with custom posts, handrail, and chamfered balusters, or a porch with round columns atop the shingled half-wall that already existed as part of the sunroom.
