We recently visited a friend's summer home on the Eastern Shore boasting an incredible dormitory-style sleeping porch that slept nearly twenty (!) people. Ever since, I've been amassing decor inspiration for my dream home, which will most definitely include a screened-in sleep space. Once a common find in older DC area homes, many sleeping porches have since been closed in and converted to year round sunrooms. While we love those too, the idea of escaping the sweltering DC nights without A/C or mosquitoes is certainly dreamy...
A comfy bed, ceiling fan, and fresh air sound like the perfect recipe for an at home escape!
Given the choice, would you opt for a year round sunroom or a screened in sleeping porch?
(Images: 1: Pottery Barn, 2: Traditional Home, 3: Apartment Therapy AB Chao's house tour, 4: Laura Resen, 5: Poppy-Cottage, 6: Homeaway, 7: Flickr member Frances 1972 licensed under Creative Commons, 8: Leah Moss of the Smith Farm)
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Comments (18)
Sleeping porch. <3
Definitely a sleeping porch!
You know what would be ideal? A sleeping porch with a fireplace.
One of my fondest memories as a kid was visiting my great grandmother in rural West TN and sleeping on her screened in sleeping porch. It was much like that first picture, a long room with three beds. I would love to be able to sleep that way again.
Sleeping porch.
A sleeping porch, since sunrooms are often not as comfortable as they look in colder weather.
We have a new screened freestanding outdoor room (10' x 14') with electricity, a lamp, and a daybed with cushions. It's not yet very cozy, but the resident teenage boys find it ideal as a getaway on those cool summer evenings when hanging around inside with the 'rents just isn't that interesting. When they leave for college, perhaps I'll take the time to add the homey touches that make these pix so welcoming.
I had a tiny apartment when I was in college that happened to have a HUGE screened in porch over the garage. Every summer I'd move my ;living room' (couch and TV) out onto the porch. I LOVED it. It had glass windows as well, so I could shut them if it rained. Best. Livingroom. Ever.
A sleeping porch sounds like bliss. Yes please!
Fans of the Betsy-Tacy book series will know that there's a wonderful sleeping porch in Carney's House Party.
Also, I love the above photo with the copy of another excellent book, I Capture the Castle .
One rainstorm and you can kiss those mattress goodbye. Eww.
my grandmother has a screened in porch...sadly, theres no bed in it...but its still the most comfy spot for hour-long talks on a breezy summer day :)
move west and you don't have to have screens at all.(= can you even imagine a place without mosquitos? best kept secret(=
SLEEPING PORCH!!
I didn't know how good I had it as a kid. I grew up in a tiny cottage on a sandy beach where the Potomac River meets the Chesapeake Bay. Half of our home's square footage was porch, as it wrapped around three sides and was 16 feet deep. My parents would move our beds out there from May - October. For sleepovers, they strung up hammocks for the extra kids. Thunderstorms didn't matter because the porch was so deep, the rain wouldn't hit it unless it was raining practically sideways.
We didn't even get air conditioning till I was 16 (in 1994), and then it was just one window unit to dehumidify the family/laundry room when we washed clothes.
When I went off to college in landlocked PA, it took me forever to fall sleep without the sound of waves.
When I finally stop renting and buy a place, it WILL have a screen porch.
Sleeping porch. I've never had one, but have always wanted one.
My grandfather and his brothers grew up using a sleeping porch, even sometimes in the New England winter.
i'd rather have a combination of both......
Ruthie, did you grow up in Maryland or Virginia? I'm from that area as well (Great Mills, MD).
My childhood cabin had a sleeping porch. All of the young cousins, including me, slept outside on old brass beds that has squeaky lumpy mattresses. We were lulled to sleep by the cool summer night air and sounds of the lake lapping the shore.
Ruthie, that sounds like a dream …
sleeping porches do sound wonderful - when you have the climate for it.
I have an enclosed sleeping porch on a 100 yr old row home (2 actually, but the downstairs was probably never used as a 'sleeping porch'), and I am decidedly not a fan. Ours is enclosed, which sounds great except it's a sieve and prone to the worst of all worlds -- hot in summer (we installed CAC thankfully) and frigid in winter, so much that it impacts the heating efficiency of the entire house).
We did use it for alternate fridge space one Thanksgiving, but that's about the only useful application we've encountered. I will be so relieved to gut this room and the adjoining one and install proper insulation.