New Room Additions

This month’s article speaks to enclosing exiting carports and will shift gears a bit from previous month’s philosophically oriented articles, to a more utilitarian theme. When you are thinking about adding space to your home, enclosing an existing carport is an attractive option. Making this choice can be the least expensive means to acquire that additional square footage you require for a new bedroom, den or home office. This article will address the aesthetic considerations regarding creating this type of enclosure.

There are many carport enclosures that are poorly executed and definite candidates for an “Aesthetic Police” violation. It seems that if different choices had been made, it would have integrated the enclosure as if it were part of the original house design. This would make a positive difference to the overall look of the home as well as improve the appearance of the actual addition.

When making an addition of any type to one’s home, the primary design consideration is to design it in such a way that it is indistinguishable from the original house concept. Rooflines, along with window and door openings, are elements of consideration. Secondary considerations are integrating the enclosure with the interior of the existing home and even more importantly with the yard, surrounding site features and landscaping.

With existing carports the roofline issue is taken out of the equation, because it already exists. The next considerations are the window and door openings in the exterior wall. Very simply, try to match the existing windows that have been used in the rest of the house with the new ones to be used in the addition. This would include the same manufacturer and style, for example, sliding, awning etc. and relative size and scale. Using a different window than what has already been used will look out of place. Another consideration is matching the head (top of window) height with the other windows in your home, which will also help tie these elements together. If an exterior door is part of the design, it is secondary to the front door, functionally and aesthetically, so it does not need to match the front door, but may have similar elements such as material, color and style.

The next consideration is the integration of the enclosed carport to the interior and the site. Integration to the interior of the house is usually a given, as with the roofline since it already exists. The integration with the site is another consideration. Many additions that don’t have any windows (which do not met minimum code requirements) visually look offensive. It is preferable to visually integrate the interior with the exterior. By virtue of placing windows in the exterior wall, this automatically creates a visual connection to your yard from the inside to the outside. From the outside in, visually softening the edge between the new exterior walls of the enclosure, the pre-exiting driveway and the existing front yard with the use of landscape material creates a pleasing transition.