The Porte Cochere

Our house doesn’t have a garage or anything. We live in town and park on the street. It doesn’t bother me most of the time, but when the weather is bad it would be nice to be able to get from the car to the house without getting wet.
Our house is very old. It was built by my husband’s great-grandfather in the early 1900s. So, my husband has basically lived his whole life here. When he bought the house from his mother in the 1990s, he completely gutted and remodeled the inside. He didn’t do much to the outside except put siding on and paint the trim. Since we’ve been together, he’s put a new roof on, and rebuilt the porch. We’ve also painted the base of the house and the columns. So, the house looks pretty good on the outside (except we need more landscaping, he had none when I moved in. I’ve since added some boxwood…baby steps!). Among all the improvements we’ve made to the exterior, I’ve decided I want, no need, a porte cochere. If you don’t know what a porte cochere is, see the lovely pictures below. It literally translates to “carriage porch.” They were originally built on houses so the carriages of the day could be driven directly up to the house under a shelter, so one wouldn’t get wet. It’s basically an attached carport with a door leading indoors. I’m trying to convince Jimmy that he needs to build us one. He’s all worried about the roof-line and leaking, so I found some with roof-lines I knew he’d like. I know the way to his heart! Take a look!

This one is beautiful and very substantial. You can tell it’s part of a much bigger, lovelier house.

 

Ditto for this one. It’s beautiful and I love the columns but it’s nothing like my house.

 

My house doesn’t look like this, but this is more the style of porte cochere that I’m wanting. It looks as if it could have been added later.

 

Love this! It looks as if it’s a porte cochere on a carriage house, not the main house. It’s very charming and pretty but it looks to be an integral part of the house, not something added on later.

 

Really like this too! It also looks as if it would work on my house.

 

Out of all the houses, this house is the most similar to ours. It was probably built around the same time. We have an L-shaped porch on our house, though, and round columns. Also, our roof is a higher pitch.  This porte cochere would work nicely, although it needs to be on the other side of the house.

 

This wouldn’t work on our house at all. It’s totally not an afterthought and is part of the design of the house. It’s really pretty, though. I love this house. It’s beautiful and majestic in a sweet, compact way. Perfect!

 
 
{All images via Pinterest}
 
XOXO, Candice

Tweet Pin It Now!