Colonial Portico
EDINA, MN
Completed 2023
The clients purchased the home about 15 years ago and never knew what to do with the porch addition off the back of the home. In addition to being a general eye sore and cutting off a large portion of their small back yard, it was always a little damp, smelly, and not very well arranged. This also impeded access to the back yard by forcing passage through a secondary space. The size of the porch restricted light into the home which they did not like. The at-grade cedar deck was a maintenance nightmare and a terrible misuse of space.
Designed by Becca Bastyr
Behind the Design
Design Notes
Before
For fifteen years the porch addition off the back of the house was the room nobody wanted: damp, dim, swallowing the small backyard, blocking the light, and forcing every trip outside through a space that never earned its keep.
The Idea
Take it down and build a barrel-vaulted portico in its place — following the old roofline to spare the siding, with one gentle curve reaching over a new pass-through window to the kitchen.
After
Pewter limestone decks the stoop, dentil and crown moulding echo the home’s front entry, and staggered cedar shakes at the peak give it a coastal accent. Shortening the kitchen window even bought the homeowners more counter and cabinets inside. Light is back, and so is the backyard.
The Brief
- —A covered transition between home and outdoors
- —A pass-through window from the kitchen to the covered space
- —Connect the dining-room doors and the sunroom door
- —Honor the home’s traditional details
- —More light inside, airy spaces outside
Materials & Craft
- Pewter limestone decking
- Barrel-vault portico ceiling
- Metal roofing
- Azek trim & finishes
- Cedar shake accents
- Stone pass-through bar top
01
The barrel vault
The portico ceiling curves inverse to the roof above it — a small piece of architecture that turns a walkway into a moment.
02
Stone over structure
The stoop is a carpentry grid system decked in pewter limestone — natural stone underfoot, engineered support beneath.
03
The pass-through
A double set of double-hung windows opens the kitchen to a stone bar top outside; shortening the old window let the cabinets and counters grow inside.
04
Details that already lived here
Dentil moulding, crown details, a metal roof, whites and creamy greys with a touch of blue — the new build borrows its language from the home’s own front entry.
The hard part
Geometry in service of light: the curved roof had to clear the upper-story windows, still cover the pass-through, and land on the old roofline so the existing siding never had to come off.
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