It’s All About the Porch at a New Hampshire Lake House

With its retractable screens, the elegant porch of this New Hampshire vacation home can be converted into an open-air, three-season outdoor room with the push of a button. The homeowners and their guests relax on hearty resin-wicker outdoor furniture while enjoying the home’s views of Lake Winnipesaukee.

To design this lakeside retreat, architect Rob Carty took his inspiration from several classic regional vernaculars—note the red cedar shingles—and included locally quarried stone to help the home blend in with its lakeside locale.

The timber-framed porch has a wood-burning flagstone fireplace that makes it a year-round retreat for the owners.

With porches and expansive patios on two of the retreat’s three levels, the homeowners have multiple options for enjoying outdoor living.

The porch includes a much-used outdoor grill and serving area that are close to the home’s kitchen and pantry.

When the porch screens are raised, the space flows seamlessly onto the patio, which is surfaced in the same Blue Mist granite as the porch.

Opposite the outdoor room, a smaller covered porch serves as a cozy vantage point of the lake. The owner’s hideaway home office perches above. The trim on the house is painted a custom tint of Benjamin Moore Dakota Shadow.

“It’s a porch, but it’s more—a lot more—than just a porch,” says architect Rob Carty with a broad smile as he describes the novel open-air space his firm, TMS Architects Interiors, designed for a vacation home overlooking Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire. “It’s really an outdoor living room.”

During the home’s design phase, as his clients explained how much they loved the grounds and the views from their new lakeside lot, Carty came up with the idea of “the porch that isn’t a porch.” While his design for the three-story home, which he describes as a melding of the White Mountain camp, Adirondack, and Western timber-frame vernaculars, included generous patios and decks, Carty wanted to give his clients a covered outdoor space they could enjoy year-round.

Instead of enclosing the space with walls of windows or framed screens, Carty chose custom-made retractable roll screens. “Because they are hidden away in the woodwork and can be lowered or raised at the touch of a button,” explains builder Glenn Farrell of YFI Custom Homes, “they allow you to change the feel, and look, of the room instantly.”

With the screens raised, the room opens seamlessly onto the adjoining terrace and stone staircase that leads to a lower terrace, the lawn, and a pathway to the lake. Lowered, the screens make the room both cozy and bug-free. A built-in grill and a fireplace add to the porch’s versatility.

Like the house itself, the space boasts a wealth of natural materials including Blue Mist granite for the flooring, flagstone on the fireplace, straight-grain fir on the ceiling, and durable Port Orford cedar for the timber framing. The owners chose sturdy resin-wicker outdoor furniture and decay-resistant ipe tables to withstand the region’s ever-changing weather. The result is a room that provides the backdrop for everything from cookouts to quiet time.

“The owners are very outdoorsy people, and they have told us they use this space throughout the year,” says architect and interior designer Cristina Johnson. “It’s one of their favorite places to kick back, relax, and enjoy the beauty of their natural surroundings.”

Project Team
Architecture and interior design: TMS Architects Interiors
Builder: YFI Custom Homes