Porches and Decks are Rooms, too!

I always love to see mountain cabin porches and decks that create a destination that family and friends can use and enjoy.  When you're planning the decor for your mountain home, don't overlook the importance of creating a comfortable and inviting porch or deck.  

In Tahoe, while some folks have lake views, most do not.  A porch with a fabulous lake view needs less to become a desirable destination. If you don't have a lake view (or even if you do), why not create a personality for your porch that reflects the way you and your family love to live.

  

Of course, there are always two ways to go.  You can spend a pile of money and pull in lots of perfect items (even hire someone like me to do it for you), or you can spend time at the flea markets.  A look like the one shown here can easily be put together with a little legwork.  If you enjoy shopping, you'll have a lot of fun collecting up personal items that reflect your surroundings and lifestyle.

This porch is big enough to accommodate several activity centers.  In fact, if you look at the photo closely, you'll notice a four-poster bed, complete with hangings.  By the way, the same hangings are attached between the roof supports.  This is really the perfect summer porch, don't you think?  It's exactly the sort of place I'd love to enjoy the gorgeous summer air, read a book, entertain friends, and even, take a nap.  It's a whole world unto itself.

If you have a deck, not a porch, you might want to consider creating shade by adding arbors or umbrellas, curtain panels or even some sort of permanent roof.  This will make your deck more habitable at all times of the day and, especially, on hot days.  It will also make it feel a little more like a room and less exposed.

By the way, the porch above is from the Cashiers South Carolina 2016 Design Home.  But...it's only the porch for the guest house.  Below is the porch for the main house:

Mountain luxe!

A good porch makes you wonder why you even need the rest of the house.  


Get the look...

Check out some of our wicker, hickory and bentwood furnishings, perfect for your rustic mountain porch or deck...like this whimsical bentwood chair and side table, below.  They come in your choice of either bentwood or aluminum and in all kinds of beautiful finish stains and paint colors.

http://www.tahoedreaminteriors.com/porch-and-deck-furniture/

We think every porch could use a rocker or two.  We love the Vineyard wicker rocker, below, also available in many stain and paint colors.  Our wicker can be ordered with a special outdoor finish for use on covered porches (not recommended for year round or full exposure use in harsh winter weather)

http://www.tahoedreaminteriors.com/porch-and-deck-furniture/

Finally, for that quintessential mountain look, why not include some hickory pieces, like these Andrew Jackson rockers, below:

http://www.tahoedreaminteriors.com/porch-and-deck-furniture/

One last thought, a great porch is not just the furniture, it's the welcoming details that make it a destination that people will want to spend time in. Don't forget to add baskets for reading material, toss pillows, comfortable side tables.  Consider a collection of old camp blankets or faux fur lap blankets for cool evenings. Carpets, candles, chandeliers, a cocktail serving cart, all these add to the fun and nothing is really too over the top.  And don't forget to stock up your kitchen with plenty of outdoor trays, pitchers and dishware that can easily move to the porch for entertaining.   Finally, a collection of planters and pots tumbling with flowers is the quintessential summer signature for any truly excellent porch or deck.

Enjoy the final weeks of summer.  I'm savoring every moment!

Charles Faudre outdid himself in this gorgeous Cashiers, North Carolina mountain lodge.

Charles Faudre loved Cashiers, North Carolina and he completed a number of stunning cabin projects there before he died in 2013, including this stunning mountain house.

I've always loved Charles Faudre's charming designs.  There's so much to see in every house he designed--the detail, whimsy, color and pattern is always so intricate and developed.  French country inspired, most of his projects were city and suburban projects.  But, it's in his inspired work in Cashiers that he was able to combine his emphasis on French decor with cabin style.

In all of his work, Faudre mixed quality antiques, perfect scale and placement along with elegant fabrics to create a look that is comfortable, inviting and beautiful all together.  In fact, even his mountain rooms are very refined, but they also manage to have just enough rustic to make them feel absolutely appropriate for the country.

As always, Faudre's accessories are perfect, from the majolica, the design books, the cut crystal vase, bronze sculpture, Black Forest carvings and gorgeous oil paintings.  Once again, a beautiful refined fabric is contrasted with the rustic and placed right in front of a fabulous bark-on twig staircase banister.  

Above, killer corner cupboards, beautifully crafted curtains and wing chairs...a lovely blue and white collection...cashmere plaid and leather dining chairs.  All this elegance is placed in a room with rough-sawn log walls and chinking.  To further the contrast, Faudre added a rustic moose antler chandelier.  Are we in the Appalachians or in Provence?   

Again, every detail in this delightful kitchen by Faudre's is so very perfect.  Faudre has found what is probably one of the best French butcher blocks ever, but he doesn't stop there.  He loads it up with old copper, Spode transfer-ware, Black Forest, oil paintings and majolica.  And it all comes together perfectly!  He really was a master at arranging collections and mixed accessories together.  Again in the kitchen, another beautiful fabric.  This one is upholstered onto painted and aged country-rustic chairs with big round rustic nail heads.  Beautiful!  It's all in the details, and the layers, and more details.

Above...perfect!

Faudre has a love for French antiques, and here in Cashiers, he demonstrates how beautifully French furniture works in rustic mountain homes.  You don't see a lot of wallpaper in rustic homes, but above is a great example of just how effective it can be.  I find clients are so afraid of both wallpaper and curtains.  Why?

Above, country French trumeau mirrors and chests for night stands.  Rich, beautiful fabrics subtly mixed together.  A gorgeous upholstered headboard.  Faudre does seem to like prints with leaves as well as plaids and he mixes them together expertly.

Handsome, but soft, above.  More French antique furnishings.

Above, an absolutely perfectly selected and displayed collection of blue and white with candlesticks on a charming old French chest.

This porch is so perfectly kitted out you almost don't even need the rest of the house!  Why would you ever leave it?

A porch swing!  Don't you just love a porch swing?  And what a wonderful shape this one has. Faudre adds rustic red painted rustic twig chairs and yet places velvet leopard upholstered cushions on them! Beautiful old French antique pots co-exist with a rusty tin bucket full of hydrangeas.  On paper it sounds like such an odd combination... and yet, in his deft hands, it works perfectly.

A truly lovely home...

and a lovely man.  I have all his books and I really admire every project he worked on.