Consider Appropriate Style

• A porch must fit your home and neighborhood. If your house is a traditional colonial in an upscale neighborhood, you will need to design it appropriately. You don't want to construct an ostentatious deck to cover the whole backyard if your neighbors have conservative porches with well-crafted landscaping. Drive around your neighborhood to see what's already in place.
  
  

Design Unique Back Porches

• Back porches offer more expansive ideas. You can, for example, install a fireplace on your porch. The roof of the porch, support by formal columns, can include a brick fireplace facing the back of your home. Be sure to use columns on your front porch that match the architectural style of the back porch. Well-crafted outdoor furniture under the back porch turns the space into an outdoor living room. Add amenities such as tile over the concrete flooring. You may want to build a media wall to place a television for watching movies as well.
  
  

Build Appealing Front Porches

• A front porch should enhance overall house design. Formal brick columns, pre-made round or square columns or stacked stone support posts can help. Using copper metal on the porch roof will add beauty to a house with standard asphalt shingles in many cases. Curved brick front steps, railings with well-crafted balusters and lantern posts leading to the porch are all impressive.
  
  

Think Outside the Box

• Materials do matter. Unusual construction materials can enhance a rustic home especially. For instance, large support timbers made of actual tree trunks -- minus the bark -- work well on mountain cabins. Porch railings made of timber posts with decorative metal icons of bears, trees or deer that fit just under the hand rails in the baluster sections are very eye-catching. Glass block walls and walls composed of French doors create appealing enclosed porches.
  
  

Create Interesting Levels

• Multiple porch levels catch the eye. A side porch or back porch with concrete and wooden deck flooring on two or three levels are visually appealing. You can install a sun room on one level and a poolside sitting area on another level. Add plants in large concrete containers to tie the different levels together.