Your porch roof is…ugly?…leaking?…just not quite right? Maybe you’re thinking about building a new one altogether? The problem is that you don’t know where to start. Whether you need to start from scratch, or just need a few tweaks to make your porch the beautiful space you want it to be, these porch roof ideas will help you create something amazing.
1) Art Deco
Art deco is a unique house style, but you don’t have to renovate your whole house to get some art deco effect. If you have a gable roof, you can add these small art deco decorations to the end to add color and fill in that awkward space that isn’t quite part of the roof, but isn’t quite part of the walls, either. Complement these with a few other lizards or art deco designs around the porch, or use these same wall decorations on other outdoor walls.
2) Match Home Architecture
Your porch should match the look of your home overall. You don’t want a traditional-looking house with a modern style porch; it just won’t look right. This article from Deck Magazine is a useful resource for designing a roof that matches your house’s architecture. You can use some of these tips, like having the same pitch as the house roof, to make it look like both roofs were built at the same time. It may be a good idea to replace your house roof at the same time so that the shingles will match.
3) DIY Separate House Levels
In this video from Make Build Modify, you can see how a porch roof affects the entire building’s look. While the roof isn’t over a porch, you can use the video to build an identical roof for your porch. Notice how the wall behind this roof has two different types of siding. The roof separates the two sections so that the two types of siding don’t look as strange. You may want to do this if your house roof is gabled, and the gable end has different siding from the rest of your house.
4) Mosaic Gable Decorations
If your porch roof has a gable, you’ll want to decorate the vertical surface with more than just siding. Doing so is particularly important if the decoration will face the street or porch steps. A mosaic decoration like this will liven up the porch roof and add color to the porch area without taking up usable space. The sun design is an oft-used outdoor theme, but the mosaic pattern makes it unique, and the material looks like it should reflect sunlight for an even brighter look.
5) Metal Roof
Metal roofing materials like these sheets from The Home Depot are becoming more and more popular as people realize some of the benefits of using them. While you usually match your porch roof materials to your house, you may prefer to use metal since it’s durable, and snow and water slide off easily. Metal roofing works well if you’re planning to convert the whole house to metal someday, or if you have a small or out-of-the-way porch. Make sure the metal color is similar to your roof color and looks good with your siding.
6) Lantern
If your porch roof is gabled, or you plan to build a gable roof, your gable should be over the main stairs leading to the porch. You’ll want these to be well-lit at night, so you can add a lantern like this to the vertical surface to provide light. The light looks good during the daytime, and it fills a space that doesn’t look quite right when it’s empty. By putting it on the roof, you won’t use up wall space, and it’ll be precisely where you need the light most.
7) Choose Metal Wisely
You’ve decided on a metal roof. After all, snow slides off these roofs quickly, and they’re durable enough to last a long time. Now you have to decide what kind of metal you want. While steel is probably the most durable choice, it has one major drawback; it’s heavy and cumbersome. If your porch isn’t designed for a lot of weight, or you’re trying to cover the roof yourself, you’ll want something lighter. This article goes over the pros and cons of each choice in more detail, depending on your needs.
8) Stars
Stars are popular outdoor decorations. Something about their distinctive shape makes them fascinating and adds appeal to any area you put them in. Add star decor like this to gables on a gable roof to make the entire porch look more appealing. You can put the largest of these stars on the gable and surround it with the smaller stars, or put the smaller stars underneath on the house wall to tie the two spots together.
9) Tie It In
The way you tie your porch roof into the house will be unique to your porch and home, but this video gives some great guidelines for attaching a porch roof to an existing roof in a way that will prevent leaks. The most important things to remember are to seal and open spaces, and remember that water travels down. There should never be a place on your roof where water has no place to go.
10) Decorative Gable Trusses
If you’re installing or remodeling a gable roof for your porch, you’ll need some decoration. While you can buy a plaque or other ornament after the fact, you can also build a design into the roof. The twin ridges shown on this page by Timber Frame Solutions Inc. are an excellent example of a decorative roof design. You can build the decoration over an existing roof or build it into the gable structure, as long as it can still support the roof weight.
11) Mirror Roofline With Gable
One way to create an interesting effect with your porch roof is to closely mirror the house’s roofline, as the designer of the house in this photo did. The porch roof is the same pitch as the house roof, which gives it a striking look. You can also tie the porch roof directly into the house roof on one side so that one side looks like an extension of the house. If the porch isn’t in the right location for this, you can alter the roofline slightly by increasing the porch roof height without changing the pitch.
12) Underlayment
One common thing that even contractors forget to use on porches is underlayment. While every roof should have underlayment, contractors and homeowners alike skimp on it. The spot where your porch roof meets your house roof is one of the places you’re most likely to get leaks, so underlayment is essential. If your porch roof doesn’t have underlayment and it’s leaking, that may be why. Either way, if you’re redoing your porch roof, make sure to use this underlayment from The Home Depot, or something similar.
13) Vinyl Siding Hooks
A gable porch roof is an excellent place for decorations. Unlike a gable house roof, it won’t have siding all the way down. Instead, it’ll have a little triangle of siding that you can decorate however you want. You don’t want to drill into siding for a decoration that may be temporary, so use these clear hooks to hang decorations from vinyl siding. This way, if you change your mind about a decoration, or even just want to move it up or down to center it in the gable, you can do so without damaging the siding.
14) Limit Valleys
Valleys are places where two sloped roofs meet each other. They’re also places where snow and water build up the most, as you can see in the image. When you decide what style of roof to use, try to plan it so that the angled parts of one roof are always meeting vertical sections of the other, so the snow won’t have anywhere to collect. Doing so will prevent ice damming that can cause leaks where the two roofs meet.
15) Butterflies
Butterflies are a popular outdoor decoration, combining a natural look with vibrant colors. These butterfly decorations are a great way to decorate your roof and your entire porch. Place these on gables or along eaves, then have them trail down the railing. This organization draws people’s eyes to the roof, so they see any other decorations or unique design elements you use. They also make the roof feel like part of the porch, so it won’t look as plain as it might now. Butterfly yard decorations are easy to find, and they’ll help make the porch fit the yard.
16) Gable Window
Windows are a great way to add light to a covered or screened-in porch. Part of the value of porches is the way they add living space to the outside, and you don’t want to lose the benefits of natural lighting that come with them. Since skylights can be expensive, and adding a skylight to an existing roof can cause leaks if not done right, a window in the gable can be an alternative. A window adds more light and adds a decorative touch to both the inside and outside of the gable.
17) Steep Angle
When you build or renovate your porch roof, you’ll need to decide what angle to use. If you have a wide porch and a short house roof, for example, you can’t have a steep angle. That said, a steep angle like the one in this video can be beneficial if you live in a snowy area. This simple tutorial will show you how to make a secure do-it-yourself porch roof with a steep angle that will keep snow off. While the videomaker is only making an overhang, you can use the same technique for a porch roof.
18) Drip Edge
Many contractors and homeowners treat porch roofs like they aren’t real roofs. They don’t bother with details like underlayment, gutters, or drip edge. Failing to use a drip edge can create leaks and damage the porch roof because the drip edge keeps water from getting under the shingles. This article by RGB Construction will help you learn how to install a drip edge on your porch roof. You can do it yourself if you prefer, or hire a contractor to make sure it gets done right.
19) Sun and Stars
The sun and the stars are two of the most popular outdoor images. If you’re a fan of these images, you probably have a few around the yard as paving stones, lights, or wall decorations. Add this metal sun and star decoration to your gable if you have a gable porch roof. The decorations will tie it in with the rest of the yard if you have sun and stars decorations, or simply fill a spot in desperate need of adornment. You can also hang this from the eaves because it has a small ring at the top for hanging.
20) Solar Lantern
Your porch probably has a light on it so you can see where you’re going when you return home after dark, or when guests come over in the evening; however, that light may not be in the right place, and it’s taking up space you could use for decorating. If you have a gable porch roof, your gable is probably over your porch steps. Attach this light to the gable to illuminate the steps from above for well-lit steps.
21) Birds in the Eaves
Birds in the eaves are usually a bad thing, but in this case, they’re adorable. If you like bird watching, you can add these little bird decorations to your eaves and gables to make your porch look like a bird paradise. The birds are durable and made of metal, so you don’t have to worry about climbing up to replace or remove damaged ones, and they hang from a hole in one of the wings to make them look more like an actual flying bird.
22) Solar Panels For Security Lights
If you don’t have security lights, it’s probably not a bay idea to get some. These security lights from Amazon are powered by solar panels that you can put on your porch roof. If you have a gable roof, you can then attach the security light to the gable. This will ensure that the light will be visible to neighbors if you’re out of town because the porch roof won’t block it. Make sure to put it close to the entrance, so it’ll activate when people approach the porch steps.
23) Natural Look
If you don’t want to do something mundane like matching the appearance of your house roof, try creating a natural look. You can do this by adding nature-inspired decorations, but you can also use natural materials like the ones in this photograph. While it may take some planning to build a natural-looking roof, it’ll become an amazing conversation piece and impress all your neighbors. This will also make it blend into the yard, so it’s a great idea for a back porch roof.
24) Rubberized Sealant
While rubberized sealants like this are usually designed for RVs, this one works on regular or RV roofs. Since this sealant is white, it’ll reflect sunlight and help keep the area cooler, too. The sealant sticks to almost any surface type, so it should work great for a metal or plastic roof, and add an extra layer of protection against the sun and elements. Keep in mind that the coating is designed for roofs that people don’t walk on a lot, so it may be best for a small porch that you won’t need to walk on as much.
25) Hip Roof For Unique Shapes
If your porch has a unique shape, you’ll need a hip roof to cover it successfully. A hip roof is one in which each side has an angle, as opposed to a gable roof with two angled sides and one or two straight sides. If your porch has an odd shape like the one in this photo, you’ll need a hip roof, but make sure that every part of the porch or house roof is angled downwards as it moves away from the house. This way, water always flows away from the building.
26) Paint
If you don’t have the exact same material you used for your house, but your want your porch roof to match the house, you can use similar materials, then paint both roofs with this paint from The Home Depot. The paint is designed to work on any roof surface, so it should cover well on asphalt or metal. If your roof is made from an unusual material, you may want to double-check to make sure this paint will work.
27) Flat Deck
Many apartment buildings have roofs that you can walk on, and you can use this idea for your porch roof, too. Turn the porch roof into a deck that you can walk on, like the one in this picture. Ensure that your roof supports can handle the weight of another floor and people walking on it, then talk to a contractor about the best way to design your drainage system. You can also build a flat roof that can be turned into a second-story deck later.
28) Seahorse Decoration
Gable roofs are one of the best porch designed, and they create unique decorating opportunities. If you have a gable roof on your whole porch, or even just on the entryway, you’ll need some sort of adornment for the gable. Try this seahorse decoration if you have a beach house, or if you like the beach theme. Hang similar decorations from the eaves, and maybe add a few to the lower part of the porch to tie the area together.
29) Simple Hip Roof
Hip roofs are attractive designs. If you don’t want to be left with a vertical gable to decorate, or don’t like the look of gable roofs, hip roofs are the best choice for you. Unlike gable roofs that have two sloped sides and one or two vertical sides, hip roofs have slopes on all four sides. That eliminates gables and creates a smoother look, as you can see in this photo by the GPA Photo Archive.
30) Your Name Here
If you have a gable roof, this leaves you with plenty of choices for gable decorations, but what about a sign? This sign from Amazon can be customized to include your family name and a monogram of your initial. This small and inexpensive porch addition will make your house look fancier and label your home with your name. A custom monogrammed sign is a great idea for a front porch roof or a back porch where you often entertain guests. It works best for porches that have gables over the main set of stairs.
31) Solar String Lights
String lights may seem like a Christmas or holiday decoration, but they’re an excellent way to light a porch. Hang these solar string lights from the roof to create soft light for evening gatherings, and you won’t have to worry about power outages or batteries running out, because they’re powered by the sun. The lights are an attractive decoration during the day and a useful and pretty light source at night. They also make the house look nicer from the road, as people passing by can see the twinkle of lights.
32) Gable Over Door
Some porch roof slope in one direction, away from the house. While this is great for preventing leaks, it isn’t that great if they’re dumping water on your steps. Design a gable roof over your stairs so that water will run off to the sides and not onto the stairs. While there’s no complete porch in this picture, you can see how the gable roof will channel water away from one area. This way, people walking under the gable roof won’t have to worry about getting wet, and you won’t need to add gutters to your porch roof.
33) Flat Roof
Porches can look nice with flat roofs like the one in this picture. While this roof is for a pergola, you can see how the flat roof next to the house causes the area to stand out. Instead of blending into the rest of the house, your porch will look like a separate area to relax, play games, or otherwise enjoy. This is great for a back porch that’s used for recreation or for a front porch with a unique shape.
34) Under House Roof
If your house roof is tall enough, it’s a good idea to put your porch roof under the house roof, as the owner of the house in this photo did. This way, when water runs off the main roof, it lands on the porch roof and continues to run away from the house. When you design the roof like this, you don’t have to worry about what angle it hits the building at, because the part where the roof touches the house will never get water on it.
35) Angle Sideways
Instead of angling the roof directly away from the house, you can angle it to the side, as somebody did with the roof in this photo. When you do this, you have more control over where the water goes when it runs off the roof. So you can make sure water only runs off one edge of the roof. This is great if you want to access the porch from two sides without getting dripped on.
36) Skylight
If you have a covered or screened-in porch or the roof is lower than you like, you may not get as much sunlight as you want. This is a tragedy because the whole point of a porch is to enjoy the outdoors in comfort. A skylight could bring in needed light, but there are pros and cons to adding a skylight, depending on your situation. In this blog post, James Moylan advises people who want to install a skylight for their screened-in porch.
37) Match Trim and Siding Colors
In most cases, your porch roof should match your house roof. This includes siding colors, roofing materials and color, and roof angles. If your roof doesn’t match the house, you may want to pick up some paint and paint it to match the house, as the owner of the building in this photo did. This makes the porch look like it belongs to the building. If your porch has different roofing material than the rest of the house, you can reroof it with matching material, or just paint it to match colors, depending on what your budget is.
38) Mexican Art
Mexican styles are fun to look at and live in, but you don’t want to create a Mexican-style porch if it doesn’t match the house. Instead, get smaller Mexican-style decorations like this vibrant sun and moon plate, and hang then on your gables. You can also dangle them from the eaves like you’d windchimes, though these decorations from Amazon would need to be attached with string to do so. Make sure to place a few similar decorations on the porch itself to give the whole porch a Mexican look.
39) Glass Roof
A glass roof probably sounds…fragile. While we tend to think of glass as delicate or fragile, the right glass can be a very durable and surprisingly scratch-resistant surface. It even works better than plastic in some cases, giving plenty of light, and providing a clear view of the sky without being marred by the scrapes and dents that can ruin plastic coverings. Read this article from Design Builders Inc. to learn about glass roofs and decide whether they’re right for your porch.
40) Natural Eco-Friendly Roof
While you may have some natural-looking decor for your roof, you probably haven’t taken the step of creating a fully natural roof. This instructable has directions for creating a green roof, which is an eco-friendly roof made from natural components. This living roof is beautiful and unique, though it takes time, effort, and money to do right. There are many benefits of a green roof, but you want to make sure you do it right. After all, you usually want to keep growing plants away from wood surfaces that they could damage.
41) Mermaid Detail
If you have a nautical- or beach-themed porch, you may like the idea of a mermaid on your porch, singing her siren song to call people in. While you can’t have a real mermaid, you can put this mermaid on the gable to draw people in. This mermaid decoration from Amazon is beautiful, and it’ll look good in a small gable over the porch steps. You can also add a series of decorations in a larger gable if you want.
42) Curved Designs
Your roof must have a shape that will keep water away from the house and off your porch steps. While there are many designs, most are roughly flat or triangular. If you want more organic shapes for a gable porch roof, you can design the bottom of the gable to be a different shape from the roofline, such as in this picture by ntm1909. The deep arch of the gable creates an attractive and unique look for the porch. If you have a large porch, use this idea on a smaller gable section over the steps.
43) Pine Trees
If you live in the woods surrounded by pine trees, your porch should reflect that. After all, you probably don’t live in the woods because you hate nature. These pine tree decorations from Amazon would look great on a gable roof. You can place a tree or two on a small gable over the porch steps, but imagine this; a pine forest is spread out along the length of a porch roof gable, tall tree decorations in the middle, with shorter trees branching out from the center to complete the scene.
44) Rooftop Garden
If you’re building your porch roof from nothing, or if your current porch roof is sturdy enough to support a garden above it, you can build a porch roof garden. This’ll add a touch of color to the roof as plants will be visible from below, and you can choose to add flowers or vegetables to increase your house’s usable space. You can use these instructions to build your garden, or plant a few flowers in hanging pots and place them in the corners of the porch roof.
45) Artistic Gable Designs
Gables aren’t an attractive roof choice on their own. If you have a gable roof, and you’re not satisfied with it, though, you don’t have to tear it down and build a new roof. Instead, you can add any number of designs. In this picture, you can see that the porch roof gable has a window above it. While in this case, it’s probably an attic window, you can add a window to a regular porch roof, too. Then, build designs around the window to make it stand out, instead of trimming it to match your other window trim.
46) DIY Solar Panels
Solar panels are becoming increasingly popular for off-grid living and outdoor recreation. Install these solar panels on the porch roof to power any entertainment you have on the roof, such as a minifridge for an outdoor bar, a TV, a stereo, or more. You can turn the porch into an entertainment area, or even run power from the panels to a nearby patio. Since they’ll only cover your porch roof, it won’t have a huge effect on your house’s appearance, either.
47) Insulated Material
If you live in a snowy climate, you probably know that insulation in your attic helps keep ice from melting, refreezing, and leaking through your roof at weak points. It’s only natural to consider using insulated panels to cover your porch, but are they a good idea? In this article, Chris from Renaissance Pati Products goes over the pros and cons of an insulated patio. While there are some differences between patios and porches, this article should help you decide whether to use insulated panels.
48) Partially Open Gable End With Design
This gable design is excellent for big porches with one gable roof across them. Since the gable roof covers a significant area, building a design into the vertical surface is an attractive way to decorate it. This way, you don’t have to add many small decorations, and you don’t have a wide area with no decoration. This design is an open-ended one, but with a few beams across it to create a pleasing but straightforward pattern. Try copying it, or ask your contractor to make something similar.
49) Palm Trees
This next idea is best for a beach house or a beach lover’s home. If your backyard looks like an island paradise complete with a tiki bar, you’ll want your porch to match. Put these palm tree wall decorations from Amazon on the gable to tie the porch into your tropical theme. Since the decoration is round, it’ll add an extra shape to create variety for your triangular gable on your rectangular porch. The circular shape also fits well inside the triangle shape and creates a balanced look.
50) Aluminum
Aluminum is cheap and easy to install. That makes it great for do-it-yourself projects, though you’ll need some skill, like with any roofing work. The only downside is that the aluminum can get dents easily, and when things fall on it, it can be loud. It may not be the best option for a roof underneath trees, though properly installing it over a plywood roof will cut down noise. Check out this article for a full analysis of the pros and cons of aluminum.
51) Live, Laugh, Love
If the famous phrase “Live, Laugh, Love” matches your life philosophy or fits your mood when you’re relaxing on the porch, this sign is for you. Well, it’s for you if you have a gable roof to put it on. Use this sign as a gable decoration to set the mood as people walk up to your porch, whether it’s the front porch as they enter the house, or the back porch where you’re hosting a cookout.
52) Fleur De Lis Decoration
If you like traditional designs, you want a gable roof. It’s one of the more traditional-looking styles, and it gives you the chance to add decorations to the gable. This neat Fleur De Lis decoration is big enough to look right when you put it on a prominent gable roof, and it has a traditional design in the decoration. Coordinating the porch style and decoration choice will make the porch and roof look like they were designed just for you – because they were.
53) Copper
Copper is one of many metal choices, but it’s probably the prettiest one by far. It’s also durable, though it can be loud if you don’t install it properly with plywood underneath. This article by All Roofing Solutions has a list of advantages and disadvantages to a copper roof, so you can decide whether it’s the right choice for your porch. You also want to look at whether it fits the house colors because a bright color like copper might not look good with all house colors.
54) Corrugated Versus Standing Seam Metal
If you think that a metal roof is the best choice for your roof, you’ve got a decision to make. Do you want corrugated or standing seam metal? If you’re trying to match your house’s roof, then you can just pick the same type of metal as your house, but if you aren’t copying anything, you can use this article to help you decide between the two styles. In the article, Steve Collins compares the two types to help you decide what’ll look and work best relative to the cost.
55) Bees
If you saw the word “bees” and thought, “No, thank you, i don’t need bees on my roof,” you’ve got a fair point. Luckily, this idea doesn’t involve real bees. Insect decorations are common ways to light up yards and decorate outside. These cute solar-powered fairy lights are shaped like bees to fit any insect or nature theme, and the solar power means that you can put them up around your porch roof without worrying about getting electricity up to them.
What’s your porch roof missing? Did we miss any ideas? Please let us know in the comments below.
