Screened-in porches are a great way to enjoy the outdoors all year long without worrying about the elements. Unfortunately, when you sit back to relax, you’re met with a less than enjoyable view. The view outside is great, but the inside of the porch looks run-down, and you need to fix up the ceiling. These screen porch ceiling ideas will help you do that.
1) DIY Mason Jar Chandelier
Many porch roofs are tilted, and if your ceiling isn’t flat, you may be struggling to find light fixtures that look right and illuminate your porch the way you want them to. Homemade lights like this DIY mason jar chandelier can be a solution. Since it’s a hanging light, and you’re making it yourself, you can adjust it for your ceiling to get an attractive, rustic chandelier that will add to the traditional farmhouse look of a screen porch.
2) DIY Antique Silver Look
Panels are another way to decorate your ceiling. Instead of a rustic wood look, choose from a variety of traditional looks or metallic pieces like this silver one. The silver looks good from outside, and you can admire it while under the protection of your screened porch. These panels have a beautiful antique design that will add to the traditional look of your screen porch. They’re great for a do-it-yourself project because they can be cut with scissors. Make sure to put them over a substrate like plywood, so you know that the porch is sealed against moisture.
3) DIY Tongue and Groove Pine
Tongue and Groove wood siding is a common and attractive way to redo your porch ceiling if it’s damaged, or if you don’t like the way it looks now. Wood siding is always a good look, and even more so on a wooden porch. You’ll want a solid ceiling like this for a screened porch in particular because it’ll keep moisture out, which is the main point of a screen porch. You can follow the steps in this video to install it on your own, or you can hire a contractor.
4) DIY Bowl Hanging Light
One of the hardest things to figure out on a screen porch is the lighting. This is even more true if the porch has a tilted ceiling, as many do. The simplest way to account for the sloped ceiling is a pendant light, and this easy DIY pendant light can transform your screen porch in a way you didn’t even know you needed it to. The great thing about this project is that anybody can do it with a simple outdoor light kit from Amazon, and a bowl that you like the look of.
5) Car Siding
Car siding is a particular type of tongue and groove that has a v-shaped groove down the middle. This groove makes each panel look like two panels from a distance, and the shallower grooves in the boards create an attractive look overall. Use this step-by-step tutorial by Think Wood to add car siding to your own porch ceiling, or hire somebody to do it. A solid material like this is suitable for a porch ceiling because it’ll keep moisture out, which is vital since the moisture can become trapped in a covered porch like yours.
6) Globe Pendant Lights
If you like to keep up with do-it-yourself trends, you’ll love these globe pendant lights. Pendant lights are a great choice for a slanted porch roof because they hang down and automatically sit level. Regular lights can look strange and throw light in the wrong direction on a tilted ceiling. These globe lights are a neat way to repurpose a globe, and you can use an outdoor light kit to make them work for your porch. You’ll want a waterproof coating, even though the porch is screened-in.
7) Match Walls
If you want an outdoor living or dining room look, or just an extra outdoor room, you want your screen porch to look a little bit like an interior room without completely hiding the fact that it’s a porch. One way to do this is to use the same materials for both the walls and ceiling, as you can see in this photo by Francesca Tosolini. This makes the area look rustic and natural without looking like a typical, unscreened porch.
8) DIY Twine Light
This DIY project is a neat and fairly easy one that works great for screened or unscreened porches. This is a particularly good choice if your ceiling isn’t flat, which screen porch ceilings rarely are. To do this project, all you need are some basic materials and a light kit that you can get on Amazon. The lights come out looking rustic and natural because of the twine, so they’re a great way to bring nature back into your screen porch.
9) DIY Plywood
Plywood is a solid choice for a screen porch ceiling. It’ll help keep out moisture, and you can always use it as a base to add other ceiling materials over it. If you want a fairly cheap way to make an attractive ceiling, this is your best bet. Paint the plywood white, or choose a color that matches the house theme. If you have a small porch, avoid dark colors that will make it seem closed in. Even on larger screened-in porches, you’re better off with light colors.
10) Flush Mount light
If you don’t like the look of pendant lights, but you have a slanted ceiling, one thing you can do is get flush mount lights like these. The lights sit close to the ceiling, or even recess into the ceiling, so you can level the lights if you want. These lights are motion-activated, making them great for a porch. You can step out onto the porch at night to enjoy some peace and quiet, and the lights will come on for you. You can choose between motion-activated and not, and even choose whether you want dim or bright light.
11) Ceiling Fan
Since your porch ceiling is screened-in, it’ll get some wind while blocking the sun, but having a little help producing a breeze doesn’t hurt. When you head outside on a hot, still day, you still want to be able to feel a breeze. A ceiling fan is a great way to give an old-fashioned feel to your screen porch while making sure you always have a breeze if you want one. This fan is damp rated, so it won’t be damaged by moisture from being on a porch.
12) Rustic Wood Panels
A porch is naturally rustic. It’s a way to connect to nature without truly going outside, and you may want some rustic decor to highlight that. This includes the material you pick for your ceiling. Try a look like this, with wood boards at different thicknesses to make it appear more rustic. The dark stain adds to the effect, but you should pick a stain that fits what you want it to look like. This ceiling choice also adds to an overall old-fashioned look.
13) Ironwork Light Fixture
If you want an old-fashioned or natural look to be reflected in your ceiling light fixture choices, an iron scrollwork fixture could be right for your porch. This iron scrollwork piece is neat because it has a bit of a walnut look, also. This means that it combines both the old-fashioned and natural look in a subtle way that will add to an overall effect without being obvious. Since the fixture is damp-rated, you don’t have to worry about having it in an outdoor area.
14) DIY Affordable Shiplap
Shiplap is a common and well-loved ceiling choice, but it can be expensive. Instead of paying a lot for a shiplap ceiling, try this affordable shiplap method. In this video, Jason from Doing It With Jason shows you how to make your own shiplap for less than a dollar per square foot. This is much cheaper than shiplap normally is, and Jason was able to do it in a day. Make sure to seal the ceiling completely, as always, to keep moisture out.
Did any of these ideas appeal to you? Every screen porch is different, and we’d love to hear what you’ve tried. Tell us about it in the comments below!
