Your porch isn’t big, but it’s a beautiful place to sit, relax, or stand out of the rain for a bit. Whether you have a small seating area or little more than a stoop to work with, you want to make your space looks good and keeps people out of the bad weather. Check out these small porch roof ideas that take advantage of the cozier space.

1) ​​​​Marquee

A marquee is a roof or other type of protection built over a door or window, but the principles for building or rebuilding a porch roof are similar. Since you have a small porch, the roof won’t need a lot of columns and thick supports to stay up. Instead, you can build a porch covering that attaches to the house like the marquee in this article. Talk to a contractor to work out a design that doesn’t require columns. That way, the roof will cover your porch and without wasting any floor space.

2) Home Sweet Home

Gable roofs are popular for small porches, and particularly for the area near an entryway. If your roof or part of its gabled, you probably have a small vertical surface that’s covered in siding. Part of what makes a small porch look dull and plain is a lack of decoration. You don’t want to waste space, so you don’t decorate or the decorations you have make it look cluttered. Try adding a small wall decoration like this to that area to make the porch look welcoming without taking up usable space.

3) ​Above or Below Existing Roof?

When you attach a porch roof, you have to think about where you want to connect it relative to your house’s roof. If your previous roof was in the wrong spot, that could be causing issues you have now. In this video, Peter Brown describes some considerations. Since you have a small porch, you want your roof to be taller to make it feel larger, so you’ll want to build it above the house roof, as described in the video.

4) ​​​​​Timber Frame Gable

Timber frame porches are strong and resilient, and the material will support a lot of weight. This is something to consider if you might want to add a deck above your porch, as the framing will already be in place. A timber-framed gable roof is ideal for a small porch because it not only strengthens the porch roof but also keeps water from dripping off one side. Make sure the main entrance to the porch is on the gable end, so you can keep the water off the roof with drip edge and no need for gutters.

5) ​​​​​​DIY Lean-To Roof

A lean-to roof is probably the simplest possible porch roof structure, and one of the most common porch roof styles. Since your porch is small, you don’t need to build a complicated roof style to ensure that you have enough support. A lean-to roof works well for small or medium roofs but can become difficult for large porches. Make sure to follow these instructions from The Barn ToolBox to build a safe and effective lean-to porch roof.

6) ​​​Column Supports

Columns are an attractive way to hold a porch roof up. You can buy columns for support, or use 4x4s and cover them with columns. In this blog post, Jessica Bruno describes the methods contractors used to build a portico with column supports. Use this as a guide to add columns to your porch roof or build a porch roof with columns. It works best for tiny porches, but you can talk to a contractor about using column supports for your porch roof.

7) ​​​​Gable Roof

Many people like gable roofs because the water runs off the sides, and if your porch entrance is below the gable end, you won’t need gutters to keep water from dripping on the stairs. This increases the amount of headroom you have under the porch. While your primary concern is probably floor space, having more headroom will make the porch feel more open. A gable roof like this will also save you the costs of getting gutters since all you need is the normal drip edge along the lower ends of the roof.

8) ​Open Gable End Design

If your porch is short as well as small, this idea will help you fix that. Even if you have a full-height porch roof currently, you may want to consider rebuilding or modifying it to resemble this one described in Deck Magazine. While you probably have a large porch than this one, you can use this design for any small porch to make it feel roomier by adding height. By leaving the bottom of the roof open, you can create the illusion of extra room without adding height to your roof.

9) ​Solar Porch Light

Gable roofs are one of the best choices for a small roof, but they leave you with a small vertical space at the gable end. Usually, this might look unattractive, but you can use it to your advantage. Since the gable end is likely above your steps, you can add a solar-powered light like this to light the stairs. With a small porch, this is probably all the outdoor lighting you need, and it’ll be visible to people approaching your house in the dark.

10) ​​​​​​Butterflies

What do butterflies have to do with a small porch? These butterflies are great outdoor decorations that you can hang around the roof edges or on the flat portion of a gable roof. Then, add these or other butterfly decorations around the yard to expand the porch area into the rest of the yard. They’ll brighten up your porch by making it look like butterflies are on the roof, and putting them in the yard will make it look like the porch extends further than it does, creating the illusion of a larger porch.

11) ​Extend Existing Roof

If your porch is in an alcove or other area with two or three walls surrounding it, you can usually build off the existing roof, like the owner of the home in this photo did. Since there’s already a roof next to the porch, all they had to do was extend the roof over the porch and use the same shingles for it. This method creates a seamless blend into the rest of the house that’s hard to achieve with a large porch roof.

12) ​​​​Tile

Tile is a bold and traditional roofing choice, but it can be an issue on sizeable roofs. On a large roof, the material can be too heavy if the supports aren’t designed for it. You also don’t want to walk on the tile more than necessary, because you can damage tiles or slip. This makes it ideal for a small roof because you don’t need to walk on the roof to retrieve things that fall on it. This makes it a rare and beautiful choice, and it’ll look good with metal, brick, or other traditional or industrial materials.

13) ​​​​​​Store Bought

While this picture shows an apartment building, and you’re probably planning a roof for a house porch, the image shows a style of awning you can use for your porch. The great thing about these roofs is that they can be bought in stores and you can install them yourself. Notice that the awning overlaps the edge of the roof, though if you can, you’ll want to design a longer overlap than this. Try to find a covering that’ll have at least a foot of overlap on each side, so rain won’t hit the edges of the porch.

14) Solar Panels

Since your porch roof doesn’t take up a lot of space, you don’t have to worry as much about the aesthetic appeal. If it doesn’t look great, it’s not as visible. Instead of focusing on the way it looks, use it for something practical. Cover the roof with solar panels like these, and you can use the porch to help power your house. While a small porch won’t power the whole house, it’ll help reduce the power bill without taking away from your home’s appearance by much.

What are you planning for your small porch roof? Did any of these ideas help? Let us know in the comments below!