There are many things I’m missing about my holiday in North Carolina, but one in particular is the beautiful front porch we had on our very nice Air B&B house. Before visiting and semi-owning a porch (albeit for only a couple of weeks) I had never given the idea a first, let alone a second, thought. Now I am wondering how I can fit one onto Barnes Towers.
Every house, big or small, seems to have a porch in hot and humid North Carolina, complete with as many rocking chairs as you can squeeze onto it. It’s where you hang out, drink a beer, chat to neighbours, talk to the family, catch up on your Insta feed and ultimately, just rock.
There was something about the porch and the waiting rocking chairs that encouraged you to stop and relax, if only for a moment. Our house owner told us it was ‘His favourite room in the house’ when we arrived, and sure enough, we ended up living on ours.
We even had a porch party or two – where we just sat around chatting and drinking while the cicadas (boy, are they noisy) grated away in the background. Even when it rained we sat out and admired the view, since it was deliciously warm and sultry and there’s something fabulously atmospheric about sitting out in a rain storm. We felt like we were in an Edward Hopper painting.
I became slightly obsessed with the design of them as we toured around Carolina and Tennessee, and today’s post is just an homage to the best ones I saw. Now, remind me, Do The White Company do rocking chairs?
The one below is not quite a porch porch, but something very pretty anyway…
Yes, they are wonderful things ! Love ours when we go to NZ, it’s our default sitting place for that first morning cuppa as well as the perfect location at gin o’clock.
I grew up in the South (US) and really appreciated the covered porch. Especially memorable are rainy days spent playing paper dolls out on the porch swing. Sigh……
Thank you for sharing all the wonderful pictures.
Thanks for posting the lovely photos. I grew up in house with a front porch and still miss it.
I’m on holiday in New England from Wales and have just read your blog sitting on the front porch of the house we’re staying in. We’ve thought about how we could do this at home but somehow the climate and general ambience are not quite right…