Lanai, Patios, Porches, and Verandas: What’s the Difference?
If you are considering moving to a home in South Florida, chances are the home’s floor plan includes some sort of outdoor space for you to bask in the warm weather at your leisure. However, these outdoor spaces may be unfamiliar to some — patios and porches are the most commonly known, but homebuyers native to the northern reaches of the United States may not be privy to the details of a veranda beyond the fact that it is outdoors, and even less so the specificities of lanais. This blog post intends to go over the commonalities between these commonly-found Floridian outdoor areas, as well as the unique characteristics of each.
Indoors Meets Outdoors
At a surface level, it seems obvious that all four types of outdoor spaces are centered around the fact that they are located outside your home. However, one could say that the extent to which each type embraces the outdoors varies. For instance, a porch is outdoors, but the space it encompasses among the exterior of your home typically does not extend beyond ten feet. Meaning porches tend to not take up much room beyond your home, intending to be an area to lounge usually located just outside your home front or rear entrance. Similarly, verandas also extend out from a home and are relatively medium-sized, but are larger than porches as they tend to wrap around a building instead of staying close to the entrances as porches do. Meanwhile, patios and lanais tend to be mid- or large-size extensions to your home’s square footage with some patios and lanais even acting as entirely outdoor rooms on their own. Lanais are especially popular in Florida thanks to their oceanic nature, originating in Hawaii. Some of these rooms even contain their own furniture and decorations, which we’ll cover in the next section!
Making It Yours
Make your lanai space complete with a Phantom motorized retractable screen!
The types of outdoor spaces also vary in the level of customization that usually goes into them. Of course, any four of these could theoretically be decorated to the homeowners’ content, but porches tend to be the least decorated out of the four as they are a natural incorporation within the home’s structure and thus doesn’t have much of its own decor. Porches may have chairs and small tables, but beyond that, it would be rare to see a porch with a more decorative flair. In the same vein, verandas are another type of outdoor space that suffer from their attachment to the home itself. Verandas see a bit more personalization since they can be decorated with art and gallery items, but overall the options one has to customize a veranda are limited. Patios and lanais, due to their larger nature, often see the most design implements out of the four types of outdoor spaces. Nowadays, many homeowners design patios and lanais adjacent to their home to act as a sort of “outdoor room,” populated with a similar level of furniture and decorations to the other rooms in their house. To keep the elements of the outdoors at bay, one may implement a patio or lanai screen surrounding the space, which keeps the bugs out and the breeze in.
Enclosings, In Closing
Regardless of the type of outdoor space your dream home has, all four offer a relaxing area to entertain guests and enjoy the South Florida weather. Porches and verandas tend to adjoin the side of your home and thus may offer limited options for personalization, but still make an excellent place to relax and take in the view on a peaceful day. Patios and lanais have a bit more room to operate with and are typically furnished with ample amounts of seats and decorations to make yourself at home even when outdoors. And best of all, with a screen, patios and lanais can even seem as though they’re just another room in your home.
If you reside in South Florida and you’re interested in an estimate for screening your lanai, patio, or other outdoor space, contact us now! Our Phantom Screens are the best screens for porch, verandas, and other exterior spaces that extend from your home as they retract into their housing when not in use — providing much needed relief from the Florida bugs without affecting your home’s overall look.
