Adding Wood Porch Railings

Lynn's Story of Her 1925 Wraparound Porch

Lynn shares her story of adding wood porch railings to her porch.

Lynn: Our house was built in 1925 and we believe the porch is original. It never had a railing around it and we never really thought about adding one.

We love the porch the way it is and spend most of the year out there. We only use our living room in the winter.

We added ceiling fans a few years back but other than that we haven't done anything.

We have 4 large dogs and my daughter who lives nearby has another one. At any given time there are 5 dogs running through our yard.


Outdoor Wedding

Two years ago my daughter got married in our yard.


Lynn's daughter's wedding in the backyard


In preparation for this, my husband put some very ugly wire fencing around the porch to keep the dogs up on it and unable to get to the gardens and lawn.

He spent months getting everything in shape for the wedding and the result was very beautiful!

But then...we were left with a great lawn, beautiful gardens and a very ugly fence.


Porch before with wire fence
See the wire fence?

A Sweet Grandchild is Born

A year later my daughter had our very first grandchild. This began the quest to figure out how to enclose the porch for Layla so she couldn't fall off and get hurt.

We looked at every solution, including iron fencing, aluminum, vinyl and trek decking type fences.

I was so unhappy about the choices because every time I sat out there I thought I would be ruining the entire look of this wonderful porch by adding anything at all. I especially didn't want anything that looked wrong for the period of the house.


Adding Wood Porch Railings

Finding Vintage Woodworks

Through my searches online I came across Vintage Woodworks and thought this might be our best option.

We were worried about having to paint everything and the upkeep on real wood as opposed to vinyl or something pre-finished. In the end, after much discussion, we went with the real wood porch railings.


300 Wooden Balusters and 120 Linear Foot

It took over 300 wooden balusters (railings. Vintage Woodworks made it easier by helping me to figure out the sizes I needed between each column of the porch and cutting them to approximate size before shipping.


New balusters from Vintage Woodworks
Lynn's new balusters - from Vintage Woodworks
Every other place I went to would have just sold me the long pieces of unfinished wood and we would have had to cut and router each section. I think it would have taken us years to do!

Vintage Woodwork's system is setup to assemble easily and without showing any hardware (something I liked a lot).

The job was big because of the size of the porch but a lot easier than it would have been had we chosen a different system or constructed our own porch railings.



Ready to paint the balusters
Getting ready to paint

Painting 300 Wood Balusters

When we got the shipment I was really concerned with how to get everything primed and painted, as recommended, before assembly.

This is when I wrote to you asking for some advice. It turned out to be a bit easier than we thought it would be by balancing the balusters on some 2 x 4s.




Suspend balusters between 2 x 4s
Suspending the balusters between 2 x 4's - makes the painting easier



So many wood porch railngs to paint
Anyone want to help paint?



Big job to paint all these balusters
Big job - about 120 linear feet around the porch

Adding Wood Porch Railings

The Results Speak for Themselves

Wood porch railings make a wonderful difference


Adding wood porch railings makes a nice difference. Notice the front gate, too.


Going with real wood was the right decision and it looks like it has always been there. We love how it turned out! It somehow made the space even cozier and it seems even larger if that is possible.

We made the decision to stain the top railing and polyurethane them instead of using the white paint that we used on the balusters and newel posts. I think it was a great decision and I really love the results.

The dark brown stain matches the dark brown trim on the house and again it looks like it has been there forever.



Warm cozy feeling on the porch
The porch railings add a warm cozy feeling to the porch



Porch railings look as if they have always been there
Looks as if the porch railings had always been there



An amazing porch
What a grand porch



Beautiful stone work on this porch
Notice the beautiful stone work, too



Porch railings keep Lynn's granddaughter safer
And sweet Layla is safer with the railings



We sincerely appreciate Lynn and her husband sharing the story of their 1925 porch with us. Adding wood porch railings to their beautiful vintage porch is certainly worth every linear foot and hour of painting.

And...we are happy they found Vintage Woodworks. The folks there pride themselves in "bringing back yesterday in quality and service"





Helpful Links

Enjoy shopping Amazon (affiliate link)

Popular Pages

What's New

Join Our Newsletter Family

Porch Designs

Porch Ideas for Mobile Homes

Find a Local Contractor

Build a Porch | Small Porches

Porch Columns | Porch Railings

Screened Porches

Porch Curtains | Porch Enclosures

Porch Landscaping | Vinyl Lattice

Porch Decorating | Porch Ideas

Shop

Navigation Aids

Home | Top of Page

Site Search | Site Map

Contact Us

Policies

Disclosure Policy | Privacy Policy

Legal Info


Please Join Us Here Also

Join us on Facebook for porch talk Join us on Pinterest Subscribe to get our updates. Thank you!


Get in touch with pre-screened local professionals for work you need done
Find a Trusted Local Pro




Our Sponsors
Shop for Porch Parts at Vintage Woodworks.


Use the PCA Visualizer to design your screen door


The Porch Store

End Sponsors


Are these seven words enough for you?



Copyright© 2008-2023
Front-Porch-Ideas-and-More.com All rights reserved.
No content or photos may be reused or reproduced in any way without our express written permission.

At no extra cost to you, we earn a commission by referring you to some products on merchant sites. See our disclosure policy.
We, Front Porch Ideas and More, confirm, as stated on our privacy policy, that we do not sell personal information.

All content here is solely for presenting ideas. We recommend consulting with a licensed, experienced contractor before you begin your project.
We make no guarantees of accuracy or completeness of information on our site or any links to other websites contained here.


small rocking chair


Thank you for taking your time to stop by. See what's popular and new here.
Enjoy shopping Amazon (affiliate link)

Our Sponsors
Shop for Porch Parts at Vintage Woodworks.


Use the PCA Visualizer to design your screen door


The Porch Store


End Sponsors

Get in touch with pre-screened local professionals for work you need done
Find Top-Rated Service Pros (our referral link)



Are these seven words enough for you?



Get Our Newsletter,
Front Porch Appeal
and a bonus!
Learn more!


Subscribe and also receive our eBook
Free eBook - Maximize Your Homes Curb Appeal We will use your email address only to send our newsletter and this helpful ebook on curb appeal!
Enjoy our back issues.



What's New
What is new or updated on our site
See Our Latest Updates




Get Our Porch Ideas Generator eBook
Front Porch Ideas Generator eBook
Ten Before & After Case Studies
Showing the Difference a Porch Makes!
Only $9.97




See Our Porch Illustrator eBook
Porch Illustrator Vol 1 & Vol 2 eBook
Over 300 Pages of Porch Illustrations
to Absolutely Inspire!
Just $9.97




Search Our Site


Porch Ideas Network
Porch Ideas Network
Listen to Our Podcasts
Plus Featured Builders and Landscapers


Thank you for taking your time to stop by. See what's popular and new here.


small rocking chair
At no extra cost to you, we earn a commission by referring you to some products on merchant sites. See our disclosure policy.
We, Front Porch Ideas and More, confirm, as stated on our privacy policy, that we do not sell personal information.

All content here is solely for presenting ideas. We recommend consulting with a licensed, experienced contractor before you begin your project.
We make no guarantees of accuracy or completeness of information on our site or any links to other websites contained here.


Front Porch Home | Return to Top
Contact Us | About Us | Advertise with Us | Search | Site Map
Media | Privacy Policy | Disclosure | Legal Notice | What's New

XML RSS   Add to My Yahoo!  
By Mary and Dave Morris, Copyright © 2008-2023 Front-Porch-Ideas-and-More.com. All rights reserved.
No content or photos may be reproduced or copied in any way without our express written permission.


Page copy protected against web site content infringement by Copyscape