So, I hopped outside, snapped a couple of photos, and here is answer to the mystery feature.
It's three diagonally placed 2 x 8's that create a nice midcentury screen next to the front door. It just gives yet another item of visual appeal. It's not really of much functional use, just decorative. Originally the house numbers were where the mailbox is, and the mailbox was where my new house number plaque is. Sorry about the overgrown mess. I haven't had a lot of time to mess with the yard yet - in a couple more weeks school will be out, and the lawn will once again look amazing!
Here's another view:
Now you can see the angle of the boards on the side of the stoop. The little silver thing just below the mailbox is the bracket for my flagpole.
A more straight-on view. The sun created an interesting effect at the top of the photo.
Have a great Tuesday!
Little features like that gave these homes so much character. It looks great!
ReplyDeleteI remember a house we had in southern California in the 50's had the same kind of decorative planks and stupidly, the screen door had been attached so that every time we kids flung it open it would bang into the planks. My father finally rehung the door after we'd gotten yelled at about a billion times.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Michael, for these photos. That screen is so great! Amazing how three boards can provide such an interesting feature. I rushed right outside to see if we could do such a screen by our front door. We really need something to block the western sun and wind. I don't think our roof overhang is wide enough to allow for more than two such vertical boards, which wouldn't look like much. I'll show these photos to my husband to see what he thinks. Thanks again for answering my question.
ReplyDeletei love those planks! they add a wonderful vintage look to the front door!
ReplyDeleteThis is why I love 50's homes! Like that panel, and those really cool/ massive planter room deviders.
ReplyDeleteHi. Showed this to my husband. He says the architectural term for something like this is brise soleil, which is basically French for sun blocker (but brise soleil sounds ever so much better).
ReplyDeleteHe really liked the look of this on your house, and thinks we should try to come up with a suitable design for our house. Should be fun!
I find it humorous that it is for blocking sun, when my house faces East, and the front overhang is 3 ft wide...the front doesn't get much sunshine past mid-morning, and the screen does absolutely nothing to block the sun. But, I still like the look. Quite a while back I featured a house for sale in town that was almost my house's twin - it has the exact same screen next to the front door. That house also faces East...
ReplyDeleteGood luck with creating one for your house! Mine is really very simple, although I'm not sure how the boards are attached to the concrete in the stoop to keep them from moving. Would love to see pictures of yours when it's done!
Well, now I have two reasons to be envious -- you have a brise soleil, and you face east. We face southwest, which is not so great when you are brise soleil-less.
ReplyDelete(I once read about a woman who was house hunting and insisted on an east-facing house, which really narrowed down the ones her Realtor could find to show her. Sounds like she needs to move to your town!)