Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Sleeping Porches


Ever since I was a little girl, I have thought sleeping porches are wonderful. I love to be around people, and the idea of sleeping in the same room with friends or siblings seems fun. One of my friends grew up with a family beach house in Atlantic Beach that had a girls side and a boys side upstairs. The rooms were filled with beds so that all of the cousins could sleep (or perhaps play) together.


In college, I remember visiting our friends at the Tri Delt house at UNC where they had a sleeping porch. It was kept extra cold and the beds looked comfortable and inviting. One of my best Camp Greystone friends also had a sleeping porch at the KD house at Alabama, as did my friend at the Tri Delt house at Ole Miss. No alarm clocks were allowed. Rather, you had to find a responsible friend who would come and wake you for class. It seemed very Old South and wonderful as an outsider. Perhaps it was a nightmare in reality, but it seemed fun to me.


Sleeping porches were initially built for the hottest summer nights in hopes that the residents might catch any amount of breeze as it passed by the hot house in an era before air conditioning and locked windows. It was also thought that the cool night air had healing qualities and might fight off tuberculosis. Madeline made the look of an orphanage bedroom look fun in the book about her growing up in Paris. Camp Greystone even has a wonderfully inviting infirmary full of colorful beds.


All of these images and visions have made me long for a sleeping porch or fun bunk room now that we have 4 sleeping beauties and 1 sleeping prince of our own. I think it would be fun to add a sleeping porch onto a home! It would be filled with beds outfitted with the most comfortable and cozy linens. Perhaps I'd paint it a pale Florida blue or I might just use the colors of my bedroom with DH which is Monterrey White or perhaps Monroe Bisque (I can't remember) with a pale peony ceiling, since pale pink evokes calm and sleep.



What are your thoughts on a sleeping porch or fun bunk room?

***Many images taken from Pottery Barn Kids***

18 comments:

carolinagirl said...

LOVE THESE!!! We are getting ready to have a bunk room built at our condo at Oak Island for the boys! I CANNOT WAIT!!!

Susan R said...

How about a sleeping garage? In the summer holiday months all the cousins and aunts and uncles would get together at grandpa's and grandma's. There weren't enough bedrooms, so my grandparents would take the cars out, lay a carpet down and put up old army cots with blankets on them. It looked like an army tent with about 12 kids lined up. We would stay up all night talking, putting on plays and playing all kinds of fun games. I love those times we had. It wsan't nearly as posh or beautiful as the photos you have, but it was just as much fun.

Travelbugmom said...

Love the photos....so inviting! Liked Susan's story too. I unfortunately never saw sleeping porches when I was younger, instead I grew up in a city and everyone had SIDE PORCHES. My dad worked in the appliance dept. of a local store and we would beg him to bring home large boxes. I loved to set them up on the porch and cut out windows, add carpet patches and make it "my home away from home". Not quite like these sleeping porches!

Lauren said...

Sleeping porches...How dreamy!

Kim said...

I live in the historic district and a lot of the houses have enclosed their old sleeping porches. I do have a friend who had a beautiful daybed out on her screened porch...I'm pretty sure she gets her menopausal self out there occasionally when she can't sleep!

I went to Nebraska and about half the sorority houses had what were called "open air" dorms (mine, KKG, did not), so called because they were required to keep a window open--even in winter! They had rows of bunks on one floor and smaller rooms with closets and dressers, usually shared with 2-3 others. They also had to rotate "wake up duty", but I imagine now with cell phones that, along with pledges doing phone duty, is a thing of the past.

I'd love to have a beach house with a couple of bunk rooms for the future grandchildren...I guess that will be something we can build after we get all these kids thru college!

The B Family said...

I love sleeping porches, too! Bring back memories of summer weekends at one of my best childhood girlriend's family's Louisiana lake house. Always thought we'd have to include one if we ever own a vacation home or cabin.

Shannon said...

Sleeping porches are practically non existent in Florida where I grew up and went to college.

But now that I live in AL, they are much more common! Those pictures from PB would make anyone want one! I'm not sure how they did it though, here in the South it's still awfully hot to sleep outside!

Love Being A Nonny said...

When my hubs and I dream about a house we can have everything, these two rooms are the top two things on my list. Bunk rooms for the grands and sleeping porch for the adult kids! Do you read August Fields blog? www.augustfields.com. Look on her side bar at Boys Bunk room. You will fall in love!

Coryanne Ettiene | Kitchen Living with Coryanne said...

I always wanted a sleeping porch I just adore the idea...we don't have porches in Arizona so it never became a reality for me as a child. The images are fab, makes me want to crawl back in time and have a slumber party.

North of 25A said...

Love love LOVE!

Anonymous said...

sororities in the north call them dormers. We had one at Michigan State and I had the best sleep of my life in our dormer. We were allowed alarm clocks but no hitting the snooze button! - Yes, we did keep the windows open year round- even when it snowed a lot! We would just have electric blankets

Preppy Pink Crocodile said...

If I am ever able to purchase a summer camp (aka summer house or cottage), I'd love LOVE to have a bunk room. They're pretty common up here in the Adirondaks/New England. Actually, the first college I went to in Indiana had sleeping porches in the sorority house too. Each sister took a turn doing wake-up duty.

madison said...

If it was camp greystone in NC
I'm a greystone girl too

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