Plant ledge in 2 story entry

12 years ago

Hi all. My husband and I are building a home and have just broken ground. We love the exterior, but realized that the way our front porch is set up, it creates a "plant ledge" about 5 feet deep (and 10.5 ft wide) above the front door in our two story entry. Neither my husband or I have seen this in real life and we are nervous about how it will look. Does anyone have picture of something like this? Thanks!

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Comments (7)

dbrad_gw
12 years ago
Honestly, I think all of these plant ledges I keep seeing in recent designs are downright silly. I've never heard of one that's 5' deep though! Could your builder not just create a faux balcony over the porch and get rid of the shelf?
Missy Benton
12 years ago
I have one. I definitely didn't want one but I didn't catch it until it was too late. I think it looks fine, it will just be a maintenance nightmare. Although, my husband claims he'll get up there every couple weeks and dust for me! We also joke that we could put little animatronics up there for every holiday...hopping bunnies for Easter, climbing spiders at Halloween, etc., :-)

Here's how ours looks...

Hope that helps!
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jilltigs
Original Author
12 years ago
Unfortunately you can't really get rid of the ledge on the interior without getting rid of the beautiful window above it...
chicagoans
12 years ago
A couple of my friends' houses, built in the mid to late '90's, have those. The 'interesting' thing about these 2 homes is that the 2nd floor hallway is across from the window and it's open to the foyer. So anyone walking from one side of the 2nd floor to the other (e.g., from master to secondary bedrooms) can potentially be viewed from the street or sidewalk in front of the house, especially at night when lights are on inside. This might not be the case for all houses, since interior layouts differ as does proximity to street/ sidewalk.

Is your ledge accessible to any part of the 2nd floor? It's so big, it would be nice to make it usable space, e.g. put up a railing and make it a reading nook.
worthy
12 years ago
What a ridiculous piece of real estate! I supposed the the next step is for building inspectors to require it be protected by a rail.
bevangel_i_h8_h0uzz
12 years ago
Love the idea of having holiday themed animatronics up there! Much better than scads of dusty fake plants that everybody knows are fake because nobody in their right mind would climb up a ladder once a week to water real ones.

If your DH actually makes three trips up there to dust over the course of the first year that you live in the house, he's a saint! It's all I can do to get mine to remember to reach up with the vacuum hose nozzle and vacuum around our light fixtures every once in a blue moon.

Nice that the builder thoughtfully installed an electrical outlet in the plant ledge so you can run your animatronics. LOL! Will also help when YOU climb up there about every 5th year or so to vacuum up the accumulated dust.

Seriously, what does the front of your house look like that made it impossible to just move that window back even with the door?
CamG
12 years ago
This probably won't work for your plan, but I've seen houses where what would otherwise be a plant ledge is connected by a walkway along one wall to the rest of the floor and a window seat is there with bookshelves on either side. I always thought that would be really neat. Depending on your space, you might still be able to have the 2 story foyer effect.

Plant ledge in 2 story entry

Comments (7)

dbrad_gw

Missy Benton

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Plant ledge in 2 story entry

Comments (7)

dbrad_gw

Missy Benton

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jilltigsOriginal Author

chicagoans

worthy

bevangel_i_h8_h0uzz

CamG

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jilltigs
Original Author