@Brandy Wine I would give some thought to which direction your room will face. If it is facing in any West direction it may be too warm during the summer. your summers are long & your summer nights do not cool off as much as in the North. Also depends how large this porch will be. mine is 22x22 and I have 6 of the large Scenix windows plus 2 sets of french doors that fully open to 6 ft openings. My windows are not enough ventilation on their own, the french doors save the day! My porch faces East, so no afternoon sun. And even with that, our porch can be very warm, but with our giant ceiling fan & French doors open, it has enough ventilation. I also put in a Mitsubishi unit that heats & cools. That didn't cost a lot to put in & it gives us total climate control in the summer & winter if we need it. We totally live on our porch, its like the rest of the house doesn't exist! So think through what you want out of this space you are about to create & how important this space will be to you. Ours changed everything for us. Hope this helps!!

It does seem very individual. Mosquitoes are a problem all summer in mid-South and especially at dusk. I previously had an open deck, so no overhead fan, and got driven in by bugs. Now have a screened porch which is elevated so not able to do a comparison re: height! But have some open deck down a few stairs and definitely more skeeters there. We eat on the porch a lot and another thing I wonder about is flies. Previously when having a meal out on an open deck we were constantly waving flies away & covering any food even if still serving. No such issues with screens. I do like that we have some unscreened deck because it is a different experience & when not buggy, I also like to sit out there.

what if you added a tapered step all the way around? Also looks like there is a bit of step down from the door? you might need a step down to the ground as it is, so that might help ? Then use large planters to create a "fence", this way you could also have several ways to access it. or even make it larger. otherwise I fully agree with the cable idea Lyn posted below.

That was supposed to say “ but the colors look really good together”. (The Sand frame color and Dune Burlap fabric color)