Part I of the 2nd Element to consider when living coastal: wind.

Coastal Homes – a ‘breezy’ primer for your home 

Today is one of those days. There’s a slight breeze and comfortable temps here, only 10 minutes from the ocean. Other times, when it’s hot out under the sun, the best place to be is under your covered porch.

Whether you are remodeling or building a new home or adding a porch, it’s important to consider how wind affects your lifestyle especially during hurricane season. Also, it’s important to consider if you want to enjoy coastal breezes or live in a totally air-conditioned home.

Deep porches with plenty of room for rockers or settees are on my Top 10 list for living and loving the Coastal Life. 

There’s something so relaxing about being outside yet having the protection of an overhang and screens of a porch. Although our home is 1/2 mile from the Barnegat Bay and 10 minutes from the ocean, we can enjoy that ‘Coastal Living’ lifestyle on our porch almost year-round (even now as I am writing this post).

Wrap your head around this idea to enjoy the prevailing winds

As a sailor on the Barnegat Bay, I know firsthand that the wind can be different from one day to the next. So, when working with my clients, I like to investigate the best way to enjoy and benefit from the prevailing winds of the day.

One of my clients is fortunate to have enough land to accommodate a wrap-around porch, similar to the one shown below. You can change your seat to either enjoy or shelter yourself from the wind by moving a few steps ‘around the corner’.

Add cross-ventilation to bring those coastal breezes inside

We also added another element to our home that brings the breeze inside on a mild day. Before we built our fireplace, with long tall windows on either side, our Family Room provided no cross-ventilation. I’m amazed at how much this added to the enjoyment of our Family Room. Now, the breeze flows through the Family Room into our kitchen/breakfast area.

It’s a ‘breeze’ if you select the right size and style of window for your coastal home 

Now that I’ve lived in our home and worked with coastal clients for over twenty years, it’s part of my design process to consider how the outside impacts your interior spaces. Directing breezes into your home can also be accomplished with landscaping to channel breezes, selecting and locating the right size window for cross-ventilation and most importantly by using operable windows.

Any questions? Send in your questions and look for our next blog post about hurricanes and homes by the coast. 

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