Erin Napier's Porch Design Fatal Flaw (& What We Would Do Different)

The Napiers have a lot of experience renovating homes, and they've certainly learned a lot since their first episode of "Home Town" aired. In the very first episode, Ben and Erin Napier tackled a 1940s home in Laurel, Mississippi. The whole home needed some serious upgrades, but one feature in particular stood out to the Napiers and their clients. "The great thing about living in the South, especially in a small town, are the porches — except for this porch," said Ben (via YouTube). 

With dated plastic shutters and a damaged door, the home's heavily enclosed porch was indeed a bit off-putting, but the Napiers decided to overhaul it in a rather extreme way. "You take that glass off, take that wall off, and then your neighbors can actually see in without that glare," Ben explained. In the YouTube clip, Ben framed this kind of neighborly transparency as a positive thing, but really, the resulting porch remodel lost its sense of privacy. It also opened up the porch to heavy southern rainstorms, pesky insects, cold snaps, and more.

Of course, there were other changes the Napiers made to give the home a fresh new face. They ripped out the porch's worn-down checkerboard floors and ceiling tiles. They also completely dismantled the brick that surrounded the front porch and gained access to the crawl space to level the porch floor, which was shockingly uneven. Some of these changes were unavoidable, but the decision to remove all privacy is still one of Ben and Erin Napier's most controversial design choices.

Although the clients may have lost some privacy on their front porch, it's hard to deny that the final results looked stunning, fresh, and modern. While some changes were necessary to make the house safer, we may not have followed Ben and Erin Napier's footsteps exactly had we been in their shoes. For example, the home needed some structural repairs, but if it hadn't been necessary to access the crawl space and relevel the porch, the brick exterior could have stayed on the porch to keep some of the home's historical charm. Some red brick on old southern homes is even said to be made with clay from the Mississippi River itself. The new, modern off-white exterior is undeniably pretty, but it belies a bit of the home's age. 

We can admit that the clunky plastic porch shutters simply had to go, but instead of leaving the porch wide open, we would have installed a subtle mesh screen or explored some privacy screen ideas to add style to the outdoor space. Screened-in porches are a popular feature in the South, especially in historical homes built long before the dawn of air conditioning, so keeping an enclosed patio wouldn't have been out of tune with the "Home Town" participants' historical vision. Screened porches today continue to provide a place where folks can enjoy a fresh breeze and stay cool while blocking out insects like mosquitoes. Even a fully enclosed sunroom or conservatory would have been a smarter all-season use of the space, and another top TV star, HGTV's Jenny Marrs, recommends vinyl windows as a sturdy material for a screened-in porch.