How to Choose Awnings for Your Home

This Spring we finally made the investment in window awnings for our home. With a southern exposure and no shade trees, the sun beats on the front and east side of our old 1940’s Jersey shore cape style house. When we bought this house in 2020, we found remnants of the original dark green awnings in the attic, along with the hardware still attached to some of the windows. Awnings are very popular here both for aesthetics and function. They have all the charm of old time summers at the Jersey shore and indeed were necessary before the days of air conditioning! Here’s a few images of homes with awnings in our area that inspired me:

We narrowed our selection to these three fabric options – 1) classic wide stripe in chambray green and white, 2) taupe with very dark green (almost black) and tan stripes, and 3) solid hunter green with thin white and yellow stripes. The first two are Sunbrella fabrics and the third is Temp Test which has identical performance properties as Sunbrella.

Ultimately we picked #2 although our first choice was the classic wide green and white stripes. We learned a lot about awnings in the process so I thought I would share what we learned about selecting the right awnings for your home and why we went with our second choice!

1. Consider how the awning fabric color will look relative to your door, shutter, siding and roof colors. Also, if you change your door color to coordinate with the awning fabric, consider how your house will look when the awnings are removed for the winter months. Typically, here at the Jersey Shore, awnings get installed in late spring and are taken down before Christmas. So for 6 months of the year, the house will not have awnings. In our case, we have a bright yellow door, dark cedar shake siding and dark green shutters. We were pretty sure that we would have to change our door color because we couldn’t find a color combination that included yellow. Surprisingly though, once the awnings were installed the existing yellow door color worked!

2. Consider dirt and rain water runoff. Lighter color awnings will show more dirt and stains over time than darker fabrics. And certain house sidings will “bleed” or “shed” more dirt than others. Our contractor pointed out that wood cedar shake homes like ours tend to shed brown residue which will runoff onto the awnings while other types of house siding such as vinyl or masonry don’t have this issue.

3. Trees are another factor to consider. If there are trees in proximity to your home, they may shed or drop debris that can stain the fabric if not caught and cleaned in time.

4. The darker the color of the awnings, the more the fabric absorbs heat from the sun and the less the awnings cool your home. Conversely, light colors will reflect heat and increase the cooling ability of your home.

5. The darker the color of the awnings, the darker your house will be on the inside. This is something to consider, particularly if you like a lot of light.

6. Consider that the awnings are visible from inside your home. This means that it’s important to factor in how the color and pattern will look with your interior decor. If you have shades or blinds on your windows, you can lower them to cover the awnings. In our case, I have roman shades on the windows so when I don’t want to see the awnings I lower the shades. My interior decor is quite neutral though so I actually like seeing the awnings from the inside.

7. Finally, consider the cost of removing, storing and reinstalling the awnings seasonally. Typically here at the Jersey shore, awnings are removed during the winter to allow more light and warmth from the sun into the house. While our contractor offers this service, we plan to remove the awnings ourselves come December and store them in our garage, wrapping them in tarps to keep them clean.

While we loved the classic green and white stripe, our main concern was minimizing dirt and stains over time. Our other concern was not making the interior of our home too dark. So we landed on the medium tone taupe stripe fabric, striking a balance between our exterior dirt and interior light concerns. The awnings were installed about a month ago – just in time for the very hot summer we are having. I love the way the house automatically “feels” cooler inside. Our living room and primary bedroom are indeed a little darker than without the awnings but there is still plenty of light flooding in from the kitchen and dining room which do not have awnings. And to our surprise the existing yellow front door works with the awnings and feels intentional.

We also decided to add an awning above the door to our guest cottage to tie everything together.

I love the summer vibe awnings add to the exterior of our home!

An added bonus is that our window box flowers no longer need constant watering and are much happier with a respite from the direct sunlight.

Happy summer y’all!

Debra