It’s hot outside, and you roll out your awning to provide some shade as the day turns into evening and your friends come over to visit. You draw out your patio chairs and enjoy dinner on your deck. Later in the evening, as you and your guests enjoy after-dinner coffee, a light shower begins. Thanks to the awning, the rain does not interrupt your time with your friends. In fact, the sound of soft raindrops falling adds a cozy feeling to the night.

Are you considering adding an awning to your patio? You might think that an awning is only there to provide shade when it’s sunny. However, awnings have a myriad of benefits for your family and your home. 

Get the information you need about patio awnings.

1. Protect Yourself From the Sun

Your awning is indeed there to protect you and your loved ones from the sun. If you have young children or grandchildren, it’s especially important for them to get some sun protection while they are playing outdoors. An awning can create a space that’s shady, cooler, and easy to define as a play space.

What about you? If you love to sit outdoors in the summer, an awning creates a space under which you can put planters full of flowers, a table for your tea, and a chair to read in. As the day gets warmer, your awning will protect you from the sun.

If you want to experience the sun at certain times of the day, adding a retractable awning will allow you to decide when to have sun or shade. You can even add a motorized awning so you don’t need to go outside under the sun to put your awning out.

Adding things like a patio awning or gutter covers can make your home more appealing to potential buyers. But get the information you need before you make decisions. Download our free gutter guide to get the facts you need about gutter guards.

2. Protect Your Plants From the Sun

Plants need protection from the sun as well. While you might think that sunshine and water are the two essential ingredients for thriving plants, sometimes your plants need a bit of shade as well. For instance, if you love to harvest lettuce and other leafy greens from the garden, too much hot, dry weather will cause them to bolt. Even your patio tomatoes might welcome a little bit of shade sometimes, since the intense heat can dry out pots and lead to drooping tomato plants.

If you enjoy wetland plants and have a small fountain or portable pond, then your awning will prevent it from drying out. Ferns, hostas, and many other leafy plants enjoy the shade cover that an awning can provide.

3. Reduce Damage to Your Home 

An awning not only prevents you from getting a sunburn, it does the same for your patio furniture and even the furniture inside your home. Over time, your deck and your indoor and outdoor furniture will dry, crack, and discolor due to the intense sun and heat. According to Houzz, “Fading, discoloration, and fabric damage are the downsides of the sunlight — actually, any visible light — that floods our rooms.” If you enjoy looking at the art on your walls and the furniture in your rooms and want it to look the same as it did when you purchased it, adding an awning to filter and reduce the direct sunlight will help you prevent fading. If you’re concerned that your room will be too dim in the winter months, add a retractable awning that you can move in and out depending on the weather and the light.

4. Reduce Heat Outside Your Home 

According to Home Guides, “Solar radiation can dramatically change the temperature of an object that it hits, heating it far above the actual air temperature.” That’s why when you walk out onto your sizzling deck, you feel much warmer than you would in the shade. It can feel up to 20 degrees cooler under an awning.

Why not just plant trees or add an arbor? You can certainly do both of these things as well; however, planting a tree that arches over your deck can be potentially dangerous to your roof during the stormier months of the year. Adding an arbor will provide shade depending on what direction the sun is shining, and arbors can be added to decks and even under an awning. An awning provides consistent, overhead shade that protects your house – and it can be retracted when it’s not needed.  

5. Reduce Heat Inside Your Home 

If you think that your deck is hot, try inside your house. If you don’t have a breeze going through your home or you have no air conditioning, it can get insufferably stuffy inside during the summer months. This is of particular concern for families with young children who may have trouble with the heat and for those who have mobility challenges, such as those who are elderly or disabled.

What is the cure? Shade is the answer: it reduces the interior temperature of your home. For instance, an awning can reduce the temperature inside your home by 15 degrees. While you might think of an awning as a device that makes the outdoors more livable during the summer, it can also make it easier to be indoors as well.

6. Protect Yourself From Showers and Wind 

Your awning isn’t just for sun protection: you can also use it for protection from showers and wind. For instance, during the spring and fall, you might enjoy sitting out on your deck or even entertaining. However, light showers can make it harder to do so in a pleasant manner.

If you live in a very stormy or snowy area, you’ll appreciate the convenience of a retractable awning. It’s available when you need it and it can be retracted to save it from harsh weather. 

7. Define Your Outdoor Space 

An awning is not only functional, it’s also a way to define your outdoor space. For instance, if you have a deck and you want to create an outdoor living area, placing key furniture and plants under your awning will allow you to create a more comfortable and more defined outdoor space. Curb appeal is important, whether you’re trying to make your home a beautiful part of the neighborhood or trying to sell it. A defined patio space with an overhanging awning makes your home even more attractive.

8. Increase Your Living Space

The idea of outdoor rooms is becoming more and more popular. These rooms move seamlessly from indoors to out and outdoors to in. The furniture in each space may echo each other, and you can even add indoor-style fixtures such as rugs to your outdoor living space. An outdoor room needs definition, and you can use potted plants, a trellis, a gazebo, or an awning to create this kind of defined space. According to HGTV, “Creating a relaxing, stylish outdoor living space or outdoor room can greatly increase the appeal and value of your home and provide an oasis for friends and family to enjoy the great outdoors in supreme comfort.” An outdoor room allows you to cook, eat, play, and relax outdoors, with all of the comforts of an indoor space and the enjoyment of the fresh air as well. 

Are you looking for a way to expand your living space? Why not consider an outdoor room? Expanding your living space to the outdoors is an affordable option that might fulfill your needs. 

9. Complement Your Living Space

An awning is not a desperate solution for shade that compromises the overall appeal of your home. In fact, if you choose the right awning, it is an eye-pleasing addition to your home. Awnings can be used on just about any home, and they come in many different sizes, shapes, and colors to complement your home’s style. 

You can also choose from different fabrics that complement the colors of your home. These could be bright, striped, and a focal point, or you could choose quieter colors that blend in easily to your siding, windows, and roof.

Awnings also come in many shapes that can echo the shape of your windows and other features of your home. They can be convex, concave, gabled, boxed, and other shapes. 

10. Add Value to Your Home

When you are renovating your home to add lasting value, consider adding an awning. Why would an awning add to your home? For all of the reasons above.  When you’ve already done the work and incurred the expense of putting in a valuable item such as a gutter cover or an awning, potential future buyers will appreciate the investment that you’ve made in that home. Your awning adds ease, beauty, and comfort to your home, and that’s true value.

At Harry Helmet, we value your home. We want to help you add value to it as well. With our roofing, gutter covers, and awnings, we can help you create a home that’s comfortable to live in, beautiful to look at, and easy to sell. View our photo gallery of awning products and schedule a free estimate today.

Written by Del Thebaud