Installing bricks was a first-time undertaking for this DIYer.

“I also have always loved those big porches with blue beadboard ceilings,” she says. “I didn’t have the big porch, but I had an idea that I was eager to try that would help me incorporate ...

Once a seasonal haunt for rusticators and blue bloods, the 19th-century property ... tailored furnishings, floor-to-ceiling windows and fireplaces that frame the horizon like a moving painting.

Bright blue also attracts these stinging insects, along with many bees. We're all for a pop of color, but your porch ceiling may not be the place to use it. So what about dark colors? Don't rush ...

Sitting under the shaded porch of a Southern home, your eye may wander and catch a blue colored ceiling above your head - a staple across the South - and people are just finding out why.