As more of us start working from home and the housing market continues to remain volatile, many homeowners are investing more in their existing properties to create more usable and desirable spaces to occupy. One often neglected space attached to many homes is the conservatory. Millions of homes across the UK have one, but often they can become a cold (or boiling hot in summer!) room used for little more than storage. So, if you’re looking for some more usable, and thoroughly enjoyable, room in your home, then the conservatory is a good place to invest some time and money into. Here are some top tips on turning your conservatory into your favourite room in the house.
Invest in proper insulation
No matter how nicely you furnish your conservatory, if it can’t regulate temperature properly, then it’s never going to be a space that you can enjoy using the whole year around. The biggest problem with many conservatories is that the roof material is a poor insulator. Polycarbonate or glass roofs let too much heat escape, and also don’t do much to stop the sun’s rays overheating the space in the summer. One of the most cost-effective ways to tackle this issue is with conservatory roof insulation. At Sagars 365, our multi-layer foil insulation helps to trap heat in during the winter months, and keep things cooler in the summer. Plus, based on a survey of 96 Sagars customers, 86.4% said they saved between 10% and 60% on their energy bills since insulating their conservatory!Learn more about the benefits of conservatory roof insulation here.
Give your conservatory a purpose
Whilst many of us would enjoy a second sitting room or a dedicated space to read a book or do a crossword whilst enjoying a garden view, turning your conservatory into a room means really deciding what the space will offer. That could be turning it into a fully-fledged dining room, thus freeing up more space inside the home too. Or, it could be a new work-from-home office, or a playroom for a growing family.Whatever it is, deciding early on what you want the room to be will help make sure your design choices help to make that happen.
Carry through your interior design choices
Quite often a conservatory can feel more of a bolt on to a house than an additional room because the design choices from the main house don’t carry through. Using the same flooring, paint, lighting and furnishing styles will help improve the flow from house to conservatory and make it feel more like a fully-fledged extension. Plus, with a fully-insulated conservatory roof, finished with either PVC panels or fresh plaster, your conservatory will really feel like an expensive extension… just without the price tag! The key to making this work though, is that you have properly invested in the insulation of your conservatory space. For example, running carpet through to a conservatory that’s prone to condensation is never to be advised!
Doors and heating
To properly comply with planning regulations, your conservatory should reasonably be separated from the existing property by exterior-worthy doors, and shouldn’t be linked to the main home heating system. However, if you want to make your conservatory feel like a proper room without starting up conversations with the local council’s planning office, there are some alternatives. First, you can look to replace the existing ‘external’ doors between house and conservatory with ones that feel more like stylish interior ones. Trying to remove any step or lip between house and conservatory will also help with that feeling of seamless transition between spaces. And second is how you heat your conservatory. Whilst a little oil heater in the corner will do the job on chillier days (especially with a properly insulated conservatory roof), it won’t help add to the feeling that the conservatory is more extension than garden room. A good alternative would be to install a wall-mounted (or free-standing) electric radiator - one that simply plugs in at the wall but looks like any normal radiator in the rest of the home. There are some really stylish magazine-worthy options out there too, so it’s well worth having a bit of a browse!
Get the insulation right first
As mentioned above, before thinking about transforming your conservatory into a proper room, you really need to consider thermoregulation before starting anything else. At Sagars 365, our conservatory roof insulation system can be installed in just one day, costs from only £1,999 (with 0% VAT!) and can help reduce energy bills by 25%. Learn more about the benefits of our conservatory roof insulation system here, or take a look at some before and after shots.
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How to turn your conservatory into a gymHow to turn your conservatory into a barHow to turn your conservatory into a home office
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