How to make your conservatory feel like part of your garden
A conservatory can enhance your home. But how do you make it part of your garden? Find out in our guide.
A conservatory can provide a cosy setting for pretty much any activity. It doesn't matter whether you're potting plants, entertaining guests, playing a board game or taking a work call – a good conservatory is a room you want to spend more time in.
But conservatories differ from household rooms in one significant way. They bridge the gap between the indoors and the outdoors. They're transitional spaces between home and garden.
Because of this, it's essential that your conservatory feels like part of the garden. The last thing you want is an incongruous building plonked down on your lawn.
How, then, do you blend the two? The answer has more facets than you might have thought. It covers everything from the design phase to the heating, from the ventilation to the glass you use – and plenty more along the way.
So whether you're getting a conservatory installed for the first time or renovating an existing structure, we hope this article helps you make your conservatory feel like part of your garden.
1. Decide what it's for
This might sound obvious, but you'd be surprised how many people get a conservatory without knowing what they'll use it for.
It matters because the function of a conservatory determines its layout, its layout determines its furnishings and its furnishings determine how well it blends into the garden.
So, before you commit to a design, make sure you know whether it's primarily a space for gardening, entertaining, relaxing or some combination of the three. This will help you make the many smaller decisions that will follow.
2. Plan, plan and plan some more
Do you have a vision for the furniture in your conservatory? Are there particular plants you want to grow? Then you need to plan your conservatory in detail.
What you put in your conservatory will determine the floor plan and the structure's proportions. The alternative is to get an off-the-shelf conservatory that sits in your garden like a white elephant with a sore thumb.
3. Use plants creatively
One of the easiest and most versatile ways to make your conservatory feel like part of the garden is to fill it with greenery.
The outside, too, can be a showcase for tall plants, small trees, climbers and vines. This helps bridge the gap between inside and out.
When it comes to plant life in and around your conservatory, the sky's the limit.
You know what's in your garden and what your plans are for the future. Have fun exploring how your conservatory can complement these.
4. Choose your flooring carefully
Watering plants on the regular? You're going to need a floor that can withstand spillages.
A popular choice for conservatory flooring is paving. Matching the interior and exterior paving helps smooth the transition from inside to out.
This is just one option, however. You can go for anything from easy-clean laminate to vintage tiles. Your choice of material and design can be critical in making your conservatory feel like part of your garden.
5. Invest in ventilation
The ideal conservatory is an environment you can sit in all year round, watching the changing of the seasons from your see-through sanctuary.
But to be comfortable, you need good ventilation. Hot air builds up in glass houses and needs to be released. For this reason, you should invest in roof vents to maintain a cool and pleasant atmosphere.
These vents can be manually operated or automated. This second choice is ideal if you're often away from home.
6. Think heating
As well as ventilation, good heating is essential for a homely garden room – and essential, too, for growing the kinds of plants you want.
If you're passionate about tropical plants, for instance, your heating needs will be very different from a conservatory built to grow hardy winter plants. Most people opt for something in between. It all depends on what you want in your conservatory and how this greenery will blend with your garden flora.
Conservatories can be heated in different ways. Underfloor heating has the key advantage of being out of sight and out of mind – but it does limit the kinds of flooring you can get installed.
7. Get a solid tiled roof
For your conservatory to truly be a part of your garden, it needs to be somewhere you want to sit, whatever the weather.
Achieving this combination of robustness and cosiness is much easier when you have a tiled conservatory roof – not least because it will help with insulation and weatherproofing.
But this kind of roof can also help you blend the appearance of your conservatory with the garden. They add a rustic touch – one that can be personalised by choosing colours that work with the plant life in your garden.
8. Add bi-folding doors
What better way to bring the outdoors in than with a set of floor-to-ceiling
bi-folding doors? You can swing them open to let the fresh air in and shut them when you need warmth and dryness.
One of the best things about bi-fold doors is that they give you a wide-angle view of the garden even when the weather's bad. This makes it part of your garden all year round – not just when the sun's shining.
Coloured glass is an option. But for our money, neutral glass is best for a conservatory. It maximises the views and the amount of natural light pouring in.
Conclusion
Whatever you plan to use your conservatory for, you want it to feel like part of the garden. Taking these eight tips into account can help you get there, whether you're buying your first extension or getting some renovations done. We wish you all the best in your journey.
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conservatory company near you? Based in West Yorkshire, Calder Windows has been installing high-quality conservatories for decades.
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