Conservatory ideas

[MrsBananaman]

DH, DS (7) and I have just moved to a house with a South facing garden. It has a medium size conservatory which is also south facing and gets the sun all day every day. Even when it’s cold and rainy outside the conservatory is very warm.

I’d originally intended to use it as a playroom for DS but he doesn’t like how sunny it is. It could be used as a second lounge with a sofa and TV, or DH idea is to make it a dining room so that we can have a bigger kitchen (if we take out the table and chairs) as it comes off the kitchen, but it will still be sunny and warm.
I’d love any ideas please for…
a. What to use the room for
b. Coping with the sunshine all year round. It’s hot in October I can’t imagine July

We are about to move into a house with an east facing one. I’m getting a dehumidifier and putting our airers in there! That and some comfy armchairs for wine and a book!
But we do have a kitchen, dining room and a playroom so the conservatory wasn’t a major selling point for us.

Did you have thoughts for it before you bought?

You need blinds , at least on the windows if not on the roof too, it helps the sun and does insulate too. It might be warm in July (and October!) but believe me it will be freezing in the winter. We rarely use ours, too hot in summer, too cold in winter!

We use ours as a play room and it’s brilliant because it means there’s no clutter in the lounge or DC’s bedrooms. We have blinds on the ceiling & all windows though!

Doesn't it cost a lot to heat on cloudy days in the winter.

We've got an easy facing conservatory and we can't use it between October and March because it is too cold and would cost too much to heat.

Ours is covered in mould all the time. I'm not keen. You can use it for extras though, like clothes dryers, kitchen machines you can't fit in the kitchen, pet feeding and litter tray, growing plants in pots, bird food.

Have you got solar glass on the roof?

I would definitely get an air vent in the roof, we regret this

I have thought about blinds for the roof but I dont want the sky obscured, our glass is blue and they're terrible fly catchers I reckon, I'd be up there all the time getting flies down

I have jute carpet in there and proper furniture, I cant bear 'conservatory furniture'

We have a lot of lights, all round the roof and lamps, lots of cushions and so furnishings, big sofa, couple of large armchairs, lots of side tables.

we have an oil filled rad in there for the evenings and winter, warms it up very quickly but ours is only 12x10, I would get 2 if you have bigger.

Its my favourite room in the house by the way

I have a south facing conservatory and use it for drying the laundry on a wall-mounted Pulleymaid system when the weather is unsuitable for drying outside. Other than that, a leather sofa so I can read or relax in natural light when it’s too cold or windy to sit outside. I already have a dining area and TV room in the house so I didn’t need those. I have several potted plants overwintering in there too. Also, if you sell on eBay / Vinted etc, it’s a good place to take the photos on account of the natural light. Cloudy days are best so you don’t get shadows.
I don’t think a TV would be a good idea. The summer heat would probably destroy it, and you wouldn’t be able to see the screen anyway when it’s bright. Fabrics tend to get bleached by the sun so I would go for light neutral coloured cushions and rattan base rather than upholstered.

We used our small conservatory as a playroom when DD was little - although it was usually too hot or too cold to actually play in (even with blinds on every window), so it was more of a toy store room. When DD grew out of toys, we knocked the conservatory down - best thing we did with it.

The one we inherited when we bought our last house in 2018 was a hybrid of conservatory and extension - it had solid walls on two sides but a polycarbonate roof that the idiot previous owners had plasterboarded!

When the roof - inevitably - leaked, the plasterboard went mushy and fell off. There was a radiator but it was freezing in winter, yet not particularly hot in summer. Initially we used it as a temporary dining room.

Eventually we reinforced the timbers and fitted a proper slate roof, then changed the - south-facing - glazed wall with French doors to floor-to-ceiling oak-framed windows, insulating everywhere as we went along. As DH and I DIYed the work it didn't cost too much - far less than knocking it down and rebuilding would have been. When we sold in 2024, this 'new' space (now the living room) with countryside views was one of the main selling points!

We have a north west facing conservatory and as one side faces west, it gets the sun most of the day and gets quite warm. We bought a sail and had it up during this summer, our first summer with it, and I rigged up a curtain along the side windows, and they both helped keep the heat at a bearable level. We will be putting in blinds on the side windows and some nicer muslin curtains for the ceiling to help keep it more comfortable. We are also making sure the planting outside offers some shade too. We use ours as a dining room as it's off our kitchen and we love it.

My plan when we bought it was for it to be a playroom. I had underestimated how brightly the sun comes in the windows!

Thanks all some good ideas here.
The washing does dry very quickly out there!

I will look into blinds

I dont dry washing in ours as ours is a reception room but occasionally I hae had to hang a white shirt in there to get a stain out, the sun through the window is excellent bleach.

I’ve always been sceptical of conservatories as lots of people say it’s too hot/cold. If you’re wanting it to be more usable could you get the blinds installed all over it? Or eventually put a proper roof on?

I don’t know how good a laundry room ours will be yet until we’re in but I’m hoping it’ll be ok.
We won’t be able to afford a proper roof so it could just be an empty room although the seller had their tumble drier and airer in there so 🤞