How do you Use your conservatory?

[combust22]

I have just moved to a house with a large conservatory- no furniture in it yet- thing is I'm not sure how best to use the space.
How do you use yours? I do love plants but don't want it to become a greenhouse, do you have sofa and chairs and coffee table?
My ex neighbour used it for her OHs pool table and as an ironing room which seems a waste.

I have never had a conservatory before and not quite sure how to use the space.

Theas- good tip. I don't like the cane/rattan stuff at all, not obligatory I hope? My new ( slightly hippy friend) has hers done in a Moroccan style, with wood burner, rich fabrics, low seating rugs and and cushions. I haven't seen it yet but sounds interesting.

ours has a sofa and coffee table in it - normal furniture not cane, but the sofa is slowly rotting in the sunlight.

we use ours as a playroom mostly for the 'big' toys like the toy kitchen, play tent, train set etc. we put a car track rug down on the floor to make it more homely as it could be quite a bare space otherwise.

ours too gets too hot in the summer and pretty cold in the summer. i use it for drying the nappies too.

the children like it. before kids i used it for afternoon tea and chilli growing!

Ours is used as a dining room one end andthe other end has a sofa and tv which dsd uses in the evening

Plants
Plants
Plants
Plants
Orchids, Ferns, Succuluents, Tillandias, Sundews, Heliamphoras, Cycads
we built it for that
BUT
it has boring heating ready for when we sell the house

Ive just realised that, that might sound bad, dsd is 16 so we are uncool and our programmes are apparently boring, shes not forced to sit out there by herself, im a nice step-mum I promise

Ours is huge and in one half we have a long dining table and in the other half we have a settee, a small bookcase with school books and the dc's toy boxes. Great space for play tents and laying out train tracks/scalextric etc. It means that when the dc were young, we were able to keep the sitting and dining rooms toy free.

Ours is in use all year round - no extreme temps. It is south facing. It's never been too hot and has under floor heating and a large radiator and joins an extension so is 2 sides conservatory and 2 sides house. I love it.

We inherited our one. It was massive and south facing - unbearably hot in Summer, freezing in winter. We explored options such as re-roofing, under floor heating etc. In the end we knocked it down and built a proper room. Best thing we ever did.

Building regs changed in 2010 and since then it has been almost impossible to get permission to integrate a conservatory with the main house because it will reduce the thermal efficiency of the house. As I understand it, as long as you have external type doors between the main house and conservatory, it doesn't count as part of the house. So knocking through or taking the doors out is no longer an option.

If you can't replace it, buy the best blinds you can afford, and be peepared to spend a fortune on heating in the winter.

talkinpeace- sounds amazing- do you have a photo?

As you already have a dining room and no longer need a play room I would use the space as a less formal sitting room/ lounge area, somewhere to take your morning coffee/breakfast or perhaps sit and read your mail/ sort your paperwork. Try not to use it as dumping ground, give the space a purpose and enjoy it.

Thanks always- I do want I as a leisure space. I already have an office set up in the converted garage to do my paperwork- I work from home anyway. so will focus on using it as a relaxing room.

As a playroom but we made sure ours had a polarised glass roof so it stays an even temperature all year round . We are moving soon and I will miss looking at the stars but the new house has an orangery so hopefully I can still get the same effect .

Ours is 5mx4m . We didn't build it and I would rather have a proper extension to my small kitchen but it's too good to demolish and we use it almost all the time anyway.

We have a dining table & chairs, a sofa, small bookcase, small sideboard and small tv. The cat sleeps in there. We have our breakfast out there from April - Nov and eat out there most of the year. I'm sitting out there now looking at the garden

It has a large radiator but we do supplement the heating at the coldest times. It's south facing but full blinds and a ceiling fan keep it manageable on the very rare hot days.

Lego

We will be using ours as a play room

The conservatory is MY room bi have my desk/office there, some music and 2 comfy chairs.
As any conservatory, it will get got in summer if you keep the door closed and cold in winter. But a nice decent heater will solve that problem.

I love that room. It's light, fresh. I have a nice view of the garden. Tbh I spend all my time there well whatever time I have for myself

Ours gets sun all morning, but is lovely and shady in the afternoon.
It looks over the whole (small) garden.
We have a big corner sofa in there, a couple of photos and a t.v. that's it, I hate clutter and don't like plants in the house.
We have drinks in there/read/internet and occasionally DC watch tv. My dog loves sitting in there as it's lovely and warm first thing.
It's a nice room which we use a lot.
I only moved here last year and haven't had any blinds put in, but not sure that I'll bother as it looks nice without and very private.
It has heating too.

we love ours and it gets used all year round.
were a mid terrace, so a proper extension would have made the middle of our house far far too dark. its set up as a second reception room. sofa, coffee table, book case and tv.
its great. especially with kids, it means we have the option to get some peace and quiet.
ours is brick built one side, then dwarf wall then french doors on the 3rd side.
its got heating, but we never use it, as soon as there is a bit of sun, even on a snowy day it is glorious.