If you have a small conservatory 11'3 x 7'3 what do you do in it?

[SarfEast1cated]

We are looking a house near us and are thinking of putting in an an offer. The house has a tiny conservatory which they are currently using as place for their cats to hang out. I don't think it's heated, so it will I'm sure be cold in the winter and hot in the summer. What the heck can we do with it, short of knocking it down and starting again!

Put a dehumidifier in there & use it for drying washing & keeping crap in??

Squishy sofa - books - radio - heater or radiator for winter

Magi that is inspired! fabulous idea, a dehumidifier with sort out condensation too.
Sally nice idea, but it seems very grey and cold and not at all enticing.
I thought about some shelves with brightly coloured glass vases on them to brighten it up a bit.

Drying washing and storing firewood

We knocked ours down. Sapped all the light from the living rooms which much nicer with proper French doors ] looking straight onto the garden. Currently wondering if we can remortgage to extend again (already done into the roof) to do a proper extension but don't miss the useless conservatory. Ours was particularly nasty though!

The house itself is pretty small already, so this extra room could be useful, just not really sure how. Washing sounds best so far!

Knock it down and replace with a deep, glazed bay window, with glazed roof and French door. It then becomes part of the room and brings in light, would be warm. Building regs required, but usually not planning permission.

We knocked ours down and made it into a proper extension.

Tis knocking down and rebuilding business sounds expensive. Really appreciate your suggestions. Thanks all.

We hired a skip and took ours down ourselves, as long as you have regard for safety aspect, it was fun!

The building of the bay, by reputable local firm was £6000. Well worth it.

Ours is much the same size, unheated, outdoor light and sockets in one place.

It permanently houses dining table, chairs and tumble dryer. Oh, and I left up the string of soft white Christmas lights, they look nice.

It temporarily houses toolboxes, recycling boxes and bags.

Winter: we have a heater and use it occasionally for eating or playing board games. I also use it to de-clutter the house, stuff gets taken in there and comes out to be used or gets recycled, taken to charity or thrown. So it is currently a messy work in progress.

Summer: we eat in there. I use it as a craft and sewing space and we both use it as a home office. De cluttering and recycling on a smaller scale takes place all year round.

I would iron in there, but there is no telly. But I do sort clothes in there, so it also often has piles of clothes to be ironed, recycled, taken to charity or thrown.

We did think it would be a bit of a useless space but it has turned out to be an active junk room that actually gets sorted and emptied regularly as well as a dining room and craft/DIY space (I forgot, DH uses it for DIY prep all year round - it has slate flooring and is easy to clean).

We had a conservatory like this many years ago and couldn't afford to knock it down and replace it. We used it like a utility room as suggested above.

It was really handy!

Summer - dry laundry
Winter- store veg

All year - store indoor recycling bins, charcoal, shoes

We are renting, if we owned would do away with it

Sofa tv. Used as extra sitting room occasionally and all the time in the good weather.

We used our for bikes, laundry and crap until we moved. In that sense I don't miss it as I have accumulated lots of crap in those years!

Where is it in relation to the sitting room, and are there doors from the sitting room into it? You don't want to be sitting in your sitting room staring at piles of washing and logs drying, do you?

If it's tucked out of the way, however, then washing and firewood seems a good idea. We used to have a lean-to conservatory, about 12' by 5', and we used it for all the crap stuff we couldn't fit elsewhere

The conservatory leads off if the kitchen so the utility room idea would work. Seems a shame though.

Would def use as utility from your pictures. Add washing machine and dryer, saving space in kitchen. Add cupboards either side to store all spare stuff like loo roll and laundry baskets and Hoover. Have it all hidden behind cupboards if possible with work top.

Looking at that plan I would use it in the same way as ourblanche suggested.

And if you stay there & have some money I would think it would be easy to knock it down & turn it into a proper dining room, coming off the kitchen & have your reception room as just a sitting room.

I am assuming that a conservatory has proper foundations laid, which would knock a lot off an extension.

There's a small chunk of the year when it won't be too warm/cold to use it to eat/sit in.

It will also be great for bringing on seeds & overwintering plants.

That seems very similar to ours. I keep laundry, toolboxes etc below the eye line so all we can see is the table, which is kept partially set all year round: table runner, heat mats, place mats etc.

It sometimes has sewing machine and craft stuff out there, but I make a point of clearing what I can at the end of a session. So it always looks used if someone visits rather than abandoned to junk.

If you persist and try lots of possibilities you will find something that works well for you. It's too nice a space not to

We have a large conservatory that is open to our kitchen (freezing when it's cold - previous owners bright idea!
It needs knocking down and an extension putting up, but we would be lost without the space. It currently stores our fridge freezer, dining table, pantry cupboard, toys and all our biking clobber. The floor is filthy (white tiles, mucky grout) all the time, so it irritates me no end! We use it all year round.

I'm desperate for a decent secure shed, habing 4 mountain bikes next to you when you're sat eating tea is no fun!