Considering a conservatory? Think about these things first

Considering a conservatory? Think about these things first

One of the most popular home improvements that we can think of is the addition of a conservatory to a home’s existing structure. Many people are under the mistaken assumption that a conservatory is nothing more than a fancy title for a greenhouse. This isn’t the case. Conservatories may be fantastic additions to your house – provided you build them correctly, of course, and with care.

Warm roof conservatories make excellent additions to a home since they provide a more soothing and comfortable environment than many other rooms in the house, or even the immediate exterior of your backyard, for example. While being surrounded by unobstructed views of your garden while you read, eat, or simply lounge about is a pleasant experience, there’s something particularly appealing about not having to go outdoors!

The construction of a conservatory is the first step toward completing a great home improvement project, so get started right now. In order to construct one, you must first determine whether or not you’re permitted to do so. Even if you own the property outright, you may be required to obtain certain permissions in order to carry out your plans. Check with your local council to make sure they have no objections to you installing a conservatory on your property.

If you don’t own the property, you’ll need to get permission from your landlord before you can do anything. They could even be willing to put in the effort and financial resources to complete the task. Conservatories can add a significant amount of value to a home, though you should be cautious about assuming that they’ll pay for themselves immediately.

Before beginning any significant project, you must ensure that all of the relevant personnel have been scheduled and are readily available. As a starting point, you may require assistance with the installation of copper earthing rods, the connection of your new room to an electrical power source and any plumbing work that may be required.

When you’re in the early stages of planning, we recommend that one of the first things you think about is temperature management and regulation. When it comes to creating a conservatory, many people overlook this component of the process and they may end up paying a high price as a result. In the summer, it’s essential to have reliable ventilation to keep it cool because the warm rays of the sun and the surrounding glass combine to create an extremely warm environment! Nonetheless, you should take into consideration the winter, when your conservatory might become quite cold. The best materials for your conservatory are those that are designed to regulate the temperature. However, you must also evaluate the strength of the material as well as its overall appearance. Many individuals don’t want it to stand out too much from the rest of the house!

Following that, you’ll be able to explore the more enjoyable areas of interior design. Take care to ensure that your conservatory feels like the valuable addition to your home that it is. You can go futuristic and extravagant or more classic and comfy. Don’t be scared to make your time and money count by doing something worthwhile!

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Why you should consider building a conservatory

Why you should consider building a conservatory | H is for Home

Home-owners everywhere have either been building conservatories, or buying houses with conservatories for years. There’s something about them that we just love. It might be said however that they are perhaps becoming a slight thing of the past, tending not to feature within more modern houses.

But with everything a conservatory has to offer, this shouldn’t be the case. Here are a few reasons why conservatories should be part of your property tick-list…

Lean-to conservatory

They let in natural light

Did you know that we need natural light to keep our circadian rhythm in check? Nothing affects our mental well-being quite as positively as natural light. What better way to get that natural light inside your home than with a conservatory? On a beautiful summer’s morning when it might not be quite warm enough to sit outside with your breakfast and coffee, a conservatory serves as a snug second best to flood your home with natural light to start the day right.

And even in the winter when many of us are battling with a case of the SADs, instead of heading outside for a walk to get your daily dose of daylight and getting cold and wet, walk into your conservatory and you’ll feel as if you’re outside without being exposed to the harsh winter weather.

Dining table in a conservatory

They give you extra living space

A conservatory is, of course, an extension of your home. It gives you an extra room to store your belongings, to enjoy and make your own and to host your guests. What you do with the extra space is totally up to you. Whether you turn it into a playroom for your children to avoid them slowly taking over your living room with toys, or perhaps a little cosy haven for you to escape to with a glass of wine in the evening.

Whatever it is you decide on, turn your conservatory into a space that you love and that you can really enjoy. With all that natural light, we think that they are best used as living spaces for the whole family to enjoy.

Conservatory viewed from a garden

They add value to your home

Unless you intend on living in your house forever, any big changes or additions you make to your home should really mean added value so that you can make your money back when you sell it on. The housing market is incredibly competitive and buyers are always looking for that extra bit of something. A conservatory could well be the thing that puts you ahead of the other houses in your area.

With that in mind, a conservatory needs to be of good quality. If you can budget it in, opt for anti-glare glass, a glass roof rather than polycarbonate and good quality domestic concrete for the structure.

Conservatory with glass roof and walls

They can be an extension of your garden

A conservatory bridges the gap between the indoors and the outdoors. One of their most attractive features is that they retain heat, so can feel somewhat tropical and exotic in the warmer months. This makes it the perfect environment for plants to thrive. In fact, this is why they were originally designed.

If you fancy yourself as a bit of a gardener and want to grow your own vegetables, why not set up a little area in your conservatory for all your seeds? Plus, plants are great for the air quality, making your conservatory all the more relaxing.

Evening light into a conservatory

You can cosy up in the winter

Even though conservatories come into their own in the summer, winter is also a fantastic time to enjoy them too. The only challenge you’ll need to overcome is keeping it warm as they can get very cold. Ensure that you have the means to heat it sufficiently during the colder months so that you can enjoy it all year round.

Picture this; it’s gloomy and raining and you’ve got nothing else to do but curl up under blankets in your conservatory with a warm drink and a book. You can hear the wind and rain outside but you’re snug and warm. Sounds perfect right? Make yourself the perfect little cosy corner to enjoy in the colder months and be sure to kit your conservatory out with rugs and throws to retain the heat.

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Get their look: Inviting sun room

 

 
 
 
 
 
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We could spend hours in this inviting sun room. It looks like the perfect place to read a good book – or to watch life unfold in the garden, perhaps listening to music or just pottering around.

The space is so light and airy, with a long bank of windows, roof lights and huge wall mirror. It’s filled with natural materials and various houseplants (in all manner of interesting containers). We also like the re-purposed ladder to hang them off.

The flooring suits perfectly. We’ve used a similar slate tiles to these in the past. They’re all from the same piece of rock, but the variations in colour, shades and tone is amazing. As you pull each one from the box you think, “I can’t lay this green coloured one next to this red coloured one”; but you just keep going… and then, when you look back at the finished floor, it looks great.

And once you’ve decided which part of the sun room looks most inviting, there’s no end of comfy looking seats from which to choose!

  1. Vintage reclaimed wooden ladders
  2. Black Toast All Over teapot
  3. Livistona Australis cushion
  4. Tropical bird cushion
  5. Agave cushion
  6. ALSEDA banana fibre footstool
  7. 3/4 seater microsuede LHF corner sofa in brown
  8. LOHALS flatwoven rug

Get their look: Inviting sun room | H is for Home

Get their look

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LOHALS rug
LOHALS rug
3/4 seater microsuede LHF corner sofa in brown
3/4 seater microsuede LHF corner sofa in brown
Agave cushion
Agave cushion
Tropical bird cushion
Tropical bird cushion
Livistona Australis cushion
Livistona Australis cushion
Black Toast All Over teapot
Black Toast All Over teapot
Vintage reclaimed wooden ladders
Vintage reclaimed wooden ladders
ALSEDA banana fibre footstool
ALSEDA banana fibre footstool
LOHALS rug
LOHALS rug
3/4 seater microsuede LHF corner sofa in brown
3/4 seater microsuede LHF corner sofa in brown
Agave cushion
Agave cushion
Tropical bird cushion
Tropical bird cushion
Livistona Australis cushion
Livistona Australis cushion
Black Toast All Over teapot
Black Toast All Over teapot
Vintage reclaimed wooden ladders
Vintage reclaimed wooden ladders
ALSEDA banana fibre footstool
ALSEDA banana fibre footstool

6 reasons using glass to improve your home is a great idea

Large circular window

Are you looking for the best way to improve your home?

Perhaps you want a new kitchen, you’ve eyed up a new colour scheme, you’re saving for a new bath, or you want your garden redone?

All great ideas, but, they might not necessarily give you the best value for money. There’s one addition to your home that can give you a wide range of benefits including:

  • Increasing home value
  • Increasing the liveability of the home
  • Increasing how eco-friendly a property is
  • Bumping up energy efficiency
  • Improving how aesthetically pleasing a home is

That addition is glass. Read on for 6 reasons using glass to improve your home is a truly fantastic idea.

Angular windows

1. Living in a home with lots of glass could improve your health

Our homes have a lot to do with our health, because they offer us protection, a space to express ourselves, and a place to rest and socialise.

Using a lot of glass in the home like floor to ceiling windows, glass connecting doors and glass roof windows can help you optimise the health benefits of your home. The benefits all relate to the circadian rhythm we all have naturally. This rhythm connects us to the sun and helps us regulate when we sleep and wake properly.

A glass home enables you to have natural light flooding in, satisfying some of your most basic human needs.

Wall of sliding glass doors

2. More glass means more beauty

Glass is a gorgeous material that lets the light pour into a home.

The most modern homes use glass to create an aesthetically pleasing, light and airy space. This is still quite a new change in home design, as a lot of the last 100 years of home design was obsessed with creating more rooms and contained areas. Different rooms for dining, sleeping, living, washing and anything else where necessary for a home to be desirable. Now, open plan living and ‘zoned’ spaces are key to a contemporary home fitting the needs of modern home buyers.

Glass lends itself to open plan living, and without a doubt creates a more beautiful home fit for the demands of home-owners today.

Greenhouse extension

3. Glass extensions add value

According to recent reports, extensions such as conservatories or glass box style rooms can add around 3% onto the value of your property. Any addition that adds space is likely to be of value, but glass extensions like orangeries and conservatories are very desirable because they are so modern and beautiful.

Attic bedroom with circular window and skylights

4. Windows could improve energy efficiency

You may think that having more windows or glass in the home will only decrease energy efficiency through leaking heat out of the building, but the most modern windows can actually increase the energy efficiency of your home overall. Triple glazed windows use three sheets of glass with gas filled gaps in between to keep heat in. If you also get a Low E glass and special glass coatings which keep the heat in even more, your home will let more light in and retain the heat inside. So, a home with more windows that are eco-friendly types will at the very least maintain a good energy efficiency rating, but possibly even improve the rating of the home because there are active products keeping the heat in.

Glass lean to

5. Glass in the home keeps you happy

Many different studies suggest that we are all happier when we are interacting with nature. MIND UK, a UK mental health charity, actively promote eco-therapy, a programme that involves being outdoors to improve mental health. The Japanese government is also a fan of using the outdoors to help with mental health, actively endorsing something called forest therapy, which is another version of eco-therapy.

Many studies suggest being in nature makes us happier, and part of that can be simply being able to see nature. Seeing your garden through your beautiful external bi-folding doors, or across the local area from your loft extension window, reminds you of the outdoors and that you’re part of nature and something bigger.

Internal glass sliding doors

6. Glass in the home improves airflow

It may sound basic, but good airflow in a home is actually really important. At its most basic, it provides more fresh oxygen for you to breathe in and benefit from as a family. It also improves the air quality in your home by working against condensation which causes mould, which in turn releases nasty spores into the air that can contribute to respiratory issues.

New build homes are exceptionally energy efficient but they can suffer from being so energy efficient they don’t let the building breathe. Having plenty of windows to open and close means you have the ability to control airflow in your home, contributing to a happier, healthier environment.

Glass really is an exceptional addition to any home. If you want to benefit from a happier, healthier, more valuable, more eco-friendly home, look into adding or improving glass features next time you plan your home improvements.

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