Many of us have a conservatory and a great addition to the home it can be, giving us valuable extra space to create a playroom, office or somewhere to sit and relax or eat meals with the family.
I love our conservatory as it helps to extend our back room. Because it’s not a completely glass structure (there are brick walls to both sides of the room) it feels more part of the house than just an add-on. It has fluctuated between being a play room, dining room, living area/office over the years, but for some time we’ve not been sure what to do with the space or how to decorate it.
It seems silly to have this useful area and not use it all that much, so we got our thinking caps on recently and decided it was time to create a relaxing zone – somewhere that feels warm and inviting and that is fully usable over the wintry months ahead.
But how to add that cosy feel? With all that glass, roof and window blinds would be good, but the cost is prohibitive for us right now. In the meantime there are other ways to bring about the change we’d like, such as:
Paint
Nothing alters the feel of a room quite like a different wall colour. Our walls were a spring-like greeny/yellow, which was nice over the summer months, but we wanted a darker, more earthy and organic paint colour, like a clay or stone shade that would hopefully lend the room a ‘cocooned’ feeling. We have opted for Johnstone’s Toasted Beige in this area as it is a warm neutral, with some depth and I am really pleased with the result.
Wallpaper
We decided to create a feature to wall to give the room some texture and warmth – the gorgeous Verdant Taupe from Graham & Brown is a great design – very bold, with it’s large, on-trend botanical motif, against quite a soft, neutral background shade and the feel of the paper is gorgeous – it’s fantastic quality for £15 per roll and almost looks as though you have a linen-type fabric on the wall.
Seating
We have never had any decent seating in this room; it always ends up with the leftovers from other rooms, so we knew a statement piece of furniture would provide somewhere stylish to sit and be key to giving this room its own identity, purpose and a smart focal point. It was therefore great timing when Habitat got in touch and offered us the opportunity to review a piece from their sofas and armchairs collection. With such a lot of choice in terms of design, fabric and colour, we used a process of elimination to make our final choice. We knew we didn’t want a compact armchair or a large sofa to dominate the space, so a brilliant compromise seemed to be one of their compact sofas. Slightly bigger than a large armchair, but not as cumbersome as a full size two or three seater sofa, it’s a fantastic option and we are looking forward to having the stylish Askem natural fabric compact sofa take centre stage in our new look cosy conservatory.
Lighting
Recently we introduced a great retro floor lamp and this has been a good start to improving the lighting and the mood in the room. A cosy table lamp is also on my shopping list and I am on the look out for something that will add an additional, welcoming glow. I am also a fan of string lights and think they can make a nice cosy addition in a conservatory too.
Accents
A lot of the home interior design magazines are featuring orange currently as a popular accent colour. It’s a lovely hue that we’ve used before and enjoyed the warmth and brightness it gives. It is ideal in small quantities. This brilliantly funky clock is a new acquisition that will be perfect in the room. A quality reproduction of the iconic George Nelson clock, it captures that lovely pop of orange (although it does also come in a couple of other stylish colours) and a fashionable starburst design. A quirky starburst clock or mirror always makes a good focal feature above a sideboard, chest of drawers, bed or mantelpiece. I think this clock looks really at home in our conservatory and gives a nice contrast to the muted wall colour.
More pops of orange will be coming in the form of some luxurious velvet cushions and we have also re-located our Louis de Poortere rug, which is a lovely burnt orange shade, from the front room so that will go nicely in our scheme also.
Plants
I plan to bring in some greenery as plants are a natural fit for a conservatory, yet they are something we’ve never really embraced before. Partly because we’re not good at remembering to water them, so maybe artificial is the way to go? Hopefully they should bring a lovely new element into the room for us to enjoy.
Part Two of this post will be coming soon with the full room reveal – watch this space!
This is a collaborative post – thanks to the brands that have worked with us to help complete our room makeover
