Sunroom design choices to fit with your home

There are many, many design choices that could be made when choosing your new sunroom. Some of the more fundamental ones are what its overall use will be and how well you want it to blend into the existing property and garden.

House or Garden?

When considering whether to build a sunroom you have to think about what you want to achieve with the room. Typically you will be trying to do one of two things

Extend the existing home living space out into the garden and surrounding view.
Bring the garden and outside into a sheltered room.

This will effect the design and style of sunroom you should end up with.

Live in the garden

For example if you desire to push the living space your into the garden, whilst maintaining the comfort and security of being inside, then the decor, internal roof design and flooring will probably match or at least strongly compliment that of the adjacent room. The furniture will also probably be no different to what you would find inside anyones home - although be careful of the effects of strong light and heat on them.

Bring the garden inside

Or perhaps you like being in the garden but want to effectively stay outside either longer into the evenings or in different seasons but wish to keep away the insects and cold winds and rain. In this case the design could reflect the garden and patio/decking directly outside the sunroom. So perhaps a ceramic or stone paved floor and lots of plants in the sunroom with furniture more similar to what you would expect in the garden or on the patio.

Blends in with the existing house

One of the most important aspects of the design of any sunroom, conservatory or even a porch is how well it sits with the design of an existing house. Whilst it is unlikely that the rest of your home will be made of glass there are features that can be built in to the sunroom to smooth the transition from home to sunroom addition.

If you have a brick or stone built house then either build the base of the sunroom using the same brick or stone as your home or take some aspect of the building material, maybe in the floor color into the design of the sunroom.
Try to mimic the stature of the main building in the type of posts or columns used in the main sunroom framework.
Even with a large sunroom addition it can look like part of the original house build if the pitch and design of the roof matches that of the main house.
Match any design and color of fascias from the main building in the sunroom

Contrasts with the existing house

Of course everything in life doesn't have to flow smoothly from one thing to another. Opposites can work well sitting next to each other as well. An all glass solarium style room next to a natural timber built house can look superb especially in Winter.

Designs that 'age' quickly

More often than not a sunroom or conservatory is added long after a house has been built and the gardens have been laid out and matured. There will be a period of time when it just look 'new'. You may or may not like this but if you wish for it to be part of the existing look of the house then it will need to look the same age. To increase the speed of this you can

Use natural materials like stone flooring or synthetics that have been treated to look like stone. The natural materials are millions of years old anyway and apart from having fresh quarry marks on them will soon look like they've been there forever.
Use the same floor inside and out for a look of continuity again it appears like the house was built like this in one go.
Try to soften any changes to the landscape with plants (if need be buy older plants that have already got a good start).
Extend flower borders around the new sunroom addition or create new ones that take in the sunroom and the house.

Conclusions

Design is all about personal taste. Whatever your tastes are think carefully about what you want to achieve with the use and look of your sunroom before you start building and using it.