Home Tour – The Conservatory

You’ve had a sneak peak at the conservatory in my DIY project – storage seating bench post but this is going to show you the rest of the space.

The conservatory is the biggest room in the house, stretching across the entire back of our 1880’s detached house. It measures a whopping 8.33m x 3.7m. 

Anybody that’s had a conservatory will know that whilst absolutely beautiful, they can be a tad impractical in that they are boiling hot in the summer especially with a south-facing garden like ours (I once didn’t open any doors/windows & came back to melted candles!) OR ridiculously cold in the winter which makes them pretty much unusable with little people unless you all want to freeze to death.

This room has multi-purposes which although works brilliantly for family life, isn’t every interior lovers idea of a dream. I follow the design principle in that each room should have their specific purpose but with such a large space along with the need for practical living, i’ve had to let it slide…at least until the kids get older when I can get rid of their atrociously ugly toys. This room is a dining area, lounge area as well as a playroom.

 

 

 

 

The main use of this room is as a playroom. I keep all of Elsa & Rory’s toys (that they use on a daily basis) out there so I don’t have to have them in the main open plan kitchen/lounge area. During the day my little lady does tend to bring quite a few toys in so i’d be lying if I said that I didn’t spend half my time putting them back in to the conservatory but she generally is quite good. God help me when I have 2 of them doing that in a year’s time when Rory is walking.

 

We do have an air conditioning unit however haven’t actually used this yet as we tend to keep one set of french doors (the kitchen side) open which then filters the hot air into that space which stays pretty cool, along with leaving windows & doors open the second we get home. Another measure for temperature (& they look beautiful!) are the ceiling drapes/curtains which were done by my Mum from Ikea curtains & wooden poles. It is a bit of an insect graveyard up there but I try not to think about that eeeek.

 

Ideally we would want both sets of french double doors open, which we did for Rory’s christening to allow for more room & a ‘flow’ however this would use up a lot of valuable space so we keep those doors shut with a sofa in front & the toy area behind.

 

 

 

 

 

I’ll be doing a storage solution/de-cluttering/organisation post soon to show you how I manage to keep kids mess to a minimum 🙂