For people who love to spend time in their gardens, a conservatory that you can use as a dining room or extra living room is a real bonus. Spending time doing things like eating or just sitting and relaxing in a conservatory – which naturally is always on the back or the side of the house overlooking the garden – provides you with a real vantage point to admire the results of your hard work in the garden.
If you haven’t been using your conservatory as a ‘room’ before now, the likelihood is that it will have got filled up with stuff that doesn’t really belong there – outdoor toys, gardening equipment, maybe the washing basket and the kids’ bikes. To make it a real room, you need to remove any clutter and put in some storage so that everything can be tidied away.
You might consider getting a couple of oil filled radiators if you don’t have any heating in the conservatory, as this will make it useable year round. As a rule conservatories don’t need much decorating, but if yours is looking a bit tired, then a good spring clean will lift it. If it’s wooden framed, you might need to touch up the paintwork, but if you have PVC all you’ll need is some hot soapy water to make it look like new.
Depending on whether you’re going to make it an extra living room or dining room, if you go down to any furniture sale, you’ll be able to buy a couple of sofas or a cheap dining table and chairs to go in your conservatory. You might want to choose furniture made of natural materials like bamboo to add to the garden theme. Once you’ve got your new furniture in, you can fill the conservatory with your favourite potted plants to really make it the perfect mix of indoors and outdoors.