Thursday, February 19, 2009

Sunroom--new approach




Since you will no longer need the sunroom as a playroom with the upstairs conversion, what about if you turned it into a mostly open, walled patio. It would be a great natural extension of living space. Instead of having the lr and den look into another closed off room, it would look onto a patio. 

I agree with you that it is awkward to have a window look into another room. This would be a good compromise. It is a porch that functions more like a room.

My neighbor is a gay architect--he did this and lined the top inside with rods for curtains. They stay open most of the time, but if you want to sit out there in your pjs, you could close them. 

I don't think this would be expensive--just removing windows/back door and leaving the corners.

Think of this space as a great place to have coffee in the a.m. or a place you can read while you watch the kids play in the backyard. You could also use it as a potting shed with a trunk disguised to place to put all your garden tools.  It would be a place to protect your tender plants in the winter. It would make it a more functional room. 

With cute potted plants (think pots of red and pink geraniums) and landscaping (sweet smelling star jasmine vine climbing the posts) it would make the view from the den window lovely. If you planted some gardenia bushes too, when you opened the door/windows in the spring it would smell lovely in that room.

I'll put some pics of plant possibilities in the next post.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

VERY INTERESTING! : ) Love love love the curtains all the way around.

And what would you think of the den turned library WITH the window still there. You could even put a place to sit in front of the window.

I'm coming around to your idea of keeping the windows and you are right, if you made that room more outdoorsy, then it would not be so awkward to have windows looking out.

Not sure about opening it to the elements by removing the windows. That would hard to keep clean. Plus, I'd planned to keep the pet food & water there and I might be inviting more 'pets' than mine!

But I could use it like a potting shed. I want to do pots of citrus plants there anyway. Also, I have cool wicker laundry baskets I could hand from the wall and add that drying rack or something like that. : )

You are so good at this Sally!

We leave in the morning for Paris! My mom just arrived today and we are busy packing. I'm not sure if I'll have internet access - I hope so!

love you so!!! oxox

Anonymous said...

VERY INTERESTING! : ) Love love love the curtains all the way around.

And what would you think of the den turned library WITH the window still there. You could even put a place to sit in front of the window.

I'm coming around to your idea of keeping the windows and you are right, if you made that room more outdoorsy, then it would not be so awkward to have windows looking out.

Not sure about opening it to the elements by removing the windows. That would hard to keep clean. Plus, I'd planned to keep the pet food & water there and I might be inviting more 'pets' than mine!

But I could use it like a potting shed. I want to do pots of citrus plants there anyway. Also, I have cool wicker laundry baskets I could hand from the wall and add that drying rack or something like that. : )

You are so good at this Sally!

We leave in the morning for Paris! My mom just arrived today and we are busy packing. I'm not sure if I'll have internet access - I hope so!

love you so!!! oxox