Sort It: Goodbye chilly conservatory and hello warm garden room

The importance of connecting our homes with the garden has increased in recent years. Early attempts to have an indoor outdoor space started with the conservatory. This was a very popular addition to homes in the 1960s and remained popular right into the 1980s.

I can understand why they were so popular, but they just didn’t function as part of the house. They were always accessed through a door from the main house, which reinforced the feeling that they were an addition. They were also too cold in the winter and too hot in the summer.

In recent years the conservatory has been replaced with the garden room. This has a more solid roof and some solid walls. Having windows on all sides of the room is unnecessary and as very few of us have panoramic views, it makes sense to have at least one solid wall. Not only will it shield views to the less attractive aspects of the garden but it will also provide a wall to place furniture along.

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In tonight's episode of The Design Doctors we renovate a house where there was a conservatory to the rear that was so uncomfortable to sit in winter and summer that it had yielded to the fate of most conservatories – it had become a storage space.

Space
The layout of the house had not changed since our clients Morlin and Martin bought it in the 1980s and it simply was not working for them. The kitchen was small and dark and had no direct access to the garden. Morlin enjoys cooking and loves her garden and there was no space for the family to congregate.

The living room and dining room were open to each other, making the room difficult to relax in as the space was too big and lacked intimacy. Our brief was to create a quiet room where Martin could retreat to and read; and to create a better functioning kitchen and dining area.

We wanted this area to have great access to the garden and be a space where Morlin could cook, entertain and spend time with family and friends.

We knocked down the wall between the old kitchen and the dining room to create a kitchen dining area across the back of the house, allowing us to connect with the garden. By doing this we created a separate sitting room to the front of the house.

We knocked the conservatory and replaced it with it with a garden room that opened directly onto the kitchen.

As part of the show we spent an afternoon in Kilruddery house and gardens – what a beautiful place, and a glorious example of a house connecting with a garden.

The stunning orangery which adjoins the house is a perfect example of the structure that the conservatory was modelled on.

What’s interesting about the orangery is that although the roof is completely glazed, many of the walls are solid, which makes the space more comfortable to be in than a completely glass room.

For the colour scheme we took our cues from the garden, opting for warm earthy greys and soft greens that we contrasted with copper tones, making the space feel very calm and restful and most importantly, very connected to the outdoors.

Tune in tonight at 8.30pm on RTÉ 1 to see the programme.