One of the most common projects our clients approach us about is a garden room. Not only does a glazed extension increase the size of your home, it also creates a seamless link with the garden as the boundaries between outside and inside become pleasingly blurred.
The minimal sightlines of Minima’s slimline sliding doors allow our clients to maximise their views and enjoy their garden rooms all year round, whatever the weather.
Here, we guide you through the different types of garden room you might be considering, as well as giving tips on furnishing and styling your new space.
Although some people refer to a stand-alone building in a garden as a ‘garden room’, for the purposes of this article we’re talking about a room attached to a property which is glazed on two or three sides. This room might alternatively be called a sunroom or an orangery, and it may well incorporate a roof lantern or skylights to flood the space with even more light.
The main thing to think about is how you are going to use your garden room. Will it be for reading or relaxing? Or maybe you want to use the space for entertaining? Once you’ve got the function pinned down, you can start thinking about how to orientate the space to make the best of your garden views. And it’s also worth thinking about furniture positioning early on, so you can decide where to place essentials such as lighting and electric sockets.
The other thing to consider is whether you want your garden room to blend in with the existing style of your property or become a contrast between old and new. The latter is becoming increasingly popular as people opt for a ‘glass box’ style extension with full glazing. The benefit of this approach is an increase in the amount of light flooding into your home, as well as the creation of a striking, contemporary look.
Depending on the age and location of your property, it’s worth noting that
many glazed extensions don’t require planning permission because they can be built within permitted development rights.
Pro Tip: Visit planningportal.co.uk for further planning information and advice
So, you’ve decided you want to add a garden room extension to your home, but what type should you go for? A big part of this decision comes down to the property itself. If your home already has a distinctive style such as a stone or red brick facade, you may want to replicate this in the design of your garden room. Likewise, if you have a contemporary building with a rendered exterior, you might choose to continue this look for your extension.
Many traditional garden rooms incorporate timber frames and exposed beams, a style which works really with a country farmhouse or old stone cottage. These touches create a rustic, homely feel in keeping with the aesthetic of the original property.
Alternatively, you might want to create a dramatic contrast with a contemporary ‘glass-box’ structure. This kind of design allows plenty of natural light to flow in your home, and the frame colour of your sliding doors can be tailored according to the palette of the property’s exterior. Our award-winning product, the aluminium Ultraline sliding door system, comes in a choice of four different colours – all with marine-grade powder coating as standard.
To make your garden room even lighter, you might choose to incorporate a lantern in the roof or add in some skylights.
It makes sense with a garden room to let the views take centre stage. That’s why at Minima we’re all about providing more view and less frame. A combination of slim profile frames (ours measure just 20mm all the way around) and large pane sizes (up to 4.2 metres wide per panel) allows us to achieve minimal sightlines for our clients.
A stylish, glazed extension incorporating slimline aluminium sliding doors is a great way to achieve uninterrupted views of the garden and a seamless link between inside and out. With the doors open in the summer months, you can move effortlessly between the garden and the interior. And in the colder months, the doors become virtually invisible when closed. Allowing you to enjoy beautiful frosty views of the garden from the warmth and comfort of your well-insulated garden room.
The key thing when it comes to styling your garden room is to reflect its purpose and location in the pieces you choose. Most people use their garden room as an additional space in which to relax and entertain, so it’s important to choose furniture that will be comfortable and welcoming for both you and your guests.
When it comes to materials, fabrics and colours, the most effective garden rooms reflect the green spaces around them. So it’s worth thinking about ‘bringing the outside in’ with natural materials such as wood, linen, rattan and bamboo.
If you’re creating a relaxed dining area in your garden room, Neptune has some lovely pieces in a range of natural materials. Try the Chichester oak table for a classic English country house look, teamed with shaker-style Suffolk chairs.
If lounging is more your thing, head to OKA for a pair of super comfy Tarma Sheki Olive sofas with their tasselled, botanical design. Then why not combine them with wood-and-rattan Abaneri Side Tables and Calabash Rattan Table Lamps. Simply add in a few over-sized house plants to emphasise the link to the great outdoors and your outside-in look is good to go.
Looking for sliding doors with minimal sightlines for your garden room?
Give the sliding door experts at Minima a call to find out more about the award-winning Ultraline sliding door system.