How to Furnish a Conservatory for Year-Round Use

Conservatories, garden rooms, and orangeries can be beautiful and tranquil spaces which are often filled with natural light. They’re the perfect connection between our indoor living spaces and the outdoors, which can be greatly beneficial to your overall well-being. However, in many cases, they can start to feel uninhabitable as soon as the temperatures drop. 

From being freezing cold, dark, and damp in the winter to scorching hot in the summer, a conservatory can be one of the most temperamental places in your home.

So, what can you do to get your money’s worth from your conservatory to keep it comfortable throughout the year? 

We’ve compiled some of our favourite decor ideas and structural updates to help you create a space that you can use comfortably year-round.

1. Hang Curtains or Blinds

Blinds and curtains don’t just add character to a room, but they also help to keep your conservatory warm in the cooler months. 

Choosing curtains of heavy material and dark colours can be tempting to get you through the winter months, but having longevity in mind is the key here. We recommend choosing a floor-to-ceiling style in a more neutral colour that works all year round in addition to blending in with your interior style. 

From soft greys to soothing beiges, these kinds of colours work with almost any interior, and they can be tied back to eliminate heat retention in the summer too.

2. Cosy Lighting

Beautiful lighting is a must in any home. Nobody wants harsh LED lights shining overhead, they’re unflattering and can make a room feel sterile. 

To combat this, we recommend opting for more cosy options and shifting the focus to lamps rather than ceiling lights. 

If you absolutely must have overhead lighting, choosing warmer bulbs over cooler-coloured options works best, and strategically installed strings of fairy lights or filament bulb-style lighting can really enhance the cost look, making a room feel more inviting and homely.

3. Choose the Right Rug

Most conservatories come installed with tiled or wooden flooring as standard. This is great in the summer as it can help to keep the room cool, but it can be a nightmare in the winter. 

Warm, deep-piled, and shaggy rugs are a great way of adding warmth underfoot. Not only do they help to retain warmth in the room itself, but they can also tie the overall interior style together if chosen correctly. 

Whether you desire a neutral-coloured rug with lots of texture to adhere to a Japandi style, or you’d prefer something more boho-chic, playing around with shape, colour, texture, and size can really help when finding the perfect rug for a space.

4. Play With Textures

Speaking of textures, choosing decor and furnishings with the right materials can enhance the comfort levels of your conservatory. 

Choose timeless soft materials like boucle and jute to bring a more natural feel to the room whilst remaining warm and cosy. Additionally, accessorise the room with blankets, cushions, and throws which can be used to snuggle up with on those more chilly nights. 

Furthermore, choose warm colours and earthy tones like warming terracottas and burnt oranges to really up the ante in the colder months.

5. Consider Installing Double or Triple-Glazing

Nobody wants to sit in Baltic conditions in the winter, and having single-glazed windows in your conservatory can mean that the room is basically unusable in the winter. 

The installation of double or triple-glazed windows is one of the best ways of keeping your property warm, quiet, and safe. 

They not only help you save money on your heating bills by significantly reducing heat transfer via your windows, but they also offer a number of further benefits that make them a great addition to your conservatory and the rest of your home.

Find out more about double glazing.

6. Update Your Roof

If your conservatory was built several decades ago, it is highly likely that it isn’t equipped with the modern design features we expect from newer builds. 

Thermal-efficiency technology enhances the design of newer conservatories, and replacing the roof of your older conservatory can mean the difference between suffering with a freezing cold vacuum of space in the winter and being able to comfortably enjoy your conservatory at any point in the year.

Find out more about conservatory roof replacements.

7. Don’t Clutter the Space with Furniture

If you have a smaller conservatory, it can be tempting to decorate in the same way you would if you had more space to play with. However, it is essential to not over-furnish the space as it can become difficult to navigate the room easily.

Avoid large items of conservatory furniture like wide sofas and cabinets and, instead, opt for smaller items which can be easily moved around if need be. 

Additionally, a large rug can help to zone an open-plan conservatory within a larger room.

8. Bring the Outdoors in With Plants

Make the transition from the outdoors to your home more seamless by filling your conservatory with plants. 

We recommend choosing plants with more structural shapes and to brighten any dull-looking corners with taller plants that reach towards the ceiling. 

Even if you can’t be outside due to our famous weather, you can always feel at one with nature by having beautiful fresh shades of green dotted throughout the room. 

You can also enhance the natural vibes with the inclusion of furniture made from rattan, jute, sisal, and other similar materials.

9. Choose Timeless Furnishings

Rather than having your extension seem like a completely different building from the rest of your home, you can make your conservatory an authentic continuation of your interior spaces by coordinating the decor correctly. 

Instead of having decor dedicated to summer or winter use, you can give it a greater sense of purpose, and more bang for your buck, by making it a room you can use every day. 

By continuing the flooring choices you’ve made throughout your ground floor and choosing furniture which matches the vibe throughout the rest of your home, you can unify the space to make it feel one with the rest of the property.

10. Maximise Space With In-Built Seating

Making sure to use every inch is key when making the most of smaller conservatories. Much of your conservatory will be covered with glazing, meaning that wall space can be quite limited. This means making the most of what space you do have is key. 

By using the lower section of a wall space below the windows, you can create in-built window seats which align with the shape of your conservatory. 

This can give you lots of useful seating around the perimeter of your space, and you can even create ones which have storage underneath the seating too, a great way of fitting more in when decorating a small conservatory.