Making the Most of Your Sunroom

You love the look and feel of your sunroom décor, but you also know it’s not the most comfortable room in your home. It’s either too hot, too cold or too drafty. Heating and cooling the room makes your energy bills go crazy, and on some days, using the room isn’t possible at all. Is it possible to extend the use of your sunroom without spending a fortune on furnishings, or ripping it down and starting all over?

Heating and Cooling

One of the biggest challenges in sunroom décor and design is making the room comfortable on a year-round basis. The sunlight that benefits your space in the winter is a disadvantage during the hottest summer days. Insulating drapes, blinds and ceiling fans provide adequate, low-cost cooling during the summer. You can also purchase a through-the-wall or window air conditioner, and skip costly central air.

The winter is more problematic, but with a media cabinet with a fireplace, you can instantly heat your sunroom without costly construction expenses and hassles. You’ll also enjoy having television and sound in your sunroom, which invites your family to use the room more frequently.

Choosing an Area Rug

Many sunrooms feature stone or brick floors that look beautiful and provide an interesting transition from the interior to the exterior of your home. Beautiful as they are, they’re also cold and not very welcoming. Add an area rug to your space to keep your toes toasty during cold winter months. You’ll also cut down on dirt and dust, and make the sunroom feel more like a room and less like an afterthought.

Choose a color scheme that complements the rest of your home, especially adjacent rooms. Your sunroom should feel like a natural extension of your interior.

Consider Exterior Solutions

Trees make an elegant solution to part of your sunroom problem. Not only are they beautiful to look at, but their shade also reduces the amount of solar energy that gets trapped in your home. A few well-placed trees not only protect your home, but they also add beauty and value to its exterior. Flowering trees, such as dogwood, cherry and magnolia, are particularly beautiful in spring. Evergreen trees are excellent if you’d like additional privacy on a year-round basis. Don’t forget to plant the trees far enough away from your exterior so their growth won’t be a problem.

Another option is an awning. Extending an awning over your exterior window provides a blanket of shade that prevents too much sun from entering your windows. Some awnings are permanent, while others are retractable. Retractable awnings can operate manually or with an electronic crank.

Need Help?

Don’t ignore your valuable sunroom space because you’re not sure how to manage the air temperature. Visit Just Cabinets, Furniture & More for more information on getting the most out of your sunroom.