Conservatories- Naff?

I suppose there's conservatories and conservatories - those that come from a DIY shop and look like they've just been plonked on with no thought to how they'll look and those that have been designed to suit & compliment the existing building . My grandfather lived in a Victorian house with original conservatory featuring stained glass windows. It was wonderful. He grew his tomatoes in there, it smelt amazing.

We call ours a garden room anyway, it is brick and oak with a tiled roof so nothing like a conservatory. Loved by an architect we had round recently so fine with us.

We have a proper roof on ours with a velux window and it has central heating. It was made in hardwood and has beautiful arches - I still refer to it as a conservatory though..

so one (unnamed) person on the radio says something is naff and that automatically makes it a fact?

These ‘gurus’ who are the arbiters of ‘naffness’ get my goat! Is their good taste a given and always to be emulated!? It is up to the INDIVIDUAL (plenty out there I hope) to decide for themselves what they like and what fits in to their lifestyle. We are becoming SO ‘trend led,’ on so many fronts that we are forgetting that being different from the crowd is perfectly ok!

At first I thought the title was "Conservatives are naff"

Ooh I thought that's poshly polite- then I realised it said conservatories 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

My father built one on their bungalow years ago. It had a solid roof but was all single glazed glass. We always called it the lean-to. They would use it all day until it got cold out there, then closed the door and came inside. I went to look at the old place a few years ago, and a version of it was still standing.

Would love one, naff or not!

That is interesting, 4allweknow.

Love my conservatory. Had a "solid" roof fitted 4 years ago. Has a central heating radiator as well as a inverter type air conditioning unit. Had a wee dog at one time and as the whole back of the house gets a lot of sun was worried dog would be too hot when left alone. The unit is marvellous, cools within minutes and in the winter heats up to 22 within 5 mins. Conservatory is 14 x 12. Next we will be told baths in bathrooms are naff.

And those large top-hinged windows with the flimsy aluminium struts to keep them open. If they once get blown closed by a sudden strong wind, the struts never quite work right again.

I love a conservatory. What I don't like are those hinged doors that get left open all day in the summer, then get impossible to close in the evening because they've dropped on their hinges 😡

Callistemon21

^Mansard addition^

Well, I had to look that up Norah!

Inexpensive space, build upward.

We needed 2 more bedrooms and a bath.

TillyTrotter

I was in ours during a helluva hailstorm this afternoon and it was so noisy with the icy pellets falling on the roof in a nonstop rhythm for about 10 minutes.
Still snug and warm though.

No hailstorm today but we had a few last week. It's quite exciting to be in the conservatory with the hail pelting down outside.

I was in ours during a helluva hailstorm this afternoon and it was so noisy with the icy pellets falling on the roof in a nonstop rhythm for about 10 minutes.
Still snug and warm though.

Mansard addition

Well, I had to look that up Norah!

Fleur20 😁👏👏👏

I'm sitting in ours now having just got home, it's lovely and warm in here.

Oh I dream of naffness!!
I aspire to having a conservatory... and dont give a da.n what anybody thinks!!

annsixty

Surely our houses are our homes, to suit us and our lifestyle while we live in them.
Not assets only to have them styled with a view to what they will sell for in the future.
I love my conservatory, it is my main room from April onwards and always used at Christmas.
My friend could not use a bath so had a full width shower put in its place instead of listening to dire warnings that a bath was a selling point in a family sized house.
Should she live the next years being uncomfortable so that her family can inherit more?

Indeed. We're happy with every well thought out, well engineered additions made along the back of our old home.

We would've been forced to move house 50 years ago if we hadn't added lots of space - bathrooms, a laundry mudroom, Mansard addition, Conservatory (albeit with normal roof), and a huge garage.

No moving house, ours was purchased 60+ years ago to 'see us out'.

Callistemon21

Whitewavemark2

Mind you conservatories have been around for a few centuries, so I guess they’ve never really been out of fashion.

Rather like me - they never go out of fashion because they're never really in fashion.
🙂

🙂 my childhood house had a conservatory which was probably built at the beginning of the century. So I’ve never lived without one really.

annsixty

Surely our houses are our homes, to suit us and our lifestyle while we live in them.
Not assets only to have them styled with a view to what they will sell for in the future.
I love my conservatory, it is my main room from April onwards and always used at Christmas.
My friend could not use a bath so had a full width shower put in its place instead of listening to dire warnings that a bath was a selling point in a family sized house.
Should she live the next years being uncomfortable so that her family can inherit more?

annsixty states it perfectly.

Whitewavemark2

Mind you conservatories have been around for a few centuries, so I guess they’ve never really been out of fashion.

Rather like me - they never go out of fashion because they're never really in fashion.
🙂

Redhead56

Our conservatory looks directly on to my veg patch and lovely colourful garden I can sit and plan where my plugs and seeds go etc as I look at it. It brings light into a rather dark living room because of the position it’s in.
It adds value to the property its an additional place to sit. I am certain our children won’t sniff at the money they will inherit when it’s sold.

It's a lovely place to be to look out on the garden and think what you ought to be doing plan.

What Elegran says.
In fact all my rooms are multi-purpose, several things going on in a room.
Plants and back door clogs in the Conservatory, sewing machine in a bedroom, jigsaw on a dining table,
but it is home, it’s comfortable and we like it.

And surely we all need a place to sit in the sun when it is too cold and wet to go right outside to perch on a plastic garden chair for our dose of Vit D, whatever our space and budget?

Some of us can afford (and have space for) an orangery or a beautifully designed conservatory with sliding doors, elegant furniture and 8-foot high palms, others have to settle for an 8 x 6 rectangular box tacked on outside the kitchen door, where the plastic chairs fight for space with the welly boots, the trays of seedlings and the clothes horse of damp washing.

It isn't ALL about how much the house will make when it gets sold. Bear in mind that this pronouncement was made by estate agents. They buy and sell houses, they don't live in them all with normal families.