Conservatories- Naff?

Do people actually care what others think? I don’t give a stuff 🤣

I don’t have a conservatory at our house because our lounge leads straight on to the garden and we have huge patio doors and a window on one side and a 13ft window on the other, so it is always warm and sunny.

We do have a conservatory on another small property we let for holidays, which was already there when we bought it. Loads of people leave comments in the Visitors book that they have enjoyed sitting in there with the doors open and hearing the birds singing. Naff or not, people like it and it’s an extra room.

I don't much like conservatories, I much prefer going straight out into the garden and I have 2 sets of french doors which makes the house wonderfully cool in the hot months.. but I do love the sound of Kittylesters upstairs room..

I would be unlikely to even view a house with a conservatory, unless it was obvious that it could be easily removed.

I do like small glazed extensions, glass corridors, and some little greenhouse-style conservatories on upper floors.

I, however, am not some kind of style arbiter, so wouldn’t describe anything as naff, just because it’s not to my taste.

I’d love one but probably not practical for us when you get the Summer heat. We do have an overhanging roof so we can sit on the deck upstairs as well as downstairs. Some enclose them but we never have.

DIL has a large one ideal as extra space for her 4 kids.
I have 2 one at the rear for washing machine, dryer, freezer and plants, one as a sun room on the side, I’m sitting now looking at my garden and the birds feeding. When the family visit the children take over the conservatory, adults use the lounge.

I’m an old person I suppose - we’re in our 70s - but that doesn’t mean I want anything in my life that I identify with old people! Such as a conservatory!

And what's wrong with old people GSM ?
There are some naff looking ones, I agree.
A porch with a glass roof that noone ever uses because it's a goldfish bowl, boiling in summer and freezing in winter or a conservatory built on the north side which looks shaded and chilly.

grandMattie, - I do agree about 'islands' - I have a table and chairs and wouldn't be without them.

Who wants to stand and work in the kitchen - or balance on a bar stool? I'll sit in comfort and peel the veg, with my tea and radio next to me.

Pet hates? High gloss anything, grey anything - and cold tiled floors without underfloor heating.

Our bungalow has two! So is that £30K off then? One is our utility/table tennis/sewing room, the other is currently full of overwintering plants and seedlings as well as really comfortable chairs.
A solid roof is on the long list of 'projects'!

I remember the roll top bath of my early childhood!
Icy cold - presumably cast iron? The water never stayed warm enough for comfort and very stained under the taps too. And anything which rolled under the bath was lost for ever.
My mum was never so happy as when she got a “modern” bathroom with a boxed in bath!

That's just silly. Who decides these things? I've never had a conservatory but would love one, naff or not.

Fashions come, fashions go…
My pet hates ATM are the obligatory kitchen islands and roll top baths. My taste, not yours!

We spend all the time in ours. What it does is to give your brain access to light all the time, which is good for many reasons. But apart from that on chilly sunny days like we’ve had recently, you can sit in the balmy sunshine enjoying the warmth and light amongst the indoor plants - so relaxing.

Can’t stand the things. They scream ‘old people’ to me.

Calendargirl, just call it a 'glass extension' and it will be an asset, the height of fashion. I call mine a 'garden room' as it's full of plants.

A neighbour (next door but one) had an old extension knocked down and a beautiful conservatory replaced it. They then sold the house. The new conservatory was promptly removed - and replaced by an extension!

We have a wooden floors, full central heating and aircon for the summer, we use ours all year round. We opted for Pilkington Glass roof which shrugs off anything that might land on the roof, I can’t remember what it was called, but it was over 20 yrs ago, our footings go down almost 4 ft so if an extension was needed and the conservatory pulled down it would be an easy build.

Calendargirl

Just heard on the radio that having a conservatory is now the height of ‘naffness’, and can knock £15000 off the value of your property.

Oh dear! Well, if we ever put our house up for sale, the conservatory will have to be designated either ‘the sun room’ or ‘the garden room’.

A rose by any other name….

I assume it's simply someone's subjective opinion rather than the result of a national poll?

I realise there's a huge variety of design in these rooms (each to their own) - but what is intrinsically 'naff' about owning a conservatory I wonder?

I cannot imagine that having one would actually knock down the price of your home - it's another space that can be utilised.

Do I have one? No - but I have a utility room (small) with a high glass roof where I stick all my plants that have grown too tall to be accommodated in the rest of the house... and visitors call it a conservatory.

Ekwanimitee most new housing estates have a clause that nothing can be added to the property for the first 5 years.

Love my little conservatory, my lounge was so tiny (new build 24 yrs ago) so we built small conservatory as we don't get sun in lounge but get it in conservatory which bring it in the lounge.

Mine is here to stay house move or not, if the new owners don't like if I ever do sell, then tuff tit*y.

My late mother's house had a Conservatory and the house proved difficult to sell. Driving passed one day we noticed that the new occupants had taken it down and made a huge patio with pots and outdoor seating. The house did look better I never went inside but gave lots of room for sitting out in the sunshine instead of a boiling hot old-fashioned conservatory with a perspex roof.
Ours is a sunroom integral to the house and has a heater for cooler days,the GC love it and even have all their meals out there and call it their corner cafe.

DH and I absolutely loved the conservatory in our last property and spent as much time in it as possible. Now alone in a new house, I haven't felt the need for one as I have french windows opening onto the patio and garden and have the sun flooding in all afternoon (when it's there!). I'm living on a large new estate and have noticed that not one house has put one on. On my previous estate, most were doing it..this is ranging back 20 years. They just don't seem to be fashionable now. No floods of advertising from the conservatory companies, do they still exist? I think if you have a bigger, posher property, an orangery is still considered desirable.
I don't consider a conservatory naff though.

NanaDana

So someone on the Radio has just claimed that Conservatories are the "height of naffness"... so it must be true, and we should all most definitely take it into serious consideration when we are pricing for either buying or selling a house. Total tosh. Who makes this stuff up? Ignore and move on.

I give you a big cheer. I haven't one, but daughter has, and I love sitting in there, rain or shine. Who listens to the, often, rubbish spouted out by radio presenters.

That sounds fabulous kittylester, I doubt it will detract from the value of your house!
I must admit that although I like conservatories, I really don’t like those which are built out from the sitting room, because I want to be able to see my garden from the sofa, and it puts me off a house if the conservatory is in the way.

I love my dd`s conservatory, there are glass sliding doors between it and the living room. I did turn down a property, when I was looking, as the conservatory had no wall or door between it and the lving room. I could only imagine the winter cold and summer heat. I do love a good conservatory but as a conservatory and not a room extension

I think it is nonsense that they would take 15k off a house value.

Ours is upstairs grammaretto.

It connects two bits of the house and is called the glass corridor.

We love it in all weathers - sitting among roof tops in heavy rain or snow iis fabulous.