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So you have a conservatory or garden room. This amazing space is not only a wonderful place to spend time, it is obviously the ideal environment to grow and nurture plants. Wondering where to start? Looking for suggestions? We have put together a guide to help you choose plants that will thrive in this space and then a few tips on how to keep them healthy and happy.

For Starters

You have this incredible space for greenery, but in order to have the best plant success, it is important you know the seasonal light changes, what direction your building is facing, and then how much exposure your plants will have. These factors will determine the amounts of light, heat, and cold experienced inside by your plants inside the conservatory.

The goal of any conservatory is modulating temperature so that plants don’t overheat in summer or freeze in winter. So for example, a south-facing structure will require ample ventilation and blinds installed that can regulate temperatures inside during the sunny months from April until September. Where a north-facing conservatory will contend with the challenge of low levels of light in winter but are great in the summer months. So knowing the orientation of your structure is important.

Choosing Plants

Conservatory Craftsmen’s Owner and Master Gardener Jim Hewitt has a few favorite plants he recommends to conservatory owners.

Jim’s Recommendations for Easy to Care for Plants

Most frequently, a conservatory has an entry palm. This is a traditional plant used in large and small conservatories.

Jim’s Recommendations for Hardy Plants

If you are seldom home and don’t have anyone to care for plants, succulents can be a life saver.

However, if you are actively enjoying your growing space, then consider the following:

• Bromeliads: easy to care for and there are many varieties to choose from with visual interest.
• Calathea is an attractive plant. There are about 200 varieties to choose from. Keep moist, not wet. Light levels are easy
• Monstera or split leaf philodendron is also a very responsive plant and will achieve some size.
• The majority of conservatory owners like to dabble with citrus. Most are easy to grow.
• Anthuriums are showy and also fun to grow. Jasmin are easy to grow and can add a lot of fragrance to a room

Jim’s Recommendations for care

Most plant growers fail from invasive insects then from light or water. An infestation of thrips can take over before you even know you have them. Be deligent with regular care. Keep leaves clean and dusted top and bottom. Spray with a mixture of neem oil, isopropyl alcohol (I add a touch of Dawn) and water. Totally safe, no poison.

Tips on How to Keep Your Conservatory Plants Thriving

Education. These days Google and YouTube are great places to discover what to do (and what you are doing wrong) with plants. Join a Facebook group about conservatories or indoor plants. Being knowledgeable about the varieties you have chosen will help your plants thrive all year round.

Certain plants will need more attention than others. All plants will need watering, but that schedule will be different for each variety. All plants will need extra nourishment by means of plant food or fertilizer and then just regular inspection for pests or diseases. If they are growing well, repotting will be on the agenda. Don’t forget to attend to the glass of your conservatory, making sure it is clean for the plants to get the best sunlight while remembering that although the sunlight is good, summer can place plants in heat stress if not regularly monitored or provided shade.

During winter months because the hours of light are less, make sure not to overwater plants. One big factor in conservatory plant success in winter is providing them with stable temperatures. Keep plants from sources of heat or cold, moderating the temperature they live in.

Whatever the time of year, adding plants (or more plants) to your conservatory or garden room will keep your space tranquil, calm and peaceful. And if you don’t have a conservatory or garden room and are interested, get in touch with Conservatory Craftsmen to discover the kind of space we can create for you!

Garden rooms are a dream to design. They can be anything you want them to be: a functional greenhouse, a receiving area, lounge room, meditation room, private office, home spa, gym, art studio — take your pick. Garden rooms can be in different forms, though, so whatever you have in mind, it has to be compatible with your garden room’s design and construction.

If you had yours built by Conservatory Craftsmen, you should have a conservatory-style garden room that can be a full-fledged room or an enclosed patio. After all, our specialty is building attached and stand-alone conservatories that you can transform into indoor or outdoor garden rooms.

What Is a Conservatory Room?

A conservatory room is a fully-enclosed room with walls, ceilings, doors, and windows. The structure can be concrete or brick and mortar. Its primary features are its windows: massive glass panels that may or may not open. Attached conservatory gardens typically have glass doors that lead to the front porch or backyard, depending on its location.

With these structural features as a guide, here are some tips on how you can design the interiors of your conservatory garden room.

Outdoor and Indoor Garden Room Decorating Ideas

Plants

Garden rooms are incomplete without flowering blooms! But in case someone in your household is allergic to pollen, you can populate the room with lush, potted plants instead. Mix up indoor plants that grow upright with sprawling varieties (pitcher plant, peperomia), large leaves (monstera, fiddle-leaf fig) with ferns or palms, and deep greens with variegated leaves (snake plant, spider plant). Assemble the large plants on the floor, the smaller pots on tables, and hanging plants (Boston fern, chenille, trailing jade) on the shelves or corners, where they can be seen without being in everyone’s way.

Seating

Whether you have a detached, outdoor garden house or a room extension converted into an indoor luxury garden, comfortable seating is a must. It makes the room look inviting and whimsical. It’s also a practical design move: you and your guests will be able to stay in the garden room for as long as you like.

We recommend a classic park bench (preferably with an ergonomic seat and backrest) if the floor space is limited. If it’s a spacious garden room, you can put a chaise lounge or loveseat. Add accent pillows and quilts, and you’ll have the perfect spot for reading books or taking a nap. For extra seating, you can add beanbags on the floor or stackable stools that you can put away in a corner when not in use.

Lighting

Most people like to keep their garden rooms warm and cozy in the evenings because they get plenty of bright, natural light during the day. We recommend recessed mood lighting on the walls and ceiling for a dramatic effect. Stand and desk lamps with options for white and warm lighting are also excellent garden room lighting ideas because then you can adjust the settings to set the room’s mood.

Functional Furniture and Decorations

The key to successfully designing and decorating a garden room is its use. Is it merely a personal lounge area, or is it an extension of your living room? Is it connected to the dining room? Do you often bring your laptop there to work? Once you’ve pinned down the conservatory’s purpose, designing it becomes easier and a lot more fun.

For a garden home office, you’ll need a desk, comfortable chair, and a desk lamp. For a garden living room, you can have a wide sofa facing the glass walls. If there’s a solid wall that separates the garden room from the rest of the house, you can add a gas, electric, or wood stove next to it for a cozy touch. Meanwhile, a dining room extension would look charming with a bay window seat with a round breakfast table and two or three more chairs.

Use these garden room design ideas to transform your conservatory into the indoor garden you’ve always dreamed of having.

Don’t have an enclosed garden in your home yet? Minneapolis based Conservatory Craftsmen builds classic and modern-looking conservatories. Get in touch, and we’ll give you a cost estimate. Contact us today.

The uncertainties and difficulties brought on by the pandemic continue to bring stress to so many people. A lot has changed since COVID-19 spread around the world, from the way we dress (wearing masks is now considered part of dressing etiquette) to the way we socialize (face-timing instead of meeting up with friends in bars after work).

One of the biggest changes we’ve had to do is to shift from working at the office to working from home. This has become the new norm for people working in corporate setups, BPOs, and other industries that are mostly Internet-based. Rather than put workers’ health at risk by requiring them to come to the office, employers allow their employees to work from the comfort and safety of their homes.

The Problem with Working from Home

Working from home is convenient and necessary, but it also has some disadvantages. Some of them, ironically, are health-related.

Staying cooped up in your bedroom or indoor office — tucked in the deepest, quietest part of the house — all day, all week can be detrimental to your health.

• There are days when you don’t get direct sunlight at all.
• You breathe in stale, recycled, indoor air all the time.
• The isolation is making you sad, depressed, worried, and anxious.
• Your eyes are strained from spending many consecutive hours staring at the computer screen.
• Work and relaxation hours merge, leading to mental, emotional, and physical fatigue.

These are varied issues that cannot all be solved with one solution. However, we can offer a way to alleviate some problems while giving a solid answer for specific issues, and that is to use a garden room as an office.

Got a Garden Room? Turn It into Your Office.

The purpose of garden rooms is to bring you closer to nature or to bring nature into your home. This is why when we design garden rooms, we develop an enclosed structure that matches the architecture of the property. Our garden rooms have glass walls and roofs and special features (e.g., heating and cooling, automatic watering systems) that create an environment conducive to plant growth. You can, therefore, have a conventional greenhouse or a fully-functional sitting room filled with flowering shrubs and potted greenery — the perfect garden room office. 

Working Amidst Nature: A Healthy Way to Cope with Remote Work Stress

A widely cited study was conducted about the impact of indoor plants on the health of office workers. The two-year experiment involved 60 office workers, who were later observed to have symptoms like headaches, fatigue, loss of focus, cough, eye irritation, stuffy nose, and skin problems.

The researchers placed plants all over the workspaces of half the subjects: small plants on window sills and large plants on the floors near desks. They then switched the arrangements after a year, removing the plants from the first group’s area and transferring them to the second group’s workspaces.

The researchers then compared the symptoms the two groups manifested when the plants were present and when the plants were removed from their workspaces.

The results showed that office workers experienced less of all the symptoms above when they were surrounded by plants. Cough symptoms had the highest reduction (by 37%), followed by fatigue (30%) and dry throat (25%).

This study provided evidence that working amidst nature, or at least having plants near your workplace, can vastly improve your working conditions health-wise. Many recent studies also reinforced these findings:

• Employees in green offices are more productive.
• Keeping a small plant on the work desk can reduce stress and improve mental health at work.
• A nature experience, I.e., going out for a walk through a park, can improve cognitive function and working memory.

An Investment for Your Health and Well-Being

If you’ve been contemplating adding a garden room to your home, whether attached or a standalone in your property, now is the best time to make it happen. The COVID-19 pandemic is unlikely to die down soon, so you can look forward to more months (or years) of working from home. It will benefit you to have the option to work surrounded by nature and still enjoy the comforts of a formal office.

Talk to our designers at Conservative Craftsmen, and let’s make your ideas for a garden room come to life.

Greenhouses rely on their structure to get the appropriate amount of sunlight, humidity, and other growing conditions for the plants. With the right design and material, a greenhouse should control how much of these external elements penetrate the building.

But even double-paned greenhouse windows may not be enough to withstand the changing seasons and fluctuating temperatures. This is why many homeowners invest in greenhouse window shade covers, blinds, and other treatments.

Before we go into how window treatments improve the energy efficiency of your greenhouse, it’s important to understand how these structures lose, gain, and transfer heat in the first place.

Greenhouse Design and Energy Efficiency

The type of greenhouse you have can make it more difficult for you to control the temperature inside the structure and your home. For example, a lean-to greenhouse, or one that’s attached to your house, leaches and transfers heat to the adjacent structure. Compared to a freestanding greenhouse, it’s more energy efficient when it comes to heating.

However, a lean-to greenhouse encounters one problem: shadowing. The house casts a shadow over the structure, which leads to reduction of sunlight. This is why most greenhouses of this design are set up on the south-facing side of the building.

Regardless of the design of your greenhouse, the entire structure remains susceptible to sharp drops and rises in temperature. The sun shifts throughout the day as well, exposing some parts of the garden to sunlight more than the other areas.

This is where window treatments come in. Shades, covers, blinds, curtains, and film reduce heat absorbed by the greenhouse by blocking a percentage of the sun’s rays.

Greenhouse Window Treatments

You have several options when it comes to window treatments. They vary in application, purpose, and price. Evaluate your needs first before making a decision (and we’re happy to help answer any questions).

Curtains

The main function of greenhouse curtains is shading and energy savings. They affect light, temperature, humidity, and airflow, offering excellent climate control. Some curtains have light diffusion screens, which helps scatter sunlight more evenly through the greenhouse.

Shade Cover

This window treatment should be thick enough to prevent dehydration, but not too much that it slows down the growth of your plants. The shade cover you choose will depend on the type of plants you have. Sun-loving plants may need a thinner cover, whereas sensitive ones may require a stronger shade.

Whether you’ll place the shade inside or outside the greenhouse also depends on your type of plants. Shading on the outside offers better temperature reduction, but it exposes the window treatment to more abuse from external conditions.

Blinds

Blinds are the most aesthetically appealing among the three, although they’re pricier as well. The advantage of greenhouse blinds is their retractability. You can roll them up or down depending on the day’s weather. Greenhouse blinds are also the most durable since they’re made of hard-wearing materials, such as wood or plastic. Automated blinds are also available, so you won’t have to roll them up or down manually.

When assessing what type of window treatment to buy for your greenhouse, keep the needs of your garden in mind. Don’t forget to consider the position and design of your structure to ensure effective protection from excessive sunlight.

We are here as expert greenhouse architects to help you figure out what’s best for your situation. Unlike many US companies, we specialize in covering roof glass and slope-glazing – we know what we’re doing, and we have decades of experience that help us understand the best practices for glass coverings.

Luxury Greenhouse Builder in Minneapolis

Conservatory Craftsmen builds greenhouses, garden rooms, and other residential structures that allow you to enjoy the lifestyle you want. Using advanced technology, our greenhouses offer maximum energy efficiency balanced with aesthetically appealing exteriors.

Email us today to learn about our services and products.