It is my usual approach to bring up the objections, as customers will not usually come out and say what is bothering them. However, the other day, an old gent says to me “you can never get a conservatory to look like it was always a part of the house.” I think what he was saying is that a conservatory is so unusual of an architectural feature in this market (America) that one could never make it look normal. There is some truth to that. A conservatory will always be a focal point of a house, because of its stunning beauty. But to look like it belongs? Let’s discuss that:
My answer was “The two ‘F’s. It fits or its folly”.
Here is what I mean. Long ago, I had the opportunity to put a conservatory on a home designed and built by Cass Gilbert (architect of the MN capital and Grand Central Station). As you can imagine, there were several architectural committees that had long discussions over this. In the end, the general agreement was: If you make the conservatory look like Cass Gilbert designed it, it will never work. One needs to step forward and design a conservatory that does not come close to the architectural design of the home. It must be a folly.
The lesson I took from all this was. If the design is close to looking like the original design, you have failed. It either has to match exactly, or not at all.
Yesterday, whilst sitting with a couple in Iowa, planning the paint color of their terrific new conservatory, we debated the colors that appear in the brick home. A lot of deep red and brown. There was no way that conservatory was ever going to look like an original design of this home, even with the brick knee wall integrating the conservatory with the home design. So the color chosen was a deep, matt green. A folly. Yes, not even close to any color on the house, but a wonderful statement none the less.
So remember the two ‘F’s. It fits or its folly.