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Posted on: December 12, 2007

Wintering in the Sunroom

Heat up your existing sunroom this winter with a few style tricks – or build one with warmth in mind

By Michelle Taute
CTW Features

Keep your sunroom cozy and functional as the snow starts falling by making it an activity room or a sitting room – just make sure you have plants! Image courtesy of Four Seasons Sunrooms

Sunrooms win popularity contests in the spring and summer, but once the thermometer starts to plummet, this space may start to feel as neglected as a swimsuit. Fortunately, this valuable square footage doesn’t have to turn into a ghost town after Halloween.

You can transform your sunroom into a winter hideaway – an irresistible place to cozy up with hot chocolate – with a few inspired decorating tricks. And if you’re starting to think about building one of these light-filled spaces, you can make sure it’s designed to stay comfy even on the coldest day of the year.

While most sunrooms or four-season porches are heated, they don’t always seem warm and inviting in the winter.

“It’s psychological,” says Linda Merrill of Chameleon Interiors, Duxbury, Mass. “You don’t want to touch wool in the summer. It makes you feel hot just thinking about it. It’s the opposite in the winter. Glass makes you feel cold.” So how do you counteract the chilly thoughts all those windows bring to mind? Just make a few strategic changes to heat up your decorating scheme.

For starters, Merrill recommends pushing the room’s current color palette darker. If there are light green pillows on the couch, for instance, swap them for dark green versions in the winter. Similarly, you might favor warm gold tones over bright yellows for colder months.

Even switching to heavier fabrics can make the room feel cozier. Trade in those cotton slipcovers for corduroy or velvet, or exchange your sisal rug for a wool one. You might even throw a tablecloth over a glass coffee table to heat up that cool surface.

Forget about the cold: Warm up your sunroom in the chilly months with bright lights, rich colors and greenery. And don’t forget to enjoy the view. Image courtesy of Four Seasons Sunrooms

And since a sunroom traditionally brings the outside in, it’s a good idea to invest in a few well-chosen plants. “It makes you feel like you haven’t left beautiful things, living things, totally out of your life for winter,” says Audrey Long of Audrey Long Interior Design, New Hope, Pa. She favors the relaxing qualities of ferns and those gorgeous white blossoms on peace lilies. Long also advocates doing anything you can to make the space feel cozier. Add a footstool to give people more space to cuddle up or replace standard pillows and throws with soft, inviting down.

The right window treatments can raise the mercury both literally and figuratively. Leslie Harris, from Leslie Harris Interior Design in Los Angeles, always favors a sheer under drape.

“It’s almost like lingerie to me,” she says. “You can see through it, but it creates a softness against glass.” She might combine this feminine touch with a light-weight wool over drape to pull closed once the sun goes down – offering insulation against the cold air. Harris also suggests warming up your stone or hardwood floors with an area rug or simply lighting candles to create a more inviting atmosphere.

If a sunroom is still a glimmer in your eye, you have the time and luxury to make sure it’s constructed to withstand those blustery winter days. “I tell people to approach the room the same way they would their body if they were going outside,” says Allen Meffan, national sales manager for Patio Enclosures, Macedonia, Ohio. “You start with the feet.” In construction terms, that means you need an insulated foundation.

Next Meffan advises homeowners to outfit their sunrooms with nice, warm clothes. He recommends a thermally efficient framing system, which means vinyl, wood or thermally broken aluminum. The latter means no exterior aluminum directly touches the inside, so your interior is better insulated. This step also includes the glass, and he suggests people go with dual pane glass with an overall thickness of 7/8 to 1 inch. Your windows should also have a low-e coating – to help keep heat out in the summer and in during the winter – and be filled with a gas like argon to slow down air transfer.

Heat comes next on the checklist, and Meffan doesn’t advise relying on your existing furnace. Since most thermostats are in the living room – typically a well-insulated, interior room – the heat probably won’t kick on enough to keep an exposed, mostly glass room toasty during the winter.

But your options for heating the sunroom range from gas heat to electric baseboards and radiant floor heat. James Ruppel, marketing director of Four Seasons Sunrooms, Holbrook, N.Y., favors the latter. “I personally think it’s one of the most effective methods,” he says. Unlike forced-air heat, he believes heat from the floor warms up the furniture as well as the air, so you’re not chilled the minute you touch a table or sit down on a chair.

You can also heat the room with a distinctly winter touch: a gas fireplace. Rod Stalsberg, owner of Sunrooms by Design, Port Byron, Ill., says about half his projects include these cozy centerpieces. “You can design an entire sunroom just around the fireplace,” he says. “You’re creating atmosphere.” Plus, you’re designing a space with built-in warmth and coziness for the fall and winter.

Finally, a sunroom needs a roofing system that acts much like a warm cap on your head. Meffan says you’ll need R20 to R30 insulation, depending on what part of the country you live in. If you’re going with a glass roof, he suggests adding a shading system you can pull down when the sun retires at night for extra protection from the cold. All these details add up to a sunroom that’s just as inviting on the first day of spring as on New Year’s Day – a true four-season paradise.

SIDE 1

Red-Hot Sunroom

Even in the middle of January, you can make your sunroom sizzle with warm style. Want a quick way to turn up the design temperature? Add some red to your space – whether it’s a few throw pillows or a chenille blanket draped over the back of the sofa.

“People think red is a warm color, because it actually is,” says Linda Merrill of Chameleon Interiors, Duxbury, Mass. “It’s stimulating. It raises your blood pressure a little bit.” And when there’s an up-tick in your blood pressure, you’ll feel a little toastier than you otherwise would.