If you’ve got garden space, you’ve got a free area to expand your home. Really! A garden doesn’t just have to be a lawn and a patio and somewhere to eat on summer evenings. You can turn it into a living, breathing part of your home by simply expanding outward a little.
And yes, you can have a fully usable, temperate, and cozy space all year round in doing so. How do you get that? With a garden room! Garden rooms can be anything you want them to be, from a reading room to a work-from-home office to a simple summerhouse for the kids to play in.
And if that sounds like a great addition to your property, we’re here to help you put one together! If you’d like a garden room as part of your home, here’s what you’ll need to think about when putting together your project plan.
How Much Space are You Going to Need?
When you’re first designing your garden room, you don’t want to go too big or too small. It’s a delicate balance to hit, but if you head outside now and note down the measurements of your buildable space, you’ll know the maximum perimeter you’re dealing with.
Once you know that, it becomes a lot easier to figure out what space you’ll need versus what space is on offer. That’ll keep your garden room layout in line!
You’ll also want to think about what you want out of your garden room. What do you really want to use it for?
Because you might have a dual purpose in mind, with one part being a home office and the other part being a game night room for you and your friends.
Or you might want it to be a cozy hobby space that lets you get away from the hustle of the house, but you’re willing to share it with your kids for when they want private space too.
When putting your floor plan together, account for any and all purposes the room might end up with. That’ll make sure you put the right amount of seating, storage, and working surfaces in the room – but it also accounts for how many different people might be in there at once!
Watch Out for Temperature Extremes
Garden rooms often fall prey to extreme hot and cold. You don’t want to step out on the first day of summer, walk into your garden room, only to be met by a wall of heat that you can’t even breathe in!
So you’re going to want to insulate your garden room as best as possible. Going for in-wall insulation might not be the best idea, so you might need to add another wrapping layer around the structure before you put the final pieces on top.
This makes it much easier to maintain a temperature, but it won’t magically make the room either warm or cool when you need it to be. You’re going to want some kind of heating and cooling system plugged into the room too.
A lot of people go for portable heaters and AC units here, as these are the most affordable things for changing the temperature as you need to.
Invest in a Properly Weatherproof Roof
Garden rooms tend to have a bit less structural integrity than homes. A lot of garden rooms tend to be flat pack kind of buildings, with many people opting for prefabs over hand designing, cutting, and constructing an entire DIY room by themselves.
As such, there might be a lack of proper weatherproofing in your garden room – and we’ve already mentioned the potential insulation issues above. So you’ll want to set aside some of your project budget to take care of this as well.
For one, think about investing in metal roofing for your garden room, instead of materials like asphalt or even shingle. A metal roof tends to last a lot longer than either of these, for one, but it also wears a lot harder against rain and sun all year round.
Plus, if you’re thinking of using your garden room as a relaxing space, a metal roof will make sure you can hear the rain as it comes down!
Moisture Could Leak in From the Ground
Wet, damp, and cold ground can damage your garden room. Protect the structure from these issues by simply placing something underneath it first!
You’re going to need a ground sheet to place any flooring on top of, if you can’t place any kind of foundation underneath your garden room to begin with.
But if you can, placing patio stones or laying out some concrete will make the biggest difference to the amount of moisture that might creep in from the floor.
How’s the Journey From the House to Your Outdoor Room?
And finally, make sure you can always get from your house to your new garden room quickly and comfortably. Clear a way for some kind of pathing, and try not to let the lawn or plants encroach on it too much.
Most importantly, if someone has headed outside without shoes on, they should still be able to get from A to B without their feet getting wet!
Expand Outdoors the Right Way!
Fancy a garden room? Let’s make it happen! Expanding outdoors doesn’t sound like it’ll be easy, but it’s a lot more manageable than you might think.
You just need to find the right space, make sure you’ve measured it correctly, and then set up your structure to account for both weather and moisture.
Take it step by step here, going from an initial floorplan, to considering how hot or cold it might get, and then how you’ll make sure wet or soggy ground won’t cause any issues.
And remember, you’re going to want the journey from the back door to the garden room to be comfortable too! If muddy ground might get in the way of that, don’t let yourself find out later on!
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