The Sunroom: The Glass Room Between House and Garden

A sunroom is the room that refuses to choose between indoors and out. With its walls of glass, it brings daylight and views of the landscape into the heart of the house while sheltering from the weather — a place for morning coffee, for overwintering a lemon tree, for reading in the last of the afternoon sun. It goes by many names — solarium, conservatory, Florida room, sun parlor, winter garden — but the idea is constant.

According to [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunroom), a sunroom permits abundant daylight and views of the landscape while sheltering from adverse weather; the word *solarium* is Latin for "place of sunlight," and solariums of various forms have been erected throughout European history.

**From the orangery to the sun parlor**

The sunroom descends from the conservatory and the orangery — the glass-roofed garden rooms of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century European estates, where citrus trees were overwintered and tender plants were propagated. The Victorian conservatory, with its iron-and-glass architecture, was the high expression of the form. In America, the sunroom evolved into the screened or glassed-in porch and the three-season room, a more modest but no less beloved space.

**The elements of a sunroom**

- **Glass on three sides**, or a glass roof, to capture maximum daylight.

- **A durable, easy-to-clean floor** — tile or stone — that handles water and plants.

- **Wicker or iron furniture** suited to a transitional indoor-outdoor room.

- **Abundant plants**, the traditional inhabitants of the glass room.

- A **view of the garden**, which is the whole point.

**The conservatory distinction**

In Britain, which has a long history of formal conservatories, a small conservatory is sometimes called a sunroom. The [conservatory](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservatory_(greenhouse)) is the more architectural cousin — a substantial glass room with ridge crests, finials, and decorative detailing — while the sunroom is the simpler, more domestic version. Both share the same purpose: to live in the light.

**Why the sunroom endures**

In a northern climate, the sunroom is the room that extends the garden into the house through the long winter. In a warm climate, it is the cool, shaded place to sit in the breeze. Whatever the region, the sunroom is the room most associated with leisure — the room for the Sunday paper, the potted fern, the cat in a patch of sun. It is, simply, the most pleasant room it is possible to build.

**References:**

- Sunroom: [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunroom)

- Conservatory (greenhouse): [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservatory_(greenhouse))