In many older/ historic homes they were sleeping porches- for those miserable summer nights pre- air conditioning.

Many of my neighbors are lucky enough to have one but ours has a wrap around porch instead.

Thanks all for sharing your love of sunrooms. Indeed, I am not talking about the kind roarah has, which looks divine, plus her adjacent living room has plenty of light on its own.

The ones I'm used to seeing are like add-ons to the living room where the view from the LR is into the "sunroom," a none too lovely one at that. You all don't say where you live, but I'm assuming cold winters and hot/humid summers?

Napping, plant growing, and TV watching. Ours is off the kitchen and the living room. Yes, cold winters and warm-ish summers but we're still mostly outside in our screen porch during the summers. Sunroom is used in spring and fall mostly (it would be used in winter but we spend winters in FL). It has a lovely daybed, the dog crate, and all our plants.

Our view off our gathering room is into the sunroom. Our gathering room is the darkest in the house (still not very dark) but I don't mind b/c that makes it cozy for watching TV:

View into gathering room from sunroom:

We use our sunroom. Every. Single. Day. We use ours much like a den. IT's actually off our dining room, which is open to our living room, so yes, you could actually view into the sunroom and outside from the living room. But we have a large back yard area with beautiful trees and plantings, so it is a view we enjoy. As mentioned above, it is a room with 3 walls of windows. Ours is heated/cooled and we have regular furniture out there. I can't imagine why someone wouldn't like/use a sunroom.

Okay, what I'm seeing here are actual rooms. What I see where I live maybe began as covered patios or screened in areas that are called sunrooms by realtors. They aren't esp. sunny or inviting.

I can only echo what several have written above. My 1920s home had one and it is my favorite room in the house! It is cozy in winter and airy in summer. Three sides are all windows and they even snuck a window into a part of the fourth side. In our long dark MN winters it brightens the entire first floor up. A long radiator along one side provides ample warmth. I've also used it as a sleeping porch on summer days. I read there, watch TV there, drink coffee and wine there, etc. etc. Beautiful French doors lead into the living room. I also like that my sunroom is in the back of the house because it is very private and looks over the garden. If it were a front facing room I'd probably have the blinds drawn most of the time, especially at night. But I don't have to do that in this room.

Linelle, are your area's sunrooms more like four season or Florida rooms? I do live in the north east. I image people add the module sunrooms to increase sq footage without needing a huge budget. In England it is popular to add prefab "conservatories" to the front or side of houses to bring the outside and light in during all their rainy periods. These units are far less expensive than a true extension and thus very popular.

Do they look like the rooms that the TV show "Flip or Flop" have to pull down when they redo a house? Most of the time they were built over a concrete patio without a building permit. Yes, they do make the rooms look dark. I would tear those down also. The pictures on here I would LOVE to have a sunroom like them. It would be my very own retreat for my cat and I. I would have so many plants....

This is the exterior of my 1939 house.

My 8.5' x 18' sunroom is on the right with the triple windows on the front. There are five windows on the long side and a sliding door and another window on the rear. It's isn't a "tear down" room. It has full HVAC, new tile floors and is on a foundation with crawl space that opens to the full basement. It opens off my living room and also has a pass-through window on the other side. (still under renovation, so the landscape hasn't been finished). Everything is up to new building codes -- full, year-round living.

The front stone vestibule is like a mini-sunroom with full HVAC. Tile floors, windows on each side, plus the sidelights and segmented arch transom. The interior has an arch (salvaged when we opened up the dining room) that opens to the front foyer.

Sherry, I don't watch HGTV anymore, so I couldn't say. Here is one from a current listing and it's nothing like the ones shown above. Kitchen, LR and DR are to the right.

Linelle, I agree with you that that is not an attractive room! It doesn't even look like it would be particularly sunny.

I used to see houses here in central FL with a "Florida room", where they basically took a screened porch and built low walls with lots of windows above. I think the idea was to be able to open the windows when the weather was pleasant and close them when it wasn't. They looked a lot like the room you showed.

Donna

Dyhgarden, I love your sunroom. No, that is not a teardown. I would love to have a room like that. I would have one of the lemon trees and one of the lime trees that people have on the garden forums.

Linelle, That is what I was talking about! The beam you see in the middle is probably the original roof. Someone added a slant roof to that and just boxed it in with screen or windows. The carpet is just glued to the concrete patio that was there when the house is built. I don't like the House Hunter shows, but I do enjoy watching some of the Flip or Flop shows. The picture of the room above is like what they tear down and convert back to the patio it was originally.

I hate my sunroom! I just want it to be a screened in porch. It has 15 double hung windows that I know were not cheap but it makes the place feel like a greenhouse. Because it also has heat it is included in our total square footage. I have been begging DH to let me sell those windows and replace them with screens. I even had the window guys come out last year and meet with us and they said "Why would you take out $10k worth of windows and pay $3k back to add screens?" Grrr..... I almost had DH on board until those idiots ruined it. Ours also has indoor outdoor carpet which is just gross.

In my part of Florida that would be called a screen room. Around here, a Florida room is a regular room with one wall that is mostly windows, in the old days jalousie windows, and more windows if possible in the shorter walls at right angles to it, usually on the east side of the house so it wasn't overwhelming hot.

Late to the party, but upon reading the original post my initial thought was sunroom is a term with wide and varied usage. My sunroom is actually a heattrap, sunken room tile floor, faces due south, three glass walls, glass ceiling, it heats up my house in winter and catches a good cross breeze in summer when I draw shades down in the ceiling windows. I love my sunroom and it is where my DH and I sit most evenings while dinner is cooking.

What you are describing is what I would call an enclosed porch.

i had a sunroom in a previous home... it was open to our family room. we filled it with toys and was used as a playroom mostly. it had windows on 3 sides and a large upper window too since the ceiling was vaulted.

i would have liked it more maybe if there were doors to close it off from the rest of the house... it faced the southwest so it got really hot in the summer and looked and felt chilly in the winter. i don't know what we would have used it for if we didn't have little kids... maybe a pool table??? if not a pooltable, i probably would have viewed it as wasted space...

What prompted my original post was another thread where someone was asking about a color for a room that didn't get a lot of light. It was exacerbated by a "sunroom" next to it. It brought to mind all the "sunrooms" in my area. The one I posted above is one of the nicer looking ones. They might have been original to much older houses, but in this climate, they seem unnecessary. I suspect many of these were added to the homes in the over-55 development so people could pretend to be outside when they really weren't.

louislinus I
hate my sunroom! I just want it to be a screened in porch. It has 15
double hung windows that I know were not cheap but it makes the place
feel like a greenhouse.

Don't the windows have screens?

In our area, I have seen many homes that have a deck and people love to be outside on the deck, but you can't when it's rainy or snowy or they get too hot in the sun, so then they turn them into a porch. But the porch doesn't keep out the bugs so then they screen them in. But then the screens don't keep out the cold so they enclose them and make a sunroom. But then they aren't outside anymore, so they add a deck...

Louislinus, I love your vintage furniture! Not only your sunroom's but also your kitchen table on the other thread! And if I am not mistaken you have a vintage gold velvet sofa aswell, don't you? Lucky duck!

We live in New England and call our sunroom a 3-season room, but we can and do use it year round as bonus space. It was once a very large deck, which needed replacement. We thought first of a screened porch, but the project grew into a heated sunroom. It's 12'x20' with French doors from the kitchen and the back of the living room and windows all around with a view to our secluded backyard. We spent lots of time out there, except in the winter, where we hunker down in the family room or the living room:

I would do a "sunroom" in a heartbeat where I live. I would use it as a sleeping porch, "summer kitchen" (for canning for me) and as a place to be able to sit "outside" in the evenings and not get eaten alive by mosquitoes. My folks have a screened in back porch, they practically lived out there three seasons. They have a nice view though. It does make the house somewhat dark in the three adjacent rooms, but since it was already dark due to the roof and surrounding trees, the screens aren't the worst offenders as far as contributing to the darkness. It is more than made up for by the use it gets other times of the year. In the summer, the shade that the roof and trees provide are what is attractive about the summer porch. A sunroom isn't always sunny, so if you want sun, you need to have the right location to put it on. Most "sunrooms" I see were just tacked on cheaply. But, if they are not falling apart and are pleasant places to hang out, they are tolerable, IMHO.

Where I live a sunroom is just another fully finished, year round indoor living space usually with more windows than other rooms. We also have three season porches and screen porches, the latter being my favorite.

dhygarden - beautiful home!

Chijim - Yes they do have screens, but because they are double hung they only open halfway and it just doesn't feel at all like you are outside.

Roarah - Thanks! Yes that's my couch too. I love old furniture, and am lucky that one of my best friends is an upholsterer. :)

Louislinus. Your sunroom is what I would like to add to the back of my house. Not over the patio, but to use as a greenhouse. I have a greenhouse, but it isn't attached to the house and is hard to heat. Not to mention getting to it when it rains. I love to garden and that would be perfect. Don't get me wrong, having it is better than nothing, but I didn't know what to look for when I bought it. It does let me keep my plants over the winter instead of having to start over each year.

They're usually referred to as a 3 or 4 season room. The 3 season would be w/o heat, so could only be used for 3 seasons, whereas the 4 season is a year-round room. I like to think of it as a very sunny room for reading or visiting w/friends or family.

We had one of those horrible sun rooms in our old Florida house! I think they must have just added windows and a roof to a patio. It had a dropped ceiling, a flat roof (which leaked!) rocky flooring that hurt your feet and was a generally unpleasant place when we bought the house:

They actually can be fixed up pretty nice though, although it isn't cheap. This was what it looked like when we finished before we sold the house.

Sorry, I was so enamored with the cat that I sent the message to the wrong poster! I should direct this to lazy_gardens! Seriously, that cat is a gorgeous creature and I would love to see more pictures!

"What's the purpose of a sunroom?"

I don't care, I just want one!

I can only remember seeing one, and it was in a house in Culver City and looked like the one Linelle posted. It was very obviously tacked on to add square footage, and one wall (to the back yard) was all windows. However, it was narrow and I could not imagine what to do with it, except perhaps use it for growing orchids, as those are the only house plants I have. I do not think that whoever built the one I saw had much of an idea of what it was supposed to be used for. It was too narrow for a dining or game table and chairs. You could look at the back yard, but if I want to look at the back yard, I prefer to be IN the back yard.

That doesn't sound like a sun room. It sounds like a pass through with views.

A place for jigsaw puzzles!

Lazy, is that a Bengal? What a gorgeous creature!!

I would like almost any kind of sunroom--I live in a batcave with small windows in every room. Ugh.. Our neighbors have various kinds of sunrooms--some do make the connecting rooms or the rooms below them dark, others are just like regular rooms with walls made of windows, a couple are greenhouses that attach to the house. A house for sale near me has this one

Lazy, a cat porch is exactly what I would use it for (for our bengals!)

My folks have a sunroom, which they added at the last minute to their house. It's the most used room in the house. Plants, tv, dog lounger :) . I don't know where they would have hung out if not for the sun room!

We have a very small sunroom attached to our living room. Our living room is dark because it has few windows, trees, etc. but in a way I like it because that means it's also hard to see in. The sunroom helps add light while maintaining privacy. We have 2 walls of windows and the 3rd is a built-in. It housed our jailed Christmas tree this year. (Didn't trust our dog!) Oh, and for some reason, during parties-- people love to hang out in that room even though it's the smallest in the house!

Most of the turn of the century homes in my neighborhood in MN began optimistically with three season porches or sun rooms, but sooner or later a radiator was installed because three season use is really only one season use in our climate. Remaining three season porches or sunrooms sadly become just places to dump more stuff, kind of an upstairs basement or garage extension.

Anele, My tree goes in the center of the room, settee is moved to the wall on left, every Christmas too. Your red looks so inviting in the room I am not surprised it is where guest are drawn too.

Linelle, your listing's sunroom is not inviting but I think it could be with better flooring and better furniture arrangements. But what I think sometimes makes a sunroom the most inviting is their shape and size combinations. Big ones should have balanced wall sizes. Like beagles, and if they are very rectangular than smaller is better, ie instead of 10 by22 , 8 by 13 is more inviting.

We live in a 1920s house and we have two. One is upstairs, connected to the master and only has two walls of windows and we were told was a "sleeping porch" originally. Eight years ago we added a room onto the back of the house, a room with sliding doors instead of windows on three of the walls. It looks like a porch that has been enclosed, but it is all new build.

The room upstairs is our extra TV room -- two comfortable leather chairs and a TV and the wall that isn't windows is a wall of books.

The downstairs room we use for a breakfast room (we have no eat in kitchen). It has one brick wall (the outside of the house) and a brick floor. It's where the big plants winter and where we eat most of our meals.

What I would love is a conservatory with a roof of glass as well and I could probably put one on the south side of the house if I win the lottery -- LOL!

Martha

Roarah, actually what I dislike about the type of sunroom I posted is not the depressing decor, but the fact that it blocks light and view from the adjacent room(s). It doesn't snow where I live, the winters don't go on and on. In my area, these are found primarily where it's assumed older people live (and I am most def older) and may not want to brave a little rain shower or overly sunny day.

linelle- the one you posted seems very dark too! i would much prefer a screened in porch (with screens on 3 sides) over something like that any day- esp in your climate!

I have a mid century modern house. I have a huge sun room with full floor to ceiling windows, we love it. I also have a huge atrium right in the center of the house. It's glass all the way around with glass doors and it is open to the sky at the top. So we have a giant hole in the roof where the atrium is. We love it too. I fill it with plants and flowers and a couple of chairs and a little table, nice place to sit and have a drink. My little dog loves her outside room.

Is a sunroom the same as a Lanai? The Golden Girls are always going out to 'the lanai' in FL, so am wondering if they are the same thing. Is it heated?

Hah, my great aunt and uncle had a "lanai" that they attached to their Spanish style house. It looked nothing like the house, but they initially used it to house their insurance agency. It didn't block any major windows or views.

We have a 600 sq ft "sunroom", which used to be a screened in porch. Once we enclosed it, with a knee wall, insulation, heat and double-hung windows, the space was counted as additional square footage (value). Our sunroom has turned into our primary living/entertaining space, and when we have gatherings, this is where everyone hangs out (when not in the kitchen). We still have the indoor-outdoor carpeting hidden with large rugs, which we will replace it when we remodel our kitchen.

This is what it looked like in the winters when it was just the porch:

I still covet Martha's Turkey Hill sunroom