Wednesday evening, 08-05-24

Good evening, everyone! 

In yesterday's comments, Janette asked why a garden room.  It's not the sort of thing they have in Australia.  Poor love, I bombarded her with pretty much an essay and then thought it more appropriate to a blog than a comment reply to I have copied and pasted it at the end.

Several of you mentioned that you thought coloured cushions might look nice and I agree but pattern might be an issue.

This is the pattern on the furniture and I think another flowery something might look mismatched in the wrong way - unless I find something that looks very similar but in colour and even then, not sure.  If I had gone for the grey striped covers, chintzy flowery cushions would look nice but the other way round?  Not so sure.

I am planning to make some bunting to go across the window.  The bifolds open outward so that wouldn't be an issue.  Perhaps that would give a pop of colour and maybe be echoed by a few pictures or a vase.  Or make cushion covers (it's not hard, after all) that echo the bunting colours.

Oh, I don't know.

What I do know is that it won't be this month anyway, probably not even this summer.  I've waited years for this so another wait to really know what I want and get it won't hurt.

And I can have lots of fun trawling the shops and online, like I did for the furniture.

Today has been a gentle sort of day.  I chilled for much of the morning, breakfasting in the garden room.  I should have done upstairs housework really but I have more time than usual tomorrow so I'll do it then.

I popped over to Beth and Alex's to wish Alex a Happy Birthday and give him his card and gift.

And then it was personal training with Lindsey which was most enjoyable.

So, really, a pretty normal day apart from the birthday.

I'm now chilling and gradually relaxing into a sleepy state.  Lovely.
How was your day?  xx

Here's what I said in my reply:
I already have a ground floor extension across the back of the house and I did consider a conservatory but . . .
It would cut down light to the living/dining area quite significantly.
There's raised brick beds in the garden which would need to be dismantled and I didn't want to lose one of them.
I'd still need to replace the garden shed anyway because it was getting very bedraggled (the garden room is actually two rooms, the main part and a shed part for garden tools, freezer, etc).
I rather fancied a little relaxation area away from the house, quite separate from it - it is so nice to have a separate bolthole that is different
The way the room flows means that when I am sitting with friend for coffee, we have our backs to the garden (changing that round would look weird) and it is really nice to sit out and enjoy the garden while chatting and enjoying a coffee or two, whatever the weather.
If I fancy using it as, say, an exercise room, the chairs can push to the walls and I can move out my cycle, balance ball, weights, etc - it can be multi functional.
Finally, while there's no plumbing out to the shed, there is power and there is heating and, if push came to shove and it was really necessary, someone could sleep on a camp bed there - they'd have to come in to use the loo but there's paving and the loo isn't so far away

So there are several reasons and, as I said, I did consider a conservatory for a while but, over the years, changed my mind. It helped that on the programme 'My Flat Pack Home' someone did a garden room and it really appealed.