There are a number of factors to consider when deciding which Garden Room is best for your family. Your chosen room must not only meet your needs but also suit and complement your property. At Shomera, we ask our customers to consider the following when deciding which Garden Room is right for them.
Style
While there are rules around proportion, balance, mix of materials and colour, style is personal and what works for some people doesn’t for others.
Our general advice is that you should enjoy looking at your Garden Room because it will be visible not only from your house but also when you are in your garden. In fact, a Garden Room creates the backdrop for a lot of our customers’ gardens, views from the kitchen and outdoor living.
Timber or composite (which looks very much like timber) are still preferred on the primary elevations as they appear warmer and more natural in the setting. Metal or plastic cladding can be jarring and look a little artificial in a landscaped garden. Glazing almost always looks good, but bear in mind what your use for the Garden Room is. Too much glazing brings glare and overheating in the summer months, especially if your proposed use of the Garden Room is a home office, place of study, or teenagers’ den. The balance of glazing is important even if its primary purpose is as an overflow summer room; you can have too much glazing, especially if the Garden Room is south facing.
At Shomera, two standard ranges and a bespoke design option to ensure we can meet all style preferences and requirements.
Our Classic range works to the maximum heights permitted under planning exemption and we endeavour to give a balance of light and usable space. Our goal is to give you a Garden Room that gives you the space you and your family need, looks great in your garden and lasts a lifetime.
Our Contemporary range focuses on a minimalist approach when it comes to shape and form. When a building looks great and simple at the same time, the secret is in the detail. An important feature of our Contemporary range is the overhang that seems to sit on air, unsupported. Simplicity of design requires careful attention to detail and structural elements that are hidden from view are not easy to create. What we hope to have achieved in our Contemporary Garden Room range is a building that looks so simple, “anyone could do it”. The Contemporary Garden room offers a variety of uses in one building on a modest footprint in your garden.
Shomera has been designing Garden Rooms for a quarter of a century and with our in-house design team (architect, engineer, QS, and master builders), we can start with a blank canvas, design and build to our client’s specific requirements. Whether to replicate the details of a home, use different materials, roof styles, or shape of building, our customers let us know what they are thinking and we create something unique for them.
Size
When do we ever say “We have too much space”? Not often enough, probably. In most cases, you can place a Garden Room of up to 25 square metres in your garden without planning. This is equivalent to two mid-sized rooms in your house. That’s a considerable amount of space and it may well be that you need that much space. However, there are times when smaller is better (read our blog, Why Small Can Be Beautiful). If your intended use of your Garden Room is as a home office and you need to protect that single use, then design a Garden Room that is sufficient but not so big that it can be taken over and also used for other things.
Your Garden
Some older houses have what looks more like a small park than a garden. We have been in gardens that are 150 feet long (45 metres) and very wide. However, these are the exceptions. In choosing the correct Garden Room, you will need to think through what else you want your garden to do for you. When we first started (way back in 1998), we were in a lot of gardens that were also used to play football. This is unusual now. Green areas are more common and gardens are getting smaller. Now our gardens are spaces to enjoy outdoor living and to entertain as well as having some private green space, and yes, the ubiquitous garden shed. We think (we are biased) that a Garden Room adds to the aesthetic and enjoyment of the outdoor space. The good news is Garden Rooms in the vast majority of gardens take up less than 20% (often less than 10%) of the garden space, leaving you plenty to play around with.
Usage
The most important factor for usage is whether or not you can use your Garden Room 365 days a year. It needs to be well built for comfort, minimal maintenance, great weathering and longevity. If it is, you can use it all year round and nobody will feel banished to the room outside the house. All Shomera Garden Rooms are kitted out for electricity and many of our customers choose to also include plumbing and drainage. All electrical and plumbing work is completed by fully registered tradesmen. Manufacturers’ guarantees for windows, roofing, flooring, etc. are given.
Roofs are made of fibreglass material. Windows and doors are double-glazed uPVC, providing a high degree of performance and warmth. With over 10 layers of insulation in the walls, 8 in the roof and 5 on the floor in a Shomera Garden Room, you will be warm and comfortable 365 days a year.
Whatever your requirements from a Garden Room contact us today and we’ll be delighted to create something beautiful for your home.
