Sunrooms provide such simple pleasure. It's easy to imagine yourself drinking your morning tea in a sunny space, surrounded by plants, no matter what the weather's like outside. Thankfully, adding a sunroom to your home costs far less than building an addition and it can be an inexpensive way to improve your home and your quality of life.  

The first step to adding a sunroom to your home is defining exactly what you want. Sunrooms go by a variety of monikers: patio enclosures, screened in or enclosed porches, and solariums are among the names you'll find. While these words are often used interchangeably, these room types are not always the same.

 

Ask yourself whether you want to use your sunroom year round or whether a three-season sunroom--one of the least expensive options for adding an enclosed porch to your home--would meet your needs. A three-season sunroom can be built onto an existing patio or deck, as long as it is able to withstand the added load.

 

This is a very flexible option because you don't alter the construction line of your home and you can arrange the windows and screens in a wide range of designs to suit your lifestyle. However, this type of enclosed porch is not climate controlled, meaning that if you live somewhere with cold winters, you may want to shut it off from the rest of your home when the mercury drops.

 

If even that sounds like a larger project that you'd like to undertake, you can instantly create a screened in porch by adding an awning and screen panels.

 

A more expensive option is the four-season sunroom, which is full insulated and wired for climate control. Typically built from vinyl and reinforced with aluminum, these room additions can be outfitted with Energy Star rated windows to maximize energy efficiency.

 

Google Book Search, 100 Sunrooms: A Hands-On Design Guide and Sourcebook, by David Wilson