In Sweden, most houses have a garden room where 2 or 3 walls are of glass. Instead of adding a wart at the front of the house, we decided to build a garden house instead. We call it the orangery, which indicates a house where frost intolerant plants can be kept over the winter. Maybe we stretch the term slightly, because although we can, we usually don’t heat the orangery during winter. But, so far, we don’t have any plants that crave that.
Building the Orangery
Three years ago, I made a video about building the orangery, which we began during the corona lockdown. The intention was to follow up with a video to show how it turned out. However, I’ve been busy, and it is not until recently that we have finalized the interior. The film about the build of the orangery is available on YouTube, and I hope to make a follow up at some time soon.
There is also a brief description and a drawing of the floor plan on this website.
What and How Did We Build?
My design of the orangery gave itself based on the windows we got for 1000 SEK altogether. They measure 90 x 110 cm. Stacking two windows on top of each other makes 220 cm height and with the 60 cm base and the structural woodwork, the height came to over 3 meters in front. Furthermore, to keep the structure as simple as possible, we chose to have one row of windows at the back.
Based on a simple drawing of the floor plan, we did all the work ourselves. In addition to the garden room, the structure includes a small plant nursery, which is more economical to heat that the greenhouse early in the season. On one side, we have what we intended to be an outdoor kitchen, but which has become a shelter for the grill and a storage for wood.
Interior Design
The orangery is meant to serve two purposes. Provide a plant nursery plus a social space where we can entertain guests. Thus, the main room is divided into two zones. A sitting room with table and chairs for eating plus a sofa group for relaxing. We have included a small kitchen unit where we can keep chinaware and cutlery plus a tiny sink and cold (summer) water. Despite that, we usually carry the dishes back to the house for washing.
Colours
Blue and turquoise are the main colours. Yet, to avoid being too static, I included greens and yellow. In my opinion, the colours work well with whatever flowers I choose to decorate with.
Fabrics
The fabrics are from my favourite designer Tricia Guild, at Designers Guild. I have visited her home in London and I love the way she mixes a variety of colours. I hope my efforts honours her style. Most of the fabrics are from the outdoor collection and should withstand sun beaching, at least for some time.
Furniture
Our furniture is a mix of things we’ve had for a long time as well as some second-hand shopping. The dining table and chairs were bought at a Norwegian garden centre in Norway, many years ago. The sofa is from Designers Guild and is more than 20 years old. I had it reupholstered recently. Two yellow chairs are second hand finds that I have reupholstered. Furthermore, the cushions and pillows I’ve made myself.
How We Use the Orangery
Since our house is fairly mall, we use the orangery a lot. It has become a natural space for socialising with friends and family. Most of the time we sit around the dining table. In fact, the sofa is mostly in use when we feel for a nap.
Even in winter, we use the space. The wood burner has a perfect size for the space and makes the room warm and cosy, even on cold winter nights.
What We Would Do Differently?
Nothing is perfect, and in hindsight there are a couple of things we might have done differently. We should have placed the structure a little further away from the bedrock in the back. The floorplan measures 3,5 x 10 meters. That is outside, which makes it a little narrower inside. If we’d built it again, we would have made it about 50 cm wider. But, apart from that, the orangery has turned out to be everything I hoped for.
