Expand your living space with wintergardens

Your wintergarden living room

A wintergarden glazed extension is the perfect way to extend your living space and make the most of it in both summer and winter. One example of how this can be done is demonstrated by Monika Rech and Jürgen Wiese’s wintergarden, which has been furnished with a sofa, a desk and even a piano to become the focal point of their daily lives.

“Our wintergarden is the crown jewel of our home,” the couple agree. It’s the perfect place for them to relax in the evenings and at the weekend. “It gives us an unobstructed view of the outdoors and our new pond. It’s so relaxing to watch how the lighting and colours shift and change.” And when the couple decide they’d rather have a cosy evening in front of the TV, they simply turn it to face the wintergarden from inside their living room. They can also watch the flames flickering in their hearth from either room.

Wintergarten SDL Akzent Plus am Abend mit Beleuchtung
Wintergarten SDL Akzent Plus am Abend mit Beleuchtung

More space and more light

“We wanted more living space – our original idea was to build a small extension that could act as a dining room,” Jürgen recalls. The concept quickly evolved to become a spacious wintergarden which now stretches across the full width of the house and opens up onto the garden thanks to a bi-folding door. “We wanted the renovation to give our home a modern feel. We also wanted more light and space.” It didn’t take the couple long to find the right manufacturer for their project, as the architect they had contracted to handle the renovations had already had plenty good experience with Solarlux.

Wintergarten SDL Akzent Plus, Detailansicht
Wintergarten SDL Akzent Plus, Detailansicht

Bespoke canopy solution

The monopitch roof of the wintergarden, which inclines towards the house, was one of the owners’ explicit requirements – they wanted the eaves to be concealed, and the solution made the glazed extension impressively much taller. However, it did make drainage more complicated as a single drain would need to handle the rain and snow from both roofs, but this was no problem for Solarlux – the larger gutter is cleverly concealed in a wider beam.

Wintergarten SDL Akzent Plus in dunkelgrau und geöffneter Glas-Faltwand
Wintergarten SDL Akzent Plus in dunkelgrau und geöffneter Glas-Faltwand

Sophisticated technology

Three flat sliding windows in the roof area and three tilting windows in the fixed side elements of the wintergarden – all of which can be controlled electronically – provide plenty of natural ventilation. In summer, this was more than enough to stop the wintergarden getting too warm from the sunshine streaming in.

Thanks to its three-panel bi-folding door, the wintergarden can be opened up across a width of 3.7 metres, thus dissolving the boundary to the garden. The panels can be easily folded up into a slender bundle that nestles away at one side of the opening. When the weather is nice, the indoor and outdoor areas now blend into one, creating a seamless and accessible transition between the wintergarden and the patio. As soon as the days are warm enough, Monika opens the front up all the way. When it is closed, the bi-folding door’s slim profile sight lines really come into play and the large glass surfaces ensure that the house gets plenty of light – even in the darker months of the year. 

You can find more information on Solarlux’s wintergardens here.