Conservatory Finishing Floor

Conservatory Floor furnishings

Your choice of floor covering should largely be determined by the use you intend to put the conservatory room to: the sitting areas of conservatories in residential homes are often carpeted but for most domestic conservatories and sun lounges a hardwearing flooring finish from tiles or laminate is better. Natural floor stone is perfect to enhance the transition. The primary stones used in floor tiles are limestone, sandstone, slate, granite and marble.

Limestone and sandstone conservatory flooring
These two types of flooring are sedimentary rocks that are porous in nature and formed in layers. They are easy to cut and relatively soft but this does mean that they can be bought in a variety of finishes. With its whitish colour, limestone can sometimes look a little cold and you may have to spend some time sourcing a richer shade that errs more towards cream or buff tones. Limestone is made up of tiny shells of prehistoric sea life and its durability is directly related to the size of the open pores: the finer the pores, the less durable the stone.

Sandstones vary a great deal more in colour, from the almost pure white material of Egypt to the deep red and brown found in parts of England. As in any natural material there will be some variation from slab to slab. Make sure you blend the slabs effectively on your conservatory floor to give a good effect and appreciate the variation.

Because limestone and sandstone are porous you might want to consider impregnation or sealing them but this can have an effect on the finish. They are often pitted or holes appear but this is part of the charm of natural stone.

For outdoor use the chemical composition of sandstone will determine its weather-resistance, not the nature of the sand that it bonds together. Where calcium carbonate is the bonding chemical, acid rain can rapidly deteriorate it and sandstone is tested for durability by being dipped in a weak sulphuric acid.

Slate Conservatory flooring
When we think of slate, most of us picture the roof of a Victorian house, but slate can be obtained in a wide variety if colours, and when it’s used for flooring, slabs are cuts in a much greater thickness. Welsh slate is still mined and can be ordered from source; even here, colours will vary from one mine to another. Slate is also available from Spain, India, Turkey and China. African slate can even be obtained in almost pure black. Westmoreland slate is green or orangey and sometimes both.

Slate isn’t porous by nature ? quite the reverse, hence its use on and as damp-proof coursing. It does mark and scratch, however, and is still worth protecting if you can avoid giving it a shiny wet-look coating. Regular oiling is needed. It does have the tremendous advantage of being capable of perfect flatness (i.e in snooker tables)

Marble conservatory flooring
Marble invariably comes from Italy and has the quality of being extremely hard wearing as well as looking luxurious. In laying it, you have to have some respect for the veins. If they generally head in the same direction it looks right. Being igneous and metamorphic rocks, granite and marble can be used in much thinner slabs

Granite conservatory flooring
Granite is the ultimate in hardwearing stone floorinf and comes in shades of blue, grey to black and then brown and fawn, even flecked with pink.

Conservatory Walls
Modern bricks, particularly the sand-faced flettons used for homes in the 1960’s, 70’s and 80’s are a bit rough-faced and once you’ve rubbed your elbow against them a few times the desire to plaster over them will be irresistible. The right brickwork can look good inside a conservatory but usually plastering is preferable. However, a smooth faced brick, a red stock worn smooth over many decades, is a different story. The aged quality and warm colour of the brick face, together with a smooth and kind-on-the-flesh finish, can make a perfect backdrop for a new garden room. Bricks do have the great advantage of absorbing the sun’s heat and releasing it steadily through the evening and night, so you could find yourself sitting out there after dark when the garden is chilly, still basking in the day’s warmth radiating from the walls.

As bricks are not always pretty to look at, they can be painted various colours to create an illusion of being elsewhere. Moroccan blue, tangerine orange or shades of green to further reflect the greens in your garden.

Décor and colour
If you go for it nowhere else in your home, the conservatory is the place to be bold with colour. Here, in this twilight zone betwixt in and out, daylight abounds and sunlight streams in to bring life and radiance to the colour of your choice. Use a colour wheel to find successful combinations with your tiling and soft furnishings.

Colour and mood
Violet is a colour which a majority of people would not choose to paint inside their homes but in a conservatory, violet, the colour of so many flowers, positively glows in the sunshine and lives happily against the green backdrop of a garden. Orange creates an exotic feel that warms the room in winter when the sunlight is watery. Blue is the best colour in a small conservatory as it pushes back the walls, making the space seem bigger (the exact opposite of red or orange) but choosing the right shade may be more challenging. Try blues that edge towards green and are almost but not quite turquoise or blues that hint towards violet. Always use a well prepared undercoat.

Alternative linings
If plaster and paint are not to your taste and suggest a bit too much maintenance, some materials can be used to line the walls and be left untouched thereafter. A cellular PVC-u has been developed in a range of colours and finishings for internal use. Metal, marble and wood effects all come in this tongued and groove board form that is maintenance-free and wipe clean.

Natural stone is also being sold now with adhesives for wall tiling. Cut into manageably smaller squares for walls, it can look very classy perhaps on just one wall or dress up a dwarf wall from the floor tiled in the same materials. Square tiles laid to a diamond on the diagonal is very effective.