Studio Design Tips

Studio – A studio style sunroom is one of the most popular choices due to its affordability.  Also referred to as a shed or lean-to style, it provides the most amount of space for the least amount of money.  Although a lot of homeowners prefer the more dramatic effect of other styles, this style affords you all the luxury of a sunroom at anywhere from 20-70% lesser cost.  Besides, who needs to show off for the neighbors anyway, we promise that in your studio sunroom you will be just as happy as any other style. 

Studio sunrooms look their best when they are wider rather that longer.  We also recommend that you not look at a studio sunroom that is square.  Square sunrooms of any style make allocating the space inside the sunroom very difficult and wasteful.

Studio sunrooms typically are built at approximately 8’-8’ 6” backwall height and will then slope towards the front wall at approximately a half inch per foot (An 8’ backwall height on a studio sunroom that projects out 12’ means the front wall will be 7’ 6”).  You want to keep this in mind if you are trying to go below a soffit or overhang of the house.  We recommend that you avoid attaching your sunroom roof to your overhang at all costs.  Reputable companies will offer to remove the overhang so that a proper attachment of the sunroom can be made to the house.  Do not be intimidated by this recommendation, it will assure that you sunroom does not leak and that you will not run into service issues in the future.  In some cases an even sharper pitch to the roof like starting at 9’ and sloping down at one full inch per foot can provide a dramatic flair to the room and match up with the house better.

Some additional options that you can add to your studio sunroom include top and bottom glass transoms.  These areas are the panels directly above and below your windows.  You will not have bottom transoms beneath your sunroom door obviously.  Most companies will charge the same price for either bottom or top transoms for your sunroom, however, on the top transoms you have to make sure you are getting what you want.  Since the side walls of the sunroom will be sloping, the panels on top will be trapezoidal in shape.  Some companies will offer custom glass to completely fill the space and others will simply put standard rectangle glass units into openings and then put fill around the glass.  You typically will not notice a difference in your sunroom transoms unless you have a dramatically sloped roof and these side “wings” are rather large.  Since the rectangular pieces are of a standard size you will notice a rather large amount of fill and that can be unsightly.

Adding a sunroom to your home is one of the greatest things you can do to add value and increase your family’s togetherness.  Whether that sunroom is a studio style sunroom is completely up to you.