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I've been looking at floor plans and pictures of homes in South Carolina. Many have what they are calling a Carolina Room. The newer floor plans show this as a large open alcove room off the end of the family room. There is not a door that separates it from the family room and you usually have to pass thru this room to get to the porch out back. Often this is decorated as another living room. I'm trying to envision how I would decorate it. The room is visible from family room, would it be tacky to make this a yoga/home gym? Any other ideas?
Thanks Pitt Chick - That appears to be more of an extension or porch rather than an integral part of the house.
Just as an fyi
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If all exterior walls are completely covered with windows, it's a sun room. It's decorated as a cross between a outdoor porch and a living room. You use quality porch furniture you wouldn't expose to weather (like substantial rattan) mixed with upholstered pieces. Look at google images for "sun room." I think it would be tacky to make it a gym. It would look empty as a yoga room.
I absolutely hate duplication in a house. So if I had a living room and a family room, the living room would be my library (and I surely have enough books for that!) and the family room would become my living room. Or if I had a formal dining room, that would become my dollhouse room and the family room would then become my dining room, seeing as how so many formal dining rooms are clear across the house from the kitchen.
But if I had a sunroom, it would be the only duplicate of a room I would allow. I'd like to have a darker, paneled, and cosy living room while its opposite would be the sunroom. That's the room I'd put the wicker and the plants in with a brick or tiled floor. The living room would have the wood and rugs or carpets and the big, comfortable sofa and chairs. So, the sunroom in the winter time and the living room in the summer.
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Sounds like you could make it anything you want. Put a Tiki Bar and a freestanding Hammock, definately a couple of short growing indoor palm trees. A fountain of some sort. An indoor garden if you like caring for plants.
Maybe a great big Harvest table in the center, with some simple but comfortable chairs around it. Here you could garden, do craftwork, or just enjoy a family meal. Kids could do homework at the table, while still having an open environment to daydream in. Heck, you might even plop down a simple standard picnic table. Maybe it would do well to house an outdoor kitchen, or just a couple of day beds for general use, but also providing extra sleeping space for guests, if you get a lot of those.
Ive seen lots of houses with rooms with a solid roof, and walls of glass doors opening into the home and outside. I never heard of it referred to as a Carolina Room before, but its cool. They are also great for if you like to entertain outdoors, but find you need to move the party under cover. Between that room and the family roon it should be enough to contain most guests.
Very zen space when it comes to bringing the outdoors inside. I like it!
Actually - it's not really a true sunroom since it doesn't have wall of windows - here's a link to the floor plan and some photos showing it decorated.
LOL just so you know - these rooms are called "Florida rooms" in Florida, and "Arkansas rooms" in Arkansas.
I hope it's filled with light that streams into that living room - otherwise your living room is going to be very dark. So you really need to keep it as open as possible to the living room, and don't obscure the windows in any way. Do you have skylights or light tunnels in your living room? A glass front door?
It's a nice spacious room but it does have some separation from the living room, so I say you can do whatever you want in there - I'd put whatever I'd use the most for all that valuable space. The exception would be that I wouldn't fill it with anything, including gym equipment, that you can see from the living room and that would look junky. But personally, if you're going to really use it, I'd seriously consider a yoga room - with some plants near the windows. I'd love to have some space suitable for yoga in my own house without having to move my coffee table.
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