Winter Rooms: Sun Rooms All Year Round
Creating a homey space involves connecting indoor and outdoor areas effectively. There are many ways to bring light into townhouses.
One of them is creating beautiful, sun-filled rooms on the roof. We like to call these spaces winter rooms because they connect to the outdoors. This is important on cold days when it's too chilly to go outside.
Large windows can create strong relationships between indoors spaces and roof decks outside. But with large windows often come issues like draftiness. Passive house features and high-quality windows and doors make sunrooms usable in winter. This creates cozy spaces for relaxing and enjoying the outdoors throughout the year.
The top floor of this Brooklyn Heights Passive House is surrounded by floor-to-ceiling glass along three of its walls, creating a sun room filled with light. The massive windows look out onto a furnished roof deck, styled to feel cohesive with the living space inside.
A penthouse bar provides a great space to hang out with a strong indoor-outdoor connection. In the warmer months, two sets of folding glass doors open to seamlessly transition from inside the sun room to out on the roof deck - a perfect space for entertaining.
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On the Upper West Side, we created a roof deck with a connected study - a perfect spot to view the NYC skyline. Large, glass double doors lead out to the furnished roof deck.
In this Carroll Gardens townhouse, we wanted to make the most out of the attic - the only place in the house with sweeping views of the Manhattan skyline. We pulled back the rear wall to create a small terrace and added glazing across the entire north- and west-facing walls.
Each of these spaces exemplifies the possibilities that are unlocked when winter rooms are carefully designed and well-tailored to the lifestyle of their occupants.
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