AROUND HOME : Garden Rooms
ITALY’S LUSH “GARDEN rooms,” copied by the 16th-Century British, brought year-round summer to drafty castles. Their popularity grew for 300 years, and even the humblest Victorian cottages had conservatories filled with ferns and flowers. During the Depression, America’s sun parlors--costly to cool and heat--were boarded up. Ironically, the 1970s energy crisis redeemed them. New glass windows were leakproof, airtight, insulated, glare-free, energy efficient. Because solar-heated indoor gardens increase property values and look terrific, sales have been booming ever since.
England’s prestigious, cedar-framed, fully vented and guttered Amdega Conservatories in octagonal and gabled Victorian styles are now available locally with high-vaulting, circle-top or Gothic-arch windows, leaded panes, double doors, sunscreen blinds, ornamental crests and finials. Four Seasons Greenhouses makes bowed Georgian enclosures, Tudor arches and adjustable-pitch sun rooms but is best known for curving glass atriums ranging in size from bump-out herb-garden windows to block-long storefronts. Special features: environmental heat-control glass, heating/cooling fans, self-cleaning interior and exterior drainage, power-track shades and half-round sashes.
C-Thru Industries’ curved glass and acrylic atriums fit beneath most eaves without roof remodeling. Patented extras include continuous electric-socket baseboards, screened sliding windows and adjustable roof shutters.
California Solariums come in many styles and colors, single and double heights, with varied venting, draining, lighting and shading systems, adjustable barrel-vault frames and sun-screen films. Solarium Systems builds greenhouse additions and ultramodern free-standing glass gazebos.
For Amdega Conservatories, contact Amdega Pacific in Santa Ana. For other Victorian styles, contact Hawkes & Son Builders in Ventura. Thomas L. Hooper French Doors and Custom Windows in Santa Ana will build to order. For traditional and contemporary atriums: California Solariums Inc. in Irwindale, Solarium Systems in Marina del Rey, William L. Titherly and Associates in Oxnard, C-Thru Industries in Fullerton and Riverside, Four Seasons Greenhouses in Torrance, Glendale and Laguna Niguel. For greenhouse windows: James J. Livingston and Associates of North Hollywood. For free-standing greenhouses: W.W. McAllister Co. and Greenhouse Growing Systems in El Monte.
