Sun Parlors & other bright spaces

Is there anything better than a New England sunroom in January? Big windows invite what daylight is available, your relief from the gloom. Plants survive the winter. If the room is insulated and weatherstripped and the floor is masonry or tile, passive solar gain radiates through the house. Sunrooms are, however, popular from Seattle to Miami. Architectural devices for bringing sunlight (and often ventilation) into a house include the orangeries and conservatories of the Victorian era, porches later enclosed to extend the season, and even purpose-built "sun parlors," especially after 1915 or so. Here's a glimpse of these gracious amenities, with hints on furnishing, whether in porch or more elegant parlor mode.

- PATRICIA POORE

PORCHES sunlit in all seasons

Countless archival renderings and photographs, particularly from the years 1870 to 1920, show even outdoor porches fully furnished in suites of wicker, rattan, or painted furniture. An outdoor porch might have served as a three-season space with the installation of seasonal glazing. Small rugs, tea tables, and oil or electric lamps provided all the comforts of a furnished room. In Boston, the Victorian Shingle Style house (above right) dates to 1889 but its front porch was long ago enclosed, perhaps as early as 1910, with period windows, creating a generous sunroom appropriately furnished with Arts & Crafts-era furniture. Those conventions of porch living can be brought into the sunroom year-round. More formal sun parlors may nod to the outdoors with just a plant or two.

the history of the sunroom, like many things aesthetic and architectural, can be traced to ancient Rome, with its atria, and to the garden rooms of Renaissance Italy. During the Victorian era, the breakfast room might face east but it was hardly a sunroom; conservatories were geared toward raising plants. It was in the early-20th century that sunporches and sun parlors became common, appearing on plans for new houses by architects and mail-order designers alike. Several factors probably contributed to the new popularity. At the time, the "cure" for tuberculosis was a stay at a sanitarium in the mountain air; it was accepted that fresh air and sunlight were good for us. The 1918 influenza epidemic added to the demand. Magazine articles touted the health benefits of a sunroom as well as a sleeping porch. Sunrooms were included in all the period's house styles, from Tudor and Spanish to Dutch Colonial. Many a sunroom was added to an older house. Some were simply a glazed porch. Others were fancier with decoratively laid tile floors, French doors, and maybe even a tiled fountain in the floor or on the wall.