From Guest Blogger Derek Lotts: Eco-Friendly Ideas for Granny Flats and Other Outdoor Rooms
Although most people think furnishing and decorating their homes in an eco-friendly manner is the easiest thing in the world, it’s sometimes far from that. You need to take everyone’s wishes into consideration and make sure every member of your family feels validated and appreciated as that’s the only way to make them see that their wishes are important. This goes both for interior and exterior decoration, but also for those spaces in the middle you can enjoy all year long. So, if you too own a granny flat, a sunroom or some other kind of outdoor space, here are a few eco-friendly ideas you should consider.
What is a granny flat and why is it important?
In short, a granny flat is an outdoor living space detached from the main housing unit, but still close by, usually in the back yard, not too far from the main property. Its seemingly humorous name may seem strange in the beginning, yet it’s actually quite self-explanatory, since this is the space where people often accommodate their aging family members who require care, but prefer living on their own. However, there are lots of other uses for a granny flat – a home office, an artist’s studio and a guest room for your visitors, among others – so you might also want to explore this concept and purchase a granny flat of your own.
Keep it eco-friendly
What’s great about this type of structure is that’s independent from your house and you can introduce as many green ideas as you want. For instance, installing solar panels or wind turbines on the roof is quite amazing, especially if you know that the power these produce could actually be enough to power all the appliances, devices and lighting in your granny flat. This way, your outdoor structure remains completely autonomous and your monthly electrical bill won’t have to rise at all, which is quite amazing.
A variety of designs
Another great thing that people tend to forget when speaking of granny flats is the freedom to make them as large or small as they’d like – you already own the land where they are going to be built and there’s nobody stopping you from doing whatever you want. And more rooms means more chances for environmentally-aware ideas that could significantly elevate the overall green factor of your granny flat, and that’s always good. This trend is rather popular in Australia at the moment, and lots of people planning to build such a living unit are looking into finding experienced granny flat builders in Sydney who can provide all the space and green options they need, making sure they’re as eco-friendly as they can be.
Less resources
One of the concerns people planning on building a granny flat have is the price and amount of material they need for their new housing unit. Nevertheless, what they don’t understand is that these structures are perfect for utilizing the power of second-hand material – from wood and stone to steel and glass, everything can be used and reused over and over again. You can also add a couple of new eco-friendly materials and resources such as bamboo, hemp and cork, thus turning your granny flat into a completely sustainable and environmentally-safe building.
Other outdoor rooms
Granny flats aren’t the only outdoor structures you could invest your time and money into, and sunrooms seem to be one of the most popular choices out there. Of course, come with a number of perks and drawbacks, but the fact is that they aren’t hard to design and built, yet can significantly raise the value of your home. And if you’re planning to sell it at some point, why not invest a small amount of money that can prove to be lucrative in the long run? All you need to do is use green materials when building, furnishing and decorating your sunroom, and it will surely be worth it in the end.
Making your granny frat eco-friendly is never easy, but it’s quite doable if you put your mind to it and search for ways to introduce sustainable resources and ideas for producing your own electricity, so think about building one of these for yourself as well!
Derek Lotts is a regular contributor at Smooth Decorator and writes about décor, gardening, recycling, ecology and everything related to home improvement. He thinks all of these topics fall under the self-improvement category. He believes in the power of sharing ideas and communicating via the Internet to achieve betterment.
