10 real before & afters
None of these three rooms was built as a sunroom. A dining room with a glass wall, an empty spare room with one big window, and a dated living room with floor-to-ceiling glass behind heavy curtains — rendered ten ways: rattan lounge, Mediterranean, cottage wicker, reading nook, breakfast room, and a couple that are nothing but plants. Then try it on your own room.
No account for your first render · about ten seconds · nothing to mask or select
What makes it work
You do not need a conservatory. You need glass that is not covered, materials that like sun, plants, and a floor that can cope. Every render below follows those four rules; that is why rooms that were a dining room and a spare bedroom an hour earlier read as sunrooms.
A sunroom is defined by the window, and the fastest way to lose one is to dress it. Every render on this page that reads as a sunroom has bare glass or the lightest possible sheer. If you cannot bear to lose the curtains, mount them outside the frame so they clear the glass fully when open.
Rattan, cane, jute, linen, terracotta, pale oak. All of them fade gracefully or not at all, and all of them read as outdoor-adjacent, which is what a sunroom is. Dark stained wood, velvet and leather fade unevenly in direct sun and read as a living room that happens to have big windows.
The renders with the most plants are the ones that look most like a sunroom, and it is not close. Plants blur the line between the glass and the garden beyond it. Go bigger and fewer — a fiddle leaf fig, an olive tree, a palm — rather than a shelf of small pots.
Sunrooms get wet feet, dropped soil and eight hours of direct light. Tile, pale wood, polished concrete or a jute rug you can shake out. The cottage render swaps stained carpet for whitewashed boards for exactly this reason; the Mediterranean one goes to terracotta.
Before and after
Nothing on this page is a stock photo of somebody's finished sunroom. These are ordinary rooms that happen to have big glass, photographed as they were, and every image below is one of them with a sentence rendered into it. Drag the handles.
Ten sunrooms
The full conversions first, then the ones that only furnish the room you already have. Under each render is the exact sentence that produced it — steal it, change a word, and run it on your own room.
The glass-walled dining room Full conversion What changed The curtains, the table for eight, the sideboard and the chandelier all left. The walls went white, and rattan seating, a round jute rug and a row of plants took the space along the glass. The glass wall and the floor are the originals.
Why it works This is the cleanest answer to "what is a sunroom": glass, light furniture, plants, nothing else. Rattan in a pale honey tone against black window frames reads as expensive rather than garden-centre. The round rug matters; it stops the room from being a row of chairs along a window.
“Turn this dining room into a bright sunroom lounge: take down the green curtains so the floor-to-ceiling glass wall is bare, paint the walls white, and replace the table and chairs with a rattan sofa and two rattan armchairs with cream cushions, a low wooden coffee table, a jute rug and lots of potted plants by the glass. Keep the glass wall and the wood floor exactly where they are.”
The glass-walled dining room Full conversion What changed Wood floor to terracotta tile, walls to rough lime-washed white, the dark table and chairs to whitewashed wood with rush seats, the chandelier to a woven pendant, and olive and lemon trees in terracotta pots by the glass. The sideboard stayed, painted white.
Why it works Terracotta is the floor that likes sun most: it warms up, it hides soil, and it makes white walls look whiter. The lime-wash texture on the walls does a lot here — flat white paint would look like a showroom; this looks like a house near the sea. One of the two full-floor renders on the page and the one most people would live in.
“Turn this dining room into a Mediterranean sunroom: bare floor-to-ceiling glass with no curtains, white lime-washed walls, a terracotta tile floor, a whitewashed wooden table with rush-seat chairs, potted olive trees and lemon trees, and a woven pendant light. Keep the glass wall where it is.”
The dated living room Full conversion What changed The floral curtains became white roman blinds pulled up to the top of the glass, the stained carpet became whitewashed boards, the floral sofa became white wicker with a smaller floral, and geraniums and ferns lined the window sill. The chandelier stayed, painted white.
Why it works Proof that a dated room is mostly a curtain problem. This is the same floor-to-ceiling glass as the before photo, and the room reads as a different building. Roman blinds are the honest compromise if you need something on the glass at night: pulled up, they vanish. White wicker and a small floral is the classic sunroom formula and it still works.
“Turn this dated living room into a cottage-style sunroom: white painted walls and ceiling, the curtains replaced with simple white roman blinds, the carpet replaced with pale wood, a white wicker sofa and armchairs with floral cushions, a painted white side table and plenty of potted ferns and geraniums by the windows. Keep the window wall and layout where they are.”
The glass-walled dining room Paint and furniture What changed Curtains down, walls white, the dark table and carved chairs to light oak and rattan, the brass chandelier to a woven pendant, and two olive trees by the glass. The sideboard, the rug and the floor are the originals.
Why it works Still a dining room, and now a sunroom too. The glass wall was always this good; the curtains were hiding it. Rattan chairs and a pale table make the room read as daytime rather than dinner-party. The one thing to notice is the pendant: swapping a chandelier for something woven changes the register of the whole room for the price of a light.
“Make this dining room feel like a sunroom: remove the heavy green curtains so the glass wall is bare, paint the walls white, swap the dark wood table and chairs for a light oak table with woven rattan chairs, hang a rattan pendant in place of the chandelier, and add potted olive trees beside the glass. Keep the glass wall, the sideboard and the floor exactly where they are.”
The empty spare room Furniture and plants What changed Furniture and plants only. Rattan seating on a round jute rug, a fiddle leaf fig in the corner and palms either side of the window. The walls, the window, the sheer curtains and the oak floor are exactly as photographed.
Why it works The most useful render on the page for most people: a spare bedroom with one big window becomes a sunroom with nothing but furniture and plants. The sheers stayed because they are sheer; the light still pours through. Palms beside the window blur the line between the room and whatever is outside it, which is the entire trick.
“Turn this empty room into a sunroom: add a rattan loveseat and two rattan armchairs with cream cushions, a round wooden coffee table, a jute rug, and tall potted plants like a fiddle leaf fig and palms beside the window. Keep the walls, window, curtains and floor exactly as they are.”
The empty spare room Furniture and plants What changed A white daybed with cushions in oatmeal, blush and grey, a small round oak table, a brass arc lamp, a cream wool rug, a fiddle leaf fig and a hanging plant. Nothing else touched. The engine put the daybed along the side wall rather than under the window, which is arguably the better spot in this room — you face the light instead of sitting with your back to it.
Why it works A sunroom with one job. A daybed says "lie down with a book" in a way a sofa never does, and it takes up less of the floor. This is a weekend and a delivery, and it is the version to try if the spare room is currently a place things get stored.
“Turn this empty room into a sunroom reading nook: put a white daybed with linen cushions along the wall under the window, a small oak side table, a brass floor lamp, a soft wool rug and a few potted plants. Keep the walls, window, curtains and floor exactly as they are.”
The empty spare room Furniture and plants What changed A hanging egg chair beside the window, a rattan sofa with mustard cushions, a faded kilim, a macrame hanging on the left wall and ferns and palms in terracotta pots. Walls, window, sheers and floor untouched.
Why it works The loudest version, and the one that gets photographed most. The hanging chair is doing the heavy lifting — it says sunroom on its own — and the kilim gives the room a colour without painting anything. Terracotta pots rather than white ones is the detail that keeps the plants from looking like an office.
“Turn this empty room into a boho sunroom: a hanging rattan egg chair by the window, a low rattan sofa with mustard and cream cushions, a kilim rug, macrame on the wall, and lots of plants in terracotta pots. Keep the walls, window, curtains and floor exactly as they are.”
The empty spare room Furniture and plants What changed An oak desk with a cream office chair, a rattan armchair, a patterned woven rug, a tall oak bookshelf at the left edge and a fiddle leaf fig by the window. Everything else is the room as photographed.
Why it works A sunroom does not have to be for sitting. A desk facing the glass is the best-lit desk in the house, and the rattan chair in the corner keeps it from becoming a study. If the spare room has to earn its keep, this is how to have both.
“Turn this empty room into a sunroom home office: a light oak desk facing the window with a cream upholstered chair, a rattan armchair in the corner, a woven rug, a tall bookshelf on the left wall and potted plants beside the window. Keep the walls, window, curtains and floor exactly as they are.”
The empty spare room Furniture and plants What changed A white pedestal table with four cane and white chairs, a rattan dome pendant, a round jute rug, and a plant at the left edge. Walls, window, curtains and floor untouched.
Why it works The morning-light room. A round table by the window is what sunrooms were for in the first place, and cane chairs are the right weight — light enough to move, warm enough not to look like a café. The pendant hung low over the table is what makes the corner read as a destination rather than a table in an empty room.
“Turn this empty room into a sunroom dining nook: a round white table with four cane-back chairs beside the window, a rattan pendant above it, a jute rug underneath, and potted plants in the corners. Keep the walls, window, curtains and floor exactly as they are.”
The glass-walled dining room Furniture and plants What changed Only the curtains and the plants. The olive curtains came down, the walls went a shade whiter, and palms, a hanging pothos and a fern on the table filled the glass side of the room. The table, the carved chairs, the sideboard, the chandelier and the rug are the ones in the before photo.
Why it works The render to look at first, because it is free. Same furniture, same light fittings, and the room is unrecognisable from the before, entirely because the glass wall is finally doing its job. If this is enough for you — and for a lot of people it will be — you have a sunroom for the price of some plants.
“Keep this dining room exactly as it is but turn it into a plant-filled sunroom: remove the green curtains, paint the walls white, and fill the space along the glass wall with tall potted plants, a fern on a plant stand and trailing plants. Keep the table, chairs, sideboard, chandelier and floor exactly where they are.”
We do not have a photo of a true sunroom to start from, so these are rooms with the glass a sunroom needs, rendered into one. Two of the twelve we made were dropped: one kept the scuffed wall and the old armchair, one frosted the glass over. The ten here are as they came off the same engine the free tier of AI Room Design runs on, unretouched.
Where to start
In order of change-per-dollar. Most people who want a sunroom already own the glass and stop at step two. Nobody should start at step four without having rendered steps one to three on their own room.
Free, reversible, and the single biggest change on this page. The dining room with plants render is nothing but bare glass and greenery; the room already had the window. Live with it for a week before you decide whether you need blinds.
NothingThree large plants and a rattan armchair turn a spare room into a sunroom without touching a wall. The empty-room renders — garden lounge, reading nook, boho — are all furniture and plants on the room exactly as photographed.
A few hundred dollarsSun is the point, and white walls bounce it. A rattan or woven pendant instead of a chandelier changes the register of the whole room. The sunroom dining render is exactly this plus lighter furniture, and it is still the same dining room.
Low four figuresPale wood, tile or terracotta underfoot, and blinds that vanish into the frame instead of curtains. This is the version that turns the dated living room into the cottage render, and it is the step to render three ways before you commit to a floor you cannot un-lay.
Mid four to five figuresWhat goes wrong
A sunroom is easy to get right and easy to undo. Each of these is a real, common mistake, and each one is avoidable at the render stage for free.
The before photo of the dining room is the cautionary tale: a wall of glass and olive curtains covering half of it. If privacy matters at night, use a sheer or a roller blind that disappears into the frame by day.
Dark stained wood, leather and velvet all fade unevenly and show every speck of dust in raking light. Save them for the room next door. Rattan, pale oak and linen are what the renders use, and it is why none of them look heavy.
Sunrooms are where plants get watered, doors get opened and shoes come in from the garden. Carpet fades in a stripe where the sun lands and stains where the plants sit. Every full conversion on this page replaces it.
A sofa facing a television with the window behind it is a living room. Point the seating at the glass, keep the pieces low so they do not block the view, and give the room one job — reading, breakfast, plants — so it gets used.
Questions
If it has one big window or a glass wall, yes, and that is most of what this page shows. None of the three rooms here was built as a sunroom. The dining room has a floor-to-ceiling glass wall, the spare room has one large window with afternoon sun, and the dated living room has floor-to-ceiling glass behind curtains. Bare the glass, bring in plants and sun-friendly furniture, and the room reads as a sunroom without a builder.
Rattan, cane and wicker first, because they are light, they do not fade and they read as indoor-outdoor. Pale oak or whitewashed wood for tables. Linen or cotton cushions in cream, oatmeal or a faded print. A jute or sisal rug that can be shaken out. A daybed or a hanging chair if the room has one job, a round table with cane chairs if that job is breakfast. Every render on this page uses that palette.
White or off-white walls, because the room exists to catch light and white bounces it. The colour comes from the plants and the garden through the glass. If you want a second colour, take it from the materials — terracotta, sand, the honey of rattan — rather than the paint. The Mediterranean render uses lime-washed white walls and a terracotta floor and needs nothing else.
Give it one job. The renders here show five: a lounge with rattan seating, a reading nook with a daybed, a breakfast room with a round table, a home office with the desk facing the window, and a plant room. A sunroom that tries to be a second living room ends up as the room nobody sits in.
Pale floors and white walls absorb less heat than dark ones. A ceiling fan does more than air conditioning for the cost. On the glass, a sheer or a solar roller blind cuts the heat without cutting the light, and it is the one window covering that does not undo the room. Large-leafed plants near the glass shade the floor and like the sun.
Less than people expect, because the expensive part — the glass — is usually already there. Curtains down and three big plants is a couple of hundred dollars. Plants plus rattan seating and a rug is a few hundred to low four figures. Paint, a new pendant and lighter furniture is low four figures. A new floor and new frames on the glass is where it becomes a renovation, and it is the only step here that needs a trade.
That is what the upload box at the top of the page is for. Photograph the room from the doorway with the curtains open, type one of the sentences under the renders above — or your own — and you get the render back in about ten seconds. Every image on this page was made exactly that way, on rooms that were not sunrooms until the sentence said so.
Photograph it from the doorway with the curtains open, pick the sentence you kept scrolling back to, and you will have it rendered into your own room in about ten seconds. Free, on iPhone, Android and the web.
