What is Florida in a room? 

If you had to represent the state with one room, you’d have an appropriately named Florida room—or sunroom. These peripheral rooms, surrounded by windows or screen walls, allow sunlight to stream in and can be a relaxing, semi-outdoor escape from your indoor lifestyle. 

No matter what state you’re in, you can maximize your natural light and capture the tropical spirit of the Sunshine State in your own home with these Florida room ideas.

First, a Note on Building a Florida Room and Home Insurance
Even if you don’t already have one, these ideas may inspire you to build a Florida room that fits your home vision.

Just remember that adding a Florida room to your house will increase the cost of rebuilding your home, which will affect your homeowners insurance. Contact your home insurance provider, such as OpenHouse, to notify them of the addition and discuss how your rates and coverage will change. 

What Do You Look for in Your Florida Room?

How you design and arrange your Florida room depends on where you are in the country, your style, and the shape and size of the room.

If you’re in Florida, the namesake room might take the form of a screened-in enclosure or use vinyl windows in hotter, more humid areas. If you’re anywhere farther north with a milder climate, you might opt for expansive windows that open the room up to more sunshine. 

The view from your backyard will also determine the arrangement of your furniture in your Florida room. 

Your preferences will come out on top when it comes to style. Do you want a rustic hideaway? How about a modern Florida room lookout? You may want an extension of your house or a blend of the indoors and outdoors that lets you have your cake and eat it, too. 

The size and shape of your Florida room will ground your ideas. For example, a smaller sunroom seems limited, but it’s an opportunity to get creative with your layout and try bolder patterns and colors. Or you can divide larger rooms into smaller sections for different purposes. 

Ideas for Your Florida Room

Below, we list several ideas for design and use, plus some bonus ideas to open your mind. 

As you jump from idea to idea, imagine yourself in your Florida room. Ask yourself what you like about each concept and what you want to change. 

Allow this article to function as an idea bank from which you can pull what you need to create your optimal Florida room. 

20 Florida Room Decor and Design Ideas 

Go for a Rug-ged Look

Carpeting may not be the best choice for a Florida room with a lot of indoor and outdoor traffic, but some well-placed rugs may work.

  1. Layer several smaller rugs to fill your Florida room’s floor space. 
  2. Get creative with size and shape, strategically leaving some uncovered floor. 
  3. Create pathways with your rugs between your Florida room’s couches, tables, chairs, and other hangout areas. 

Plant Yourself in an Indoor Garden

With large windows or screens surrounding the space, your Florida room is ideal for adding several potted plants. These plants will enjoy plenty of sunlight throughout the day and act as members of your personal botanical garden. 

  1. If you have more space, add a mix of potted trees and other plants to create a lush seating area.
  2. If you have a smaller Florida room, hang some smaller succulents or herbs on a wall shelf.
  3. Choose some heat-tolerant flowers for Florida or cold-tolerant plants for the North. 

Invite the Outdoors Inside With a Natural Look

Blur the lines between your home and backyard with natural textures and materials for furniture, decor, walls, and flooring. Take some time to discover what elements of your Florida room you want to overlap with nature.

  1. Experiment with wall artwork that depicts natural landscapes. 
  2. If you like a rustic style for your Florida room, try a wood ceiling with pine, oak, or teak wood planks.
  3. For an open-air feel, combine natural greenery with light neutrals and light-green accents for furniture and walls. 

Go Heavy on the Lighting

You might think lighting fixtures would be out of place in a room that channels sunlight, but don’t forget about cloudy days and nighttime hangouts. Supplemental lighting adds personality and dimension to the room when natural light falls short. 

  1. Consider adding a hanging light like a chandelier or pendant.
  2. Accent your walls with sconces.
  3. Use table and floor lamps to draw guests to certain areas of your Florida room.
  4. Hang string lights on walls or above seating for a magical feel. 

But Maximize Natural Light When You Can

If you prefer more natural lighting, here are some ways to maximize the sunlight that comes into your Florida room.

  1. Pick all-white walls and furniture to reflect as much light as possible and leave your Florida room glowing.
  2. Install a skylight for added light coming in from your ceiling. 
  3. Use a decorative mirror to bounce light around the room and open the space.
  4. Organize any tall decorations and furniture away from windows to keep from blocking light. 

Don’t Be Afraid to Use Bold Colors and Patterns

Your Florida room designs don’t have to adhere to the same choices you made for the rest of your home if you don’t want them to. Experiment with bolder patterns, textures, and colors in a space you dedicate to fun. 

  1. Go for playful flooring, wall paint, or wallpaper. 
  2. Choose simple, neutral furniture with lively throw pillows, cushions, rugs, and other accent decors that are easy to switch out if you tire of them. 
  3. Take the opposite route using dark elements contrasted with bursts of color that are even more vibrant in your sunroom’s natural light. 

8 Florida Room Use Ideas

Your Florida room can serve you as more than just a hangout space—although that is by no means a bad idea. 

With so much natural light and extra space, your sunroom can take on several purposes. Just be mindful of the furniture ideas you have for screened-in Florida rooms, as the items should be water-resistant. 

  1. Dining: Create a semi-outdoor dining space for evening dinners with a table, chairs, and supplemental lighting.
  2. Creativity: Use your Florida room as a creative space. Gain artistic inspiration with a canvas and easel, a shelf with creative tools, or a desk* near the windows. *Note: If your Florida room has screened walls, you may want to cover a desk and other furniture with a water-resistant cover to protect it from the elements.
  3. Meditation: Turn your sunlit room into a meditation haven with yoga mats and a speaker for calming music, or crack open the window for the sounds of birds outside. 
  4. Fitness: Put your fitness equipment to good use and convert your Florida room into a workout space with a view of the outdoors. 
  5. Entertainment: Install a TV and speakers in front of a cozy sofa for an entertainment room that lures in family and friends on a summer night. 
  6. Play: If you have a small Florida room and little kids, consider adding chairs and tables for children, bean bags, and toy chests that double as window seats. Implement light-colored furniture to be on theme and provide space for the adults to hang out. 
  7. Guest accommodations: Convert your Florida room into a guest room by adding a daybed or sofa bed and curtains to block out the light. With golden sunlight pouring into the room in the morning, you can mimic a resort hotel room for your guests. This idea may exclude screened-in enclosures because of exposure to the elements. 
  8. Multipurpose room: If you have a large Florida room, divide the space into a hangout area with additional small corners for exercising, studying, working, creating, meditating, or reading.  

7 Bonus Florida Room Ideas

We’re not done yet! Here are some more ideas beyond design and use to consider when developing your Florida room. 

  1. Outdoor kitchen: Install a semi-outdoor kitchen and a wet bar in your Florida room if the space allows and you have the proper ventilation. You can whip up dinner for guests and family as if you were outdoors—without the annoyance of flies, mosquitoes, and humidity.
  2. Using unused space: Does your Florida room have a back door you never use? Try using it as extra wall space for artwork you couldn’t hang elsewhere or as an area for your sofa and chairs.  If there’s a part of your Florida room that doesn’t get as much sunlight when you use it, add a shelf in front of the unused window or hang a ceiling rack above.
  3. Promoting outside time: Encourage the whole family to use the backyard with baskets that hold sports and outdoor equipment in your Florida room. Make these baskets easy to reach on a shelf or the floor near the yard access door.
  4. The backyard views: Enjoy your landscaping efforts or the natural aesthetic of your surroundings by arranging seating toward the windows looking out to your backyard. Facilitate conversation by arranging the seats in a semicircle. You can also landscape your yard around your Florida room to make viewing elements like trees, water installations, outdoor furniture, and sports installations easier.
  5. Glass doors: Install double glass doors (French doors) or sliding patio doors to your Florida room for easy access to the backyard or the rest of the house. A transparent view into the Florida room gives the house a livelier and more connected feeling, while adding these doors to access the backyard will provide more natural light.
  6. Fireplace: If you live in North Florida or farther north, consider adding a fireplace to your Florida room. While the large windows in sunrooms may warm up the space during the late spring and summer, a fireplace is a focal point that offers heat, comfort, and beauty in the colder months.
  7. People-watching: If your Florida room overlooks a busy neighborhood street or park, you can facilitate people-watching with a comfy sectional couch facing your windows or screens.

A Section of Florida Anywhere You Live

However you decide to organize, add to, and decorate your Florida room, you’re sure to appreciate the tranquility of this piece of paradise at home. 

Some Florida room additions may suit you and your home, while others maybe less. Similarly, you can take parts of individual ideas to make them your own. For example, if you don’t like the idea of an outdoor kitchen, you may still like the idea of adding a smoothie bar. 

Remember that your sunroom is yours to enjoy, so take these ideas only as far as you’d like.