Over the summer months, we are looking for places and spaces we can use to socialise, to bring people closer and to entertain, and a cleverly designed garden annexe is capable of all three.

This summer has made this particularly important, with both the heatwaves and a range of events from the World Cup to the Commonwealth Games inspiring people to build or convert their extra indoor-outdoor space into somewhere they can relax and invite friends, family and neighbours.

An entertainment hub is an all-weather, all-seasons upgrade to your home, and converting your existing space or building a new modular garden room around your needs is remarkably cost-effective and well worth your investment.

So how do you turn your garden annexe into a year-round hub to entertain your loved ones? Here are a few ideas and top tips.

What Do You Want In Your Entertainment Hub?

As with a media room, a garden room entertainment centre should be built around everything that you find entertaining, and this gives you an almost infinite canvas upon which you can paint whichever joys you like.

Everyone has different ways they choose to unwind, relax and have fun, and they will translate almost perfectly into your entertainment hub.

If you want a social reading nook with bookcases, snacks, mood lighting and ambient music, you can have it. 

If you want a home cinema with soft, plushy seats or beanbags to watch your favourite films, you can have that too.

If you want a place to enjoy a cold drink and watch the football, you can incorporate that into your garden room.

The key is to centre what matters to you around your garden room, and the right design for your entertainment hub will fan out from there.

What Have You Always Wanted To Have In Your Entertainment Hub?

Another question to ask yourself beyond replicating what you already have is about your dream entertainment space: what would you want to add to your home but is too inconvenient to have attached to your house?

The big advantage of a garden room over an extension is separation; being a garden apart allows sounds to dampen, allowing for a space to entertain that does not necessarily disturb the rest of the house.

Whilst fantastic in itself for allowing people to entertain whilst others are working, it also allows louder projects such as games rooms or arcades to be installed without driving the rest of the house to distraction.

Arcade games, in particular, are designed to be loud and attention-grabbing, and whilst this is sub-optimal to say the least when other people in the house have other plans.

A separate space to entertain allows you to keep the excitement and the party vibes going whilst other people can rest up.

What Entertainment Would You Like To Share In Your Garden Room?

Garden rooms, as separate indoor-outdoor spaces, are perfect for shared entertainment experiences, and one of the best ways to set up an entertainment hub is determining which ones you want to share with others.

This is the difference between an indoor living room and an outdoor entertainment hub, and if you have always wanted to set up a little film club or home cinema experience, you can design your garden room accordingly with a projector or large media wall screen.

Alternatively, if you prefer gaming, the kinds of gaming experiences that work best in a social setting, such as multiple games on games consoles, arcade machines and board games, are often different from those you enjoy on your own or with your loved ones.

The key to a successful entertainment hub is to centre that social experience in the design and layout of your garden room, and focus on everything you are likely to need for a very fun day or evening spent there.

Do You Need To Wire Up Your Garden Room?

Ultimately, if you plan to use your garden room for film nights, game nights, watching the match, you are going to need to ensure that your garden room is properly wired up, and that will involve working not only with your garden room architect but also a skilled electrician.

Most garden annexes benefit from having electricity to reduce the reliance on battery power and provide more options for lighting, heating in winter and scope for using the room any way you want.

However, in a world of digital entertainment, wiring up the garden room is essential, as is using a WiFi signal booster to better link your home internet to your garden.