Please help me with my kitchen!!

7 years ago

We recently moved into a Victorian town house with this long/narrow kitchen extension, I'm happy with the size of the kitchen, but the end of the room is a conservatory and is freezing in the winter. ( this is our only dining space) I'm looking for better layout options, and any ingenious ideas to how to make this work! (what can we do to a conservatory without planning) my dream would be to knock down the conservatory and widen the dining area, but the house is listed and there is no access apart from through the house, so this would be a difficult and expensive build! Any ideas would be very welcome!

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Douglas Strachan - Chartered Architect Midlothian

7 years ago

A conservatory should really be thermally separate from the rest of the house to avoid these issues, but it looks like it's open to the kitchen. If you want it to be part of the house, then I would suggest upgrading the insulation and looking into heating options.

The best result is likely to be achieved if you allow yourself to explore options where some form of statutory consent is indeed required. A modern conservatory isn't usually encouraged in listed buildings, so you may find that the local authority actually support upgrading or replacing it. I'm not sure where you're based, but a local Architect should be able to advise you on this.

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Comments (10)

Annette Wright
7 years ago
The cold conservatory must also be affecting the heat level in the rest of the house. Depending on your outside space for the external unit, had you considered an air source heat pump to heat your conservatory. The internal unit is neat, sits high up on the wall and comes with timer, remote control and umpteen settings. Using renewable energy it is also cheap to run but you will need power in the conservatory or close by for the installation. Your local renewable heat supplier should be able to advise what can be done.
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PRO
Jo Chrobak Invent Design Create Ltd
7 years ago
last modified: 7 years ago
Hi Jo, I understand your problem, I had a similar issue in the past and it was the cost of hiring professionals that was the problem and I had to get really creative to solve the issues!

Listed building consent is free. You could apply for this yourself, if you actually needed it (planningportal). You could call your local council and speak with the officer about what you want to do and get their advice yourself without having to hire anyone.

If this gorgeous place was my home, I would add some beautiful glass / french doors to the conservatory and keep them closed most of the time. Then in the conservatory dining room I would add some gorgeous conservatory blinds (including roof blinds) and or curtains and some great radiators (I really love the ACOVA ones, they blend traditional and modern really well and are really efficient) or use the plug in type to heat the space an hour before dinner. I would probably get insulating blinds and have fun with a colour scheme for all of the soft furnishings such as rugs and anything that will help keep the place feeling warm.

I am not sure how large or young your family is, but if you were considering a rejig of the kitchen, adding a small bar area would suffice for breakfast and mean you only had to heat the conservatory on weekend lunches and at dinner times.

I hope this gave you some more ideas!

... And some pics to get you inspired....

Have a great day and good luck!

Jo
PRO
Bloc Blinds
7 years ago
Hi Jo,

Your kitchen is absolutely beautiful! It's a bit unclear from the photo to see see if our blinds would be suitable for your conservatory but if they are our BlocOut Blind has been independently tested and proven to reduce heat loss through the window by up to 43% and also dramatically reduces draughts.

The BlocOut XL is specially designed for larger windows and the likes of patio doors. Take a look at our website and see if it would suit your home. If you have any questions at all or would like us to send you out a few fabric samples just let us know.

Best of luck,

Kiera
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Feature Radiators
7 years ago
Do you have a radiator in the kitchen and/or conservatory? If not, it sounds like it would be worth investing in some. If you don't have the central heating going into the conservatory or don't want the hassle of messing with pipework then it would be worth looking at electric radiators, there are now lots of stylish designs including traditional and cast iron styles.

http://www.featureradiators.co.uk/Electric.htm
PRO
Ecoflap
7 years ago
Hello. We had the same problem in a previous house, made worse by the glass room facing down an exposed hillside and being double height, so the cold air made the rooms that faced into it cold as well to the point where you couldn't open the windows in the winter - it was an afterthought by previous owners and tacked onto the original external wall. We blocked it shut in the winter and sealed the windows that faced into it, but we knew we wouldn't be staying for long so could tolerate that for a while. It was just as bad the other way in the summer.

Had we been going to stay, I would have looked at getting proper openers fitted into the roof so that we could have ventilation in the summer, and horizontal blinds fitted at ground floor ceiling height to make it less of a huge space to attempt to heat. It had underfloor heating but it was useless. That whole house was a monument to badly-executed big ideas, such as the five-ring hob that had rings so small and close together you could only have fitted five milk pans on it, a great entertaining kitchen with a single small oven and a sweeping tiled hallway that allowed draughts from the front door to funnel down into the sitting room uninterrupted - I'm so glad we moved!
kl55hp
6 years ago
I've heard some people say that they've insulated the ceiling of their conservatory. I presume they meant they sandwiched insulation between the conservatory glass roof and some plaster board and then painted the plaster board. (Still retaining high, sloped ceilings and lots of vertical windows on to the garden; but losing the windows to the sky, if you see what I mean). Not sure what would look like if you looked down from a bedroom, but might be a relatively cheap option to get the conservatory warmer.

But blinds and turning up the heating sound cheaper. Not environmentally friendly, but actually probably the cheapest.

And like people said above, the planning department would probably be very supportive of you changing the conservatory to something more sympathetic to the building.

Your kitchen looks very inviting, by the way. Looks like a lovely house and worth some hassle if you intend to be there a long time.
Jenny
Original Author
6 years ago
Thanks everyone! Still thinking! X
annabellaamy
6 years ago
Hello, I would insulate the ceiling of the conservatory with plasterboard and insualtion to control the heat levels. Open up the wall between the conservatory and kitchen as much as you can. This will give it the feeling of being more integral to the house, it will be much more homely and sociable if you're working in the kitchen and will allow the heat to distribute evenly through the room. Have fun ! :)
minipie
6 years ago
I agree it's worth exploring what might be permitted. Are there other similar (and also listed) houses around you? If so try using Apple maps (satellite view) to take a look at what those neighbours have done. You might be surprised at what's been allowed. If you see something you like, knock and ask for their architect's name!

Please help me with my kitchen!!

Douglas Strachan - Chartered Architect Midlothian

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Annette Wright

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