Flat roof skylight/ lantern location

6 years ago

Hi, we are in the middle of designing a single storey kitchen/dining room extension to the rear and side of the house. It will be an open space which part of it will be within the original footprint of the house (green are in the drawing below) and rest part of the new extension (blue area, approx size 3x8m. The blue area will be a flat roof. As the drawing shows we planned a large skylight lantern (4x1.5m) in the middle of the flat roof extension. However, as we would like to position the furniture and the kitchen as per the drawing, we just realised that the location of the lantern will not allow us to have suspended lights over the dining table (and potentially the full length of the island). We cannot seem to understand how we can fit the lantern (smaller size) or alternatives in such a way to look aesthetically nice as well as practical. Will appreciate any advice!

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Comments (4)

PRO
User
6 years ago
I think you'll come down to two choices. Do you want the roof lantern more than the suspended lighting, or the other way around.

As you say, you can't have the suspended lighting with a roof lantern. You may just get one over the kitchen island, but you would have to have the type that's a central pole with three, four or five pendants hung from a horizontal bar, like this
Also bear in mind ceiling height. Many people struggle with the hung pendants due to standard height ceilings ( 7'6" ), they're too low for a lot of lights.
The beauty for me is in the lantern and that's what you'll love looking at. I think i'd go for the lantern, the pendant bar over the island and then intimate lighting by way of lamps on the Chest in the dining area.
Carole Wood
6 years ago
We have a similar roof lantern above the dining table and an arco light arched over it to illuminate it at night.
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Hi Farhaan There are standard sizes of roof lanterns (e.g 2000mmx1500mm), which some companies hold in stock so can help keep the costs down if you choose such a size. Two small low cost lanterns of 1000x1000 can place a good amount of light in your extension, however the overall extension size would easily allow a single large lantern, say 2000x2000, which would double the light opening area, and still only use a quarter of your available roof area - and you could go much larger if you wanted. It is amazing how much light a rooflight permits. If your budget allows for a large lantern it will utterly transform not just the extension, but ample natural light will flood into the old part of the house too. Solar glare coatings can be specified if you are worried about causing overheating, however a North facing extension will be shadowed by the upper floors of the rest of the house for most of the day so this may not be necessary. If you go for a rectangular rooflight, the alignment, horizontal or vertical, will make a difference to how you want the layout of the room or the draw of the light to affect the room. Lanterns leading towards the patio doors makes sense to me, but it will depend on the lines within the room. Also consider if you are putting a television into the area, how light will reflect off it and affect the viewing.
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Panikos
Original Author
6 years ago
Hi again, and thank you for your suggestions. Carol, the arco light is a very flexible option and certainly something to consider. Man About The House, the central pole with multiple pendants will work actually quite well as the ceiling of the flat roof will be high (3 meters). Following your suggestion I looked into it more and I found the following options which are equally practical, see below:

As we are going for a New York loft style look something like the first or second picture will be a vary nice feature.

Thanks again
HU-258134302
4 years ago
Hi. We're just considering putting a lantern in our kitchen. I'm concerned about noise from rain, too much light/heat and sorting the lighting! Did you go with the lantern? How have you found it - would be good to hear your views!

Flat roof skylight/ lantern location

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Carole Wood

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Flat roof skylight/ lantern location

Comments (4)

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Carole Wood

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HU-258134302

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Panikos
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