North facing kitchen diner, is it really cold and dark?

pieroabcd

Hi,
i don't know if it's a coincidence, but at least 95% of the (many) houses that I've seen  had a NW / N / NE facing kitchen diner on a garden.
I couldn't care less about the orientation (even less so about the existence itself of the garden), but my partner is afraid that a non-south facing kitchen will look cold and dark from autumn to spring and that the garden will likely be wet.
As for the cold the solution is easy: turn on the boiler. For the light it's different, though.

Is it so bad? Do the skylights help to shed some real daylight?

Doozergirl

The quality of light from above thru a roof light is always better than that which comes in from a regular window, every time.  

How big is the garden?  Even if the nearest part of the garden faces North, it means that the bottom end faces South, so you can put your seating area elsewhere in the garden.    It's only a big problem in the smallest of gardens.  

pieroabcd

most of the times it's long and narrow (say 10mx4m or something very close)

Davesnave

It's too broad a brush you're using to paint this. Where I used to live in the city a row of Victorian houses at the end of our garden had their little 6m plots facing due north and they saw little if any the sun in winter. Even in summer, it was late before the sun came around. The kitchens & dining rooms in those houses were all dark and I'd never have bought one myself, but they're currently selling at around £600k, the same as the semi I lived in, so it doesn't bother some people.

Where I live now,in a bungalow, our kitchen/diner faces due north. There's less shadow on the front garden because it's single storey, but with plenty of space here that's not important. The ambience of the room and light levels are fine though, and in summer it's a relief to go in there where the temperature never goes much above 23c. We consciously put light coloured units in there and a light-reflective floor, but it's rare to need lighting on in daytime there. I'm sure if we had another storey a roof light or two would be a great addition, as they were in another house we owned, but there were more buildings and trees nearby there. The individual location counts for a lot.

youth_leader

I signed up for a course with Sophie Robinson, she has a north facing kitchen and has decorated it in dark colours, it looks fantastic.  Have a look at her Instagram posts. 

pieroabcd

Davesnave said:

It's too broad a brush you're using to paint this. Where I used to live in the city a row of Victorian houses at the end of our garden had their little 6m plots facing due north and they saw little if any the sun in winter. Even in summer, it was late before the sun came around. The kitchens & dining rooms in those houses were all dark and I'd never have bought one myself, but they're currently selling at around £600k, the same as the semi I lived in, so it doesn't bother some people.

Did you have a roof light in that victorian house?

lookstraightahead

It's something I've never ever thought about, although my issue is always "can I keep windows open in the house 24/7" as I hate having no fresh air. So even if it snows, window are open.

not very helpful but I think we have a north facing garden and it's not been an issue.

GoogleMeNow

As posters above have said, it does depend on the size of the garden, how tall and close nearby buildings/trees are, whether your windows are large, whether there are any doors/patio doors into the room etc.  I have had two north facing kitchen diners, one of which also had a row of lleylandii conifers blocking light, and the other one which was absolutely fine.  A south facing kitchen when cooking can be too hot!!

Davesnave

pieroabcd said:

Davesnave said:

It's too broad a brush you're using to paint this. Where I used to live in the city a row of Victorian houses at the end of our garden had their little 6m plots facing due north and they saw little if any the sun in winter. Even in summer, it was late before the sun came around. The kitchens & dining rooms in those houses were all dark and I'd never have bought one myself, but they're currently selling at around £600k, the same as the semi I lived in, so it doesn't bother some people.

Did you have a roof light in that victorian house?

I didn't say I owned any of the Victorian houses mentioned. I knew the people who lived in them, so I saw inside. One family did install a roof light and it helped in their kitchen area, but didn't make a difference to the breakfast room behind. The owners didn't hack these properties around like we did with our 40s semis.....it's not the 'done' thing!

Continental

I live in an 1840s house with the kitchen facing north. In those days before refridgeration it was the best way to keep food and milk as cool as possible. I do have a large window though and the floors are shiny cream tiles which reflect the light (dining room has them too).

My previous house had a south facing kitchen. It was awful in the Summer - far too hot and I I had to keep the blinds down all day to try to drop the temperature a bit. Butter would melt in a few minutes.  I much prefer a cooler kitchen (which gets warm in any case when cooking, and I have an Aga which is kept low but I haven’t turned it on yet). 

RS2OOO

Whilst this link is aimed at calculating how much light the garden itself will get, you can easily visualize how much light and heat your rear facing Kitchen / Diner will get depending on its orientation:

https://www.gardenersworld.com/plants/types-of-garden-shade/