North facing kitchen and garden

F

Fuzzy

Registered User
Messages
27
We are currently searching for a new house and have found one which we like. However, the kitchen and garden are north / north west facing, which is making me question whether we should go for it or not.

Has anyone got views on whether this should be a deal-breaker?

For anyone with a north-facing kitchen, are there any clever ways to make it bright & light?

Thanks in advance!
 
It wouldn't be a deal breaker for me and I'm an amateur gardener with a north-facing kitchen and garden. The garden can be dank and gloomy in winter but, because the days are so short, I don't spend much time there at that time of year. If the garden is long enough, it won't be overshadowed by the house in summer. With the sun high in the sky, now is the best time to see how much sunlight you can expect in summer. Good luck.
 
Fuzzy said:
We are currently searching for a new house and have found one which we like. However, the kitchen and garden are north / north west facing, which is making me question whether we should go for it or not.

Has anyone got views on whether this should be a deal-breaker?

For anyone with a north-facing kitchen, are there any clever ways to make it bright & light?

Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...


depends on the house and the length of the garden, but personally i wouldnt buy a house with a north facing garden being honest. you will most likely not get any sun in it, and itll be cold and dark, and hard to grow anything in it.
 
It really depends on the garden. Mine is green and lush with plenty of growth in summer, despite being north facing. A close inspection of your intended property at this time of year should tell you all you need to know.
 
As above check on what sort of sun the garden is receiving at this time of the year, will there be anywhere to sit out on an evening or weekend if you like to do that sort of stuff. I wouldn't worry too much about the gardening side of it unless you are an avid gardener, there are always plants to suit most areas.

Re the kitchen is someone home all day or likely to be in the future? I would really dislike a north facing kitchen if I was there every day, I worked from home for a good few years and it was from the kitchen but at least it was nice and bright and cheerful in there as it faced south west. Now if I only saw the kitchen in evenings or weekends I might live with a north facing one and if it was just a kitchen and not one of the newer type open plan kitchen/dining/half living room sort of things.
 
Our kitchen/garden is north facing and was the only thing not ticking the boxes when we bought the house. We are lucky that we have a sunny spot in the garden and when we made it pretty this is where the patio went. My wife was WFH for most of the lockdown and the garden got a great use and weeding was a great pastime.

Our kitchen was pretty dark when we moved in but at one stage we built and extension and added an extra window in the kitchen area. My parents had a similar issue and in the last couple of years installed an LED flat panel light and it is just like daylight. Ok it on most of the time when the kitchen is in use but it did make it a nicer space.
 
My last house had a north facing back garden.
It was only when we moved to a house with a West facing garden did we really realise how terrible a north facing back garden is.

I would never again buy a house with a north facing back garden/Kitchen.

I'd nearly go as far to say a north facing back garden is miserable.

With a North facing back garden we never ate outside. With a West facing back garden we eat out regularly as it gets all the afternoon and evening sun.
 
I'm with the people who believe a north facing back garden is a miserable place to be. Let's face it, a garden has become an additional living space and many are spending more time there. Garden furniture was never so attractive so a warm back garden has increased in value. Even in the recent sunshine those with north facing back gardens used their front gardens as some kind of relaxation. It's all about privacy and relaxation.
 
We have a north facing back garden so we put our patio at the end of it and it's lovely. The only difference is it's not right outside our back door. The kitchen is bright and airy even though it doesn't get direct sunlight later in the day, but we are lucky to have windows on the east side also which helps. I think it just depends on the house. I wouldn't like a north facing kitchen if it was small and only had 1 window.
 
Gordon Gekko said:
It depends on the house and the size of the garden
Click to expand...
Gardens are getting smaller and more important. In our 2nd house we had a north facing garden and it was long too. But, I'll tell ya one thing our houses since all have had south facing gardens. They are better places for children, grandchildren, sitting outside, more private, more enjoyable and more valuable if you decide to sell. Since we had the house with a north facing back garden, our first "must" when we changed houses was a south facing garden of decent size. And if we change again (unlikely) it'll be a south facing garden too. Just think about it, if you have a north facing garden you'll always have it kneading away at the back of your frozen mind.
 
Gordon Gekko said:
I’m interested to hear how north facing gardens are less private than south facing ones!
Click to expand...

Apologies Gordon, I expressed myself inadequately. I merely meant that you can enjoy more privacy by having garden furniture in your south facing back garden than in your front facing south garden.
 
Leper said:
Apologies Gordon, I expressed myself inadequately. I merely meant that you can enjoy more privacy by having garden furniture in your south facing back garden than in your front facing south garden.
Click to expand...

I too have a north facing back garden and I genuinely wouldn’t change the aspect of the house one bit. The sun hits the garden from the side in the morning and comes right into the kitchen. Then for the rest of the day, the sun is high enough to hit the vast majority of the garden and from around 2.30ish is hits all of it again. It helps that it’s a decent size and isn’t surrounded.
 
If the only Windows in your kitchen are northfacing, it will be a pretty miserable gloomy living space. If you intend to do an extension at some point and can add roof lights to capture some light from east/west and even south in high summer then I would consider a North facing kitchen, but it's not ideal.
 
We have just bought a house with a north/east facing garden and was resigned to only getting some sun in the morning but actually we get sun from later afternoon through to 7pm in summer. Garden is only about 25 feet long. Probably won’t get a lot of light in the winter when the sun is lower.
Can you visit the house in morning / eve and see how the sun hits the garden - in my opinion you only need a small sun trap area for the 20 or so sunny days you’d want to sit out in Ireland. The other upside is that we get great s/w light in our living room which is at the front of the house. We do, however, have glass doors leading from living room into kitchen - otherwise kitchen would be quite dark.

A key aspect to our purchase was that it allowed us to buy a house in an estate where we would not be able to afford a south facing house. I’d say almost 10/15% price differential.
 
Last edited:
I’ve a north facing kitchen. It’s a rectangular detached house so at least one side was always going to face north. (And despite the rumours about Northsiders and the North Side, I cant complain about the view. It actually makes for priceless borrowed landscape).
What are the windows and door like? Are they large?
I don’t have any wall worth talking about. Large 3/4 height window, double glass doors, pillar, another 3/4 height window, another double doors. Even in the depths of a wet Irish winter there is plenty of light during daylong hours.

Before buying the house it would probably have been a theoretical red-line issue. But I never look at it now and think it’s a bad thing.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top