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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Please tell me how to survive in a West facing kitchen

232 replies

Sunsetsarehellinmyhouse · 07/07/2026 19:52

I'm losing the plot.
It's actual torture.
Every time it's time to cook dinner from June to early Sept I am on the brink of a meltdown after an hour in my west facing kitchen. The back wall that faces the sun is 8 foot wide and all glass. Glass back door. Glass big window. No actual wall.
The sink is underneath the window, facing the setting sun.
The length of my kitchen is 10 foot and there's nowhere I can stand to escape the sheer intense heat burning into my kitchen from 5pm onwards as the sun lowers until it is directly opposite my kitchen.
I sweat. I wince. I wear sunglasses inside. My legs get sunburn from standing at the hob or worktops as the sun penetrates in to the room.
I can't cope.
I can't cook and wash up earlier in the day cos I'm at work.
I can't cook later at 8pm once the torture is over because my young DC need dinner at 5 or 6 pm latest.
If I leave all the washing up till 8pm by then I'm doing bedtime with DC and don't get back downstairs till gone 9pm and by then I'm knackered with a headache due to the intense heat torture of the kitchen earlier on.
HTF does anyone cope with a tiny box sized west facing kitchen with a glass back wall?
Blinds don't make it any better because I need the glass door and window open for ventilation otherwise I can't even stand in there.
I feel like crying.
Never thought about this when we viewed the house in November.

OP posts:
Thread gallery
12
Birthdayfeel · Today 07:39

Yes, the electric awning absolute life changer. Although I don't cook when it's very hot. Salad and picky bits!

PropertyGuy · Today 08:20

AmIReallyTheGrownup · 07/07/2026 20:10

Get perfect fit honeycomb blinds. Keep them down from breakfast onwards.

There’s a reason French/Italian/Spanish homes are fitted with shutters on their windows!

This.

We put towels up covering our windows in small terraced house during last heatwave. By being there all day, kitchen was much cooler and didn't "need" to open window / door either.

Have used Blinds2Go and 247blinds myself at previous houses.

SapphireSeptember · Today 09:49

NewGirlInTown · Yesterday 19:08

And this is why the ubiquitous bifold doors are such a stupid idea. Who wants to live in a glass box?

I hate them, plus they're really easy to break into. I only have one door in my flat. Which is the shame, I'd like a door in my living room to open when the sun has gone round (but it would need something like a gate or railings in front as my living room faces the street and there's no fences on the bit of grass in the front.)

NeverDropYourMooncup · Today 16:13

Justanothernana · Yesterday 20:48

I’d really like a grapevine shade but could you explain how to create it again (for an absolute beginner with no skills at all ) please and if you don’t mind !

Edited

OK, grapes need something to climb up, but there's an expanse of glass where most people have walls that would have trellis or square large chicken wire attached. So you need to give them wires.

You use a hammer drill into brick to attach wires to what look almost like cup hooks, but are circular rather than leaving a way to slip off. These lead the vine up as it grows (you tie the stems in with twine or something longer lasting like smaller pieces of wire, rather than plastic).

As the vine gets bigger/taller, you can add further wires, possibly stretching out horizontally (or in a fan pattern from the wall eyes with occasional bits woven in to hold thick vines and spread the leaves out) into fence posts or garden walls. This means that you're not building a massive pergola or hard structure, you're guiding the vine in a way that doesn't negatively affect wildlife, there's no netting to catch birds and visually, it's just wire instead of big old posts across your patio. With a lot of heat and sun, the vine will spread quickly, increasing shade and providing a lovely spot for birds to skip along, picking off bugs whilst you benefit from the leaves absorbing lots of heat before it hits the house - and no reflective bifold film that birds fly into and break their necks on because reflecting the sky makes them think they aren't about to hurtle headfirst into solid glass and die.

At some point you'll probably want to find out what you're actually supposed to be doing (like trimming some of the grapes that might form so you are more likely to get an edible bunch) or just how to use vine leaves in cooking - which is easy peasy. But getting it growing up and in the direction you want is the first job.

Alternative is accidentally drop a bit of ivy from a bouquet down the side of the house behind a water butt when taking the bins out, not look down there for a couple of years and then realise you've got an amazing, cooling, long lasting wildlife habitat and late summer-autumn food source expanding over your house that your neighbours will absolutely lose their shit over because there might be spiders in it. <cough> Life is probably less complex if you have a vine instead.

Butterflyarms · Today 17:18

trainedopossum · 07/07/2026 20:12

Have you got any outdoor space? I have three triangular sail shades in the garden just outside the glass kitchen door. They were cheap as chips (mine were £20ish each or less on sale) and you can angle them any way you need them as long as you have three points to suspend them from.
We use ours year after year, only lost one after we left it too close to some roses on the fence and it got torn by the thorns.
Originally I planned to get an awning but I never managed to organise myself so these were a temporary compromise but I love them and won’t bother now.

Did you have to tension them somehow/install mountings? I'd love some sails but not sure how to put them in

landlordhell · Today 17:20

Blind down all day. Open window first thing and late. No oven just air fryer or cold meals.

landlordhell · Today 17:22

Butterflyarms · Today 17:18

Did you have to tension them somehow/install mountings? I'd love some sails but not sure how to put them in

Yes they came with hooks and links. B&Q. We attached two links to house wall and bought the pole to fix to our deck and that is where the third point connects to. It’s still boiling in kitchen though as sun on garden 1pm- sunset.

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