A climate-controlled space full of possibilities

Stacey Odwell lives in Leighton Buzzard, a market town in Bedfordshire, with her husband, two children, and their lovable dog Milo. When the Odwells moved into this property, it had a small conservatory with a footprint that would only allow for a dining space. However, they had big plans to extend and renovate the back of the house to create an idyllic area for entertaining friends and family, as well as a cozy space for quiet nights in and a comfortable climate on hot summer days. They found the perfect way to make that happen.

Stacey explains: "We toyed with the idea of replacing the conservatory and changing the roof. Whereas now, we’ve extended across the back of the house, making it so versatile." 

"We’ve hosted birthday parties and Christmas where we can all sit around one big table and have dinner, or play a game of Monopoly together." 

"I often use this room to have a bit of time out and peace and quiet. I might grab a book or a magazine, the kids might do a bit of gaming on the TV, or in the evenings, we use it as a cinema room – it really does give us so many different ways of getting the most out of the area that we have."  

Whilst daylight was crucial to the Odwells, climate control was another factor on their minds. They wanted to ensure that their open kitchen and back of the house remained well-ventilated and a comfortable temperature throughout the seasons. 

"Taking into consideration the very hot summer we had last year, we really wanted to think about how we can regulate the temperature. So, we’ve gone ahead and installed VELUX external anti-heat blinds, which can keep our rooms to cooler, hope they will help us with that." 

"Because our roof windows are high up and out of reach, we chose solar-powered options, which means I can open and close the roof windows and blinds all from a touch of an app in my phone." 

Stacey concluded, “It really is just the centre, albeit on the back of the house!" 
 

To ensure the room was adaptable, the Odwells installed blackout blinds so that no matter what time of day or night it is, they can change their surroundings to better cater to their needs.  

"The great thing about the roof windows is that we’ve put blackout blinds on, so when it’s really light, we can shut it out as and when we need to." 

 

"When we were considering our extension, we really wanted to make sure that we had enough daylight in the existing kitchen, and by installing roof windows it’s definitely helped flood that natural daylight all the way back. It’s also allowed this area and the kitchen to be one big open-space, rather than two individual areas." 

Not only did the Odwells want to open up the property and bring the kitchen and the room at the back of the house together, but they wanted to extend their living space to the great outdoors. 

“Having the extension that backed out onto our garden was really important to us because we wanted to bring in that open space feeling. Doing that with the roof lights as well really does bring the outside in.” 

“The roof windows bring in daylight and fresh air that we needed in the extension but having it back out onto our garden as well just makes the extension seamlessly run into our open space.”