Enjoy Your Glazed Extension Year-Round
Did you invest in a stunning glass extension to flood your home with light, only to find you’ve created a room you can barely use?
It’s a story we hear all the time. You have this beautiful vision of a space that seamlessly connects with the outdoors, but the reality is often quite different.
Does it feel like a greenhouse in summer, leaving you uncomfortably hot, and then become a cold, exposed space in winter that you end up avoiding? It’s a genuinely frustrating problem, but the good news is you don’t have to compromise on the dream you had for your home.
Before we explore the simple, practical ways to take back control, here are the key things to remember.
Key Takeaways
The discomfort in your glazed extension is a common, solvable problem of managing the environment, not a permanent flaw in your home.
Relying on a single solution, like a standard blackout blind or specialist glass alone, often leads to a compromise between your view and your comfort.
A specialist ‘Dual Blind System’ gives you the flexibility to perfectly adapt your room to any season, at any time of day, putting you back in control.
Incorporating shading early in the design process, guided by the principles of S.H.A.D.E., ensures optimal comfort and preserves your architectural vision.
Ultimately, the right solution ensures you can fully realise the 'dream' you had for your home, making it a comfortable, beautiful space year-round.
Why Your Dream Space Became a Room of Extremes
The Real Culprit: It’s Not Your Glass, It’s a Lack of Control
When a room with a lot of glass becomes incredibly hot, it's easy to blame the glass itself. But what we find is the real issue is a bit more scientific.
Modern, well-insulated homes are brilliant at trapping heat, which is fantastic for keeping you warm in winter. However, this same efficiency becomes a problem in summer when the sun streams in through large windows or a roof lantern, and the heat has nowhere to escape. It's the classic greenhouse effect, right in your living room.
In fact, the problem of overheating in new homes is now so well-understood that it’s addressed in UK Building Regulations (Part O), proving this is a real challenge, not just a personal frustration.
The reality is that relying only on your glazing is a passive approach that forces you to accept the compromises of the seasons. The key to year-round enjoyment is taking active control of your environment.
It’s about moving from a position of compromise to one of control.
The Great Compromise: Why Single Solutions Often Fall Short
The Pitfalls of a One-Size-Fits-All Approach
When faced with an uncomfortable room, the natural reaction is to look for a single fix. But this is often where the compromises begin.
A blackout blind is fantastic for night-time privacy and can help with winter insulation. But what about a bright, sunny afternoon? To stop the glare, you have to plunge the room into darkness, completely losing the connection to the garden that you wanted in the first place.
It forces a choice: your view or your comfort.
Many people hope specialist solar control glass will be the complete answer. While high-performance glazing is a great start, it's a permanent, fixed solution. It can't adapt to a cool winter's day when you actually want the sun's warmth to help heat your home, and it often involves a slight tint, subtly compromising your view year-round.
We find it often isn't enough on its own to manage the extremes.
And of course, you didn't invest in a beautiful, architect-designed space to then have to add something that looks like an afterthought.
Many homeowners worry about, or have experienced, blinds with saggy fabrics, visible cords, and bulky casings that spoil the minimalist look.
It can feel like a step backwards when a cheap blind hangs like a sack of potatoes in your pristine new extension.
So, When is a Single Blind the Right Choice?
Let’s be honest, a single, high-quality blind can be a perfectly good solution in the right circumstances.
If your room doesn't suffer from extreme heat, or if your primary need is just for night-time privacy in a bedroom, for example, then a single thermal or room-darkening blind might be all you need. It’s all about understanding the compromises and deciding if they work for your specific space and lifestyle.
Taking Back Control: The Dual Blind System for True Flexibility
The Specialist Solution: How Two Blinds Are Better Than One
For a room of extremes, the best way to take back control is with a specialist approach that offers true flexibility. Where we really shine is in providing a solution that doesn't force you to compromise: the dual blind system.
Think of it like having the perfect tool for every single job, rather than trying to make one tool do everything. It’s a system of two different, specialist blinds that work together in one discreet housing.
The first layer is the 'Day' blind: a high-performance translucent screen. This is a remarkable material designed to do two things brilliantly: it cuts the harsh glare and reflects a huge amount of solar heat, making your room instantly more comfortable, while still allowing you to see out clearly. This is the "no compromise" part – you get to keep your view and enjoy soft, natural light without the heat.
The second layer is the 'Night' blind: an opaque thermal or room-darkening blind. This has two key roles. It provides complete privacy when the lights are on at night, and just as importantly, it acts as an insulating layer, trapping air against the glass to help keep your room warmer and cosier in winter.
A Real-World Example: Creating Comfort for the Whole Family (Including the Dog)
We worked with a family in Cirencester who had just created their dream open-plan living space and shortly after, rescued Cooper, a Border Collie cross. The beautiful, bright new extension became his favourite spot, but two unexpected problems arose.
First, the room became unbearably hot on sunny days, and they were worried for Cooper’s welfare when they weren't home.
Second, Cooper would bark at night, reacting to his own reflection in the dark glass and any movement outside, disrupting the family’s sleep. They needed a solution that could handle both issues.
We installed a complete, automated dual blind system. The 'day' blind, with its high-performance heat-rejection fabric, was connected to a sun sensor to close automatically when it gets too hot, keeping the space cool and safe for Cooper. The 'night' blind was programmed to close automatically at dusk, which eliminated the reflections that triggered his barking.
This shows how an intelligent system actively manages the environment for you, providing total comfort without you even having to think about it. It's the ultimate form of control.
Putting You Back in Control of Your Dream
The good news is that the discomfort you're feeling isn't a permanent flaw in your home; it's a solvable problem. By moving from simply living with the seasons to actively managing them, you can have the beautiful, comfortable space you always wanted.
Taking back control is how you truly and finally realise the dream you had for your home in the first place.
What can you do now?
Think about your daily life: When do you most feel the heat or glare? When is privacy most important? This helps define what you need to control.
Consider all four seasons: The best solution works just as hard to keep you warm in winter as it does to keep you cool in summer.
If you're still in the planning stages: Now is the perfect time to talk to a specialist. This proactive approach is something we're passionate about, and it's the core idea behind our S.H.A.D.E. principle. Integrating shading into your design from the start is the key to achieving a truly seamless, high-performance result and avoiding regrets later.
Planning early is key to seamlessly integrating comfort and control into your design. Call our specialists on 01256 345580 for a friendly chat about your options, or please book an appointment.
