Please tell me how to survive in a West facing kitchen

What you can do today is hang dust sheets from the top windows (if you have them), dangling down to cut out the worst of the direct light. That's what we did last heatwave, it made a HUGE difference.

We left it too late to get a permanent solution in this heat wave for our bifolds, so I thought I'd share this solution, which is working well.

We've put up some 4mm thick foil insulation of the sort that goes behind radiators. We've attached it with 40mm clear suction pads. We have three bifolds, and each bifold has two pieces of foil. We can take the foil off in sections, as the sun moves round.

This actually still lets light through, and reflects light from our ceiling velux.

I really feel your pain as I’ve just had a glass roof removed from the back of my Southwest facing garden room which is open plan to my main living area. Literal hell. I used to love September being over and the dark nights setting in!

It’s too hot for cooking. I’m disabled I struggle in the kitchen so do chopping etc in the lounge at the table as it’s easier than manoeuvring the kitchen

Cheap solution is to buy a large camo net and hang it on the outside wall over the entire glass section. Gives a lovely dappled shade indoors and the wind passes through it.

Great ideas

If you have a concrete patio, you can plant tall and fast growing plants in pots. Bamboo for example can be very tall and can create shade.

All our windows are on the east and west of the house. It's absolutely relentless. It's horrendously ugly, but we put reflective sheeting on the outside of the living room window and it's lowered the indoor temperature from 35C to 28 because the sun just bounces off it. Could that be a temporary option?

Like these?
https://www.robertdyas.co.uk/catalogsearch/result/?q=sail+

@Sunsetsarehellinmyhouse T
You need to block the sun out, that's what is making it so hot. Try getting an awning? Other solutions include parasols, we have reflective film on south facing windows and that works. Tall plants in pots to shade the window. Even taping cardboard onto the outside of the window temporarily on the hottest days - use masking tape as it doesn't leave a mark. Can you get blinds inside too?

Cooking wise, don't cook on the hottest days, have picnic food instead. Microwavable rice for a side dish avoids cooking. Air fryer is good too.

Curtains or blinds inside. Shutters outside.

You can rig up your own outside protection with sheets or duvet covers or old curtains.

I mean it would be pricey but can you replace the glass with doors with integral blinds? You can still have the door open a fraction, blinds still working?

We had them and they were excellent.

All I can think of is Lady Catherine de Bourgh sweeping into the sitting room at Longbourn and criticising the aspect. Hopefully this thread has been more use than her.

Have a Pergola built, attached to the wall, and grow dapply, smelly honeysuckle all over it. Failing that, just buy an awning.

Love this thread. Problem solving at its best.
My contribution.
Like others have said, an Awning. This style linked. AND then at the end of the reach of the awaning you place those trellis planters others have linked, on wheels, on your patio, for that low sun you describe.

This year, before anything grows use the greenhouse shade netting/mesh across the trellis.
www.blinds-2go.co.uk/awnings?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=21455416685&gbraid=0AAAAAC9DimaaDWqsx6KoNRJF27R90GBro&gclid=CjwKCAjw6rfSBhAqEiwA_yocpsa0vYo76d8nikgBvw9MD1WYfZljkujrA27uevi1FI3QVWGOjXmzURoCAZAQAvD_BwE

Our kitchen/diner is super long with a skylight (luckily with a blind), a window, and bi-folds. All facing south or west. I have decided that I need to stop being a snob about vertical blinds but to invest in some so we can open the door but also adjust depending on the light.

I'm originally Australian and always find it hysterical that here we are obsessed with light and big windows, whereas hot countries build with shade in mind. So you get Brits complaining when they want to buy in these places that they are too dark.

Apart from that picky bits are your saviour. No one needs a hot meal in this heat. I made a rice salad recently which was cooked rice (cooked early) tomato, cumber and other salady bits. And had it with salmon. If you do want to cook, an air fryer is your friend.

I have the same set-up, and I am saving up to buy those external metal roll-down shutters that everyone has on the outside of their windows in Spain. They make a MASSIVE difference. And there’s a setting on them where you can roll them down but have ventilation holes open. Although, once it’s hotter outside than in, you MUST close the windows. Then open them when the sun has gone down.

Until then, other tips I picked up from living in Spain: try to use your cooker as like as possible. Air fryers and slow cookers are very useful for that. And maybe just leave the washing up till the morning in summer?

Get window tinting, it reduces glare and heat, many local firms do it.

Not sure if you are being sarcastic!

If not, you are very welcome.

If you are, I'm not sure why. This was the closest image I could find to the lean-to pergola dh has built on our house in France which gets very fierce sunshine in the afternoons. It's now lovely and cool in the kitchen, and pleasant to sit out on the terrace whereas before it was unbearable.

External shade. Blinds will take you so far, but to have any real effect the shade needs to be external.

As others are saying, huge outdoor shading needed. Temporarily I would be leaning big OSB boards covered in white cloth against the wall/window and creating a total block from the sunlight with a gap behind for airflow.

But, fundamentally, the issue is the trend for excessive floor to ceiling glass, hard landscaping right up to the window and similar. We have known since conservatories and greenhouses were invented that this led to massive overheating (and massive heat loss in winter). We have know that traditional houses with smaller windows, planting against the wall, shade from trees and hedges etc were cooler. So many people have been suckered into paying ££££'s for something that will need to be ripped out and replaced, all because it 'looks nice'.

If I lived in the SW now, I would be putting huge effort into climate adaption. We are expecting (early models, so not reliable) through August into September this year. Our forecasts of climate change say these heatwaves will become more common, last longer, and have higher peak temperatures. We know that this months heat waves are nothing compared to what is to come. We know that within 25 years we will have seaside areas being abandoned by rising sea levels, that many south east UK city centre spaces will be unbearable in the summer, and that a mass change of our geography will be starting. Europe will be similar...Living on north eastern edge of the Scottish central belt, I think I have about won the climate change lottery....

When the sun gets to your eyeline, as cantilever parasol that you can tilt could block that out.

Also as others have said, we have a big sail shade that makes a massive difference - you can fix the third point of the triangle on the ground (so two points above the door and windows and one on the ground.

The UV films that go on the outside of the windows are genuinely amazing. Don't do putting stuff on the inside as it will just increase the heat of the window itself and sometimes they can crack.

Also, food like potato/pasta/couscous salad that you can prepare earlier but eat cold.

everyone's probably already said this but:
anti-sun film on the doors and window
do the kids a cold meal - pasta salad, chunks of cheese etc. prep in the morning and put it in the fridge
Have cold food yourselves later
buy a fan/air con unit

We have a manual awning much cheaper than an electric operated one think we paid about £200.00 so could be a cheaper option for some.