Please tell me how to survive in a West facing kitchen

[Sunsetsarehellinmyhouse]

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.

Can you add an awning outside?

I’ve had an electric awning installed. Makes a huge difference.

Sending solidarity. West facing kitchen here with beautiful floor to ceiling windows and patio doors out to the garden. It's torture.

Honestly if you plan to stay there long term I'd get AC installed. Otherwise the awning suggestion is a good one. You can also buy UV film on Amazon that really reduces the amount of heat that comes in, it's a bit fiddly to install but I've had great success with it in my greenhouse of a utility room.

Shade sail
Fitted blinds down at all times - look at things like Perfect Fit
Blackout curtains
Outdoor tall plants to create shade.

Do all of the above, create the shade, open the windows and doors only when the temp outside is lower than it is inside.

But ultimately you need to block the sun from getting in and maintain it.

Agree on the awning. In the short term, we taped space blankets (the type they put around athletes) to the windows and that made a huge difference.

In the short term, get some blackout fabric and peg on the outside of the windows. You can still have them open a crack if needs be. But honestly when it's hotter outside you should keep them closed unless you don't have an extractor

I can't plant anything outside to provide shade as it's a concrete patio.
I don't think AC would make any difference to the torture because the intensity of the sun blinds me as it lowers in the sky and I literally can't see. You know when you're driving in to the sun as it sets and it's dead opposite your eyeline and you can't see? That's me in my kitchen every day trying to make dinner and wash up.
I don't think an awning would make a jot of difference unless the sun is above it high in the sky. The torture is when the sun lowers in the sky until it gets to right opposite my kitchen at my eyeline; that's lower than any awning could block.
I feel like there's no solution 😫I'm genuinely really upset I can't cope with this every day. It's been going on since May half term.

We have fitted blinds and l leave them down all day to keep the place cool. Can't admire the view or the garden but it's definitely cooler. Also eating lots of salads, cold meats etc as cannot have the rings on too long. Its actually fine in 28 degrees lreland right now.

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!

Doesn’t entirely solve it but what about putting a meal in a slow cooker before the day starts to minimise time in kitchen. Or batch cooking at weekends to see you through until you can find a solution.
Portable air conditioners work well although impossible to get right now!

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.

Ours is east facing so boiling in the morning- we have linen voile curtains and it really makes a difference. They were expensive but made to measure and look good.

You certainly can get big pots with trees planted in them, shrubs planted in them, thats what we have, we have a really green garden but we dont have beds, we only have patio and pots.

The other thing is the awning as people have said

The other thing I dont understand is what you said about the blinds, why cant you open your windows when the blinds are down? Do the window open inward? If they open inward then you could have shutters on the outside.

You can get blinds.
You can get a film that reflects the light out.

We have a parasol as it was £25 and quick and easy and provides shade.

Open doors and windows on other side of the house rather than from.the hot side.

And dont cook, have snacky dinners in this weather. Ive just had some tinned tuna, some greek yoghurt, tinned sweetcorn and avocado with a crisp bread. Thats my tea. Earlier I had salady bits, chunks of cheese and meats.

Blinds on windows AND air con.

Also OP have you seen these half parasols, you can stand it right up against that window with no gap

https://www.dunelm.com/product/charles-bentley-27m-half-balcony-parasol-with-crank-1000122046?defaultSkuId=30598622&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Garden_Entertaining-PMax_%5BGOO-PLA-GARDEN-ENTERTAIN%5D&gclsrc=aw.ds&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=20951998766&gbraid=0AAAAADGqyX0akz7Wa1492MHCSQZ3Xtui_&gclid=CjwKCAjwx7LSBhB3EiwAjcodxMWPfqHwpZnOP6YumNEkUshyfrOWMEd3hUTFvOJCQTN-UNs5ei1zdBoCruIQAvD_BwE

We have our kitchen with a glass roof. Insane in this weather and we have been getting suntanned!

Just got the samples through for exterior film and they look really good.

3M prestige is has variations of dark if you really are wearing sunglasses. We like the brightness so are going to choose solargard which is more of a blue tone, retains brightness but has the same solar heat reduction as the darker 3M

Same here

As a short term measure (before you shell out for an awning) you could try v cheap shade netting - meant for plants but works for people too! Effective at blocking some sun and is net so let's air through. Drape on the outside of the glass wall to cut out some rays

For a quick fix, can you get those shiny things like they wrap athletes in at the end of races? Find a way to stick them up outside the windows. It would keep the heat off the glass.

But if you had AC, you could use blinds.

If you're not going to get AC, maybe look at options for ventilation from another side? I once went to a very Grand Designs type place which had fixed windows and other openings (with wooden doors, no glass) which were just for ventilation.

Or a screen that can be placed wherever sun is strongest? Like a wheely hospital screen but with nicer fabric.

Have you looked into the cost of rebuilding parts of your glass wall in brick?

I have a south facing kitchen, also with a wall of glass.

You need blinds.

I have a south facing kitchen. I’ve put blinds in the windows which makes a big difference. You should have the doors and windows closed once it’s hotter outside than inside anyway. AC is the answer but short term you can use a fan with the blinds down.
longer term get an awning outside and plant some trees in pots to create some shade.