Help me sort our conservatory/kitchen problem (pics included)

[FffrostySnowman]

We bought a house last summer when the weather was nice and didn't think through the fact that the kitchen opens straight out onto the conservatory. (I know we're stupid.)

Conservatory has a glass roof and the whole room has been arctic this winter. If it were straightforward, we'd just put in some double-glazed bifold doors to close it off during the winter, but there's also a big window shaped whole where the kitchen work top extends into the conservatory to make a breakfast bar. Also the only natural light the kitchen gets is through the conservatory so I don't really want to wall it off. Any ideas?

We've thought of doors and a thermal blind for the window gap to pull down when it's dark so no natural light anyway, or a bifold window, but the man who came to quote for doors today said that wasn't possible. We've also thought of trying to insulate the conservatory better, with blinds or something.
Has anyone any idea what would work?

Not helpful but what a lovely room.

Could you put some thick curtains that you can draw across the gap at night?

Do you use the breakfast bar? I'd be tempted to get rid of it, put a window in the hole for it and put the bifold doors in.
Between the window and the glass in the doors you shouldn't lose much light at all.

We have a conservatory (was here when we bought it) and it's bloody freezing out there -having it separated is the only thing that makes it manageable in the winter!

I would get quotes on the price of upgrading the conservatory to a proper room as such. This would improve your BER rating and reduce bills. I appreciate this might be budget busting. In Ireland there are grants is there anything like that in your location.

Failing that I would cost putting a glass wall about three feet past the breakfast room.

Those companies that do “warm roof”, so the roof is lost but you’d keep the light from all the windows?

Not helpful either but not much probably.

As @Marblessolveeverything said

A proper roof at least , with maybe a roof window in for light
Possibly making the windows smaller , making the walls at the bottom taller and insulated
Add a couple of thick rugs on the conservatively floor as well

Aside from putting a roof on the conservatory or shutting it off I’m not sure what can be done . I assume when you bought the house that you checked that the removal of the doors/ wall had been passed by building regulations .

Underfloor heating?

Yeah, change the roof on the conservatory for a proper one. We were quoted about £12k for similar last year.

We have similar, albeit smaller and it’s an L shape off a rectangular kitchen. Freezing in winter. Boiling in a south coast summer. We are in the process of putting a solid tiled roof with velux windows on to replace the glass roof. What is possible depends on the construction of the walls and depth of the foundation as it may not take the weight. However, there are other options like “warm roof” that are lighter and look like tiles but aren’t.

Ps- ours is significantly more than 12k so likely that the devil’s in the detail on that.

Looks freezing! We've had similar set up, our conservatory was 4m x 4m so looks smaller than yours. We had a the glass roof taken off and an insulated roof put on. Not cheap and we considered whether it would have been better to rebuild the conservatory into a proper extension. It's much better now and only very slightly colder than the rest of the house. I love it, so much better.

That looks freezing 🥶 sorry not helpful!

We had a similar set-up in a previous home, except we were the ones that knocked it through. We had the glass roof replaced with a ‘warm roof’ - it looked great, was still bright inside and much warmer. We also put more insulation under the floor.

Not desperately helpful but it looks a lovely room!
People we know with similar have changed it into more of a proper room. Annoyingly I'm not sure how but they said it was pretty cheap.
Depending on budget I'd be tempted to look at the bifolds or some insulated curtains there and then get an insulated foam board like celotex on a frame to go in the window gap. Not the prettiest but if you painted it to match the wall should be fine and allows you to take it out for summer so you can enjoy the room as is currently.

Don't be so hard on yourselves! I'm not surprised you didn't think about it in the summer!! It looks lovely.

I'd try another bifold company (you shoukd anyway) my friend has a huge kitchen window that's bifold, it's lovely.

obviously all houses are build differently, but I'm sure there will be a window option for there! You could also look at a glass panel you can remove in summer.

look into the various roof options with sky lights. Thermal blinds (I'd look at the fine ones that let in light) and you can buy huge electric rugs that plug in, they advertise as cheap to run.

Insulate conservatory or just demolish it - it all looks a bit ad hoc. I don’t think it’s a great room at all!

Oven pillar looks weird.

My parents have pretty much the same layout. They have a window in the "hole" and sliding doors in the gap.

Depends how much money you're willing to throw at it. I would not spend money trying to heat the conservatory or insulating it. There's no point. Make it into a proper room if you can afford it.
I had a conservatory with underfloor heating in a previous house and it was.l extortionate at a time when electricity was cheap compared to now. It's a useless space really...too cold in winter and too hot in summer. Not to be able to isolate it from the rest of the house is a disaster.

We had a similar layout. We knocked down the conservatory and replaced it with a proper built garden room. The conservatory was hot in the summer and freezing in the winter and eventually just became the cats bedroom 😂.
We now have a single storey with a flat roof and t those window lights in the roof - can't remember the name of them. It's so much better and so much more useable

A cheaper option which I did was to insulate the conservatory ceiling from inside - with solid foil backed insulation panels and then plaster boarded over - this made a huge difference to the extremes of temperatures .

Is it actually a conservatory? I understood they had to be separate from the main building by an exterior door. I would be worried about your insurance.

Realistically you need to think about what you want to spend. Heating that space daily will be ridiculously expensive. It would be cheaper to view it as a room used spring through autumn when the weather is good. You could use it occasionally in winter eg at Christmas but just buy heaters to warm it up. I'd then remove breakfast bar to put in a window and then bifold doors. Putting a proper roof on it will make the kitchen very dark.

I'm surprised if a conservatory without a proper exterior door between it and the house has passed building regs, that would have made me reduce the offer price on the house. I think your solution may partly hinge on whether you plan to stay for many years, as selling with the current set up might be a problem. Can you afford to knock it down and build an extension?

Thank you so much for all the responses. I think a new roof/changing it into a proper room is out of the budget at the moment, but I really like all the ideas for the "window hole". So possibly trying someone else for a bifold window, or an insulated foam board, or removing breakfast bar and putting in a normal window or the glass panel. Again, thank you so much.