Garden direction and rooms backing onto it - what do you have and would you recommend it?

[catinthesunshine]

FTBs currently house hunting. Would really appreciate people’s thoughts on this.

We currently rent a house where the living room backs onto a south-facing garden, with a double-wide set of glass doors with curtains. We have to keep these shut a lot of the time, especially if we want to watch TV. It’s just too much glass on that side of the house.

So while house hunting I’ve been very aware of this ‘wall of glass’ type problem, and wary of houses that have this.

I had this idea that it might be best to find a house with a south or west-facing garden, living room at the front and kitchen and/or dining area at the back, but I just don’t know what’s best.

I’d really appreciate any thoughts or advice!

Meant to say it may be that we find a lovely house and compromise, but I’d so appreciate tips from experience.

I have South facing garden. Kitchen diner at back, with sofa. Lounge and another reception at front. I find this is the best of both worlds as I sit at the back during the day in winter etc when it's sunny and it feels lovely and warm. Lounge is freezing on those days! In the summer, I can escape to the lounge and it's always so cool in there.

I would have considered a West facing garden but feel I wouldn't have liked it as much in this house during the summer. My lounge would have heated up in the morning and I'd have lost my cool retreat later in the day!

Oh and never any glare on tv in the lounge is another plus.

We're south west facing. I really like it. We get beautiful warm light in the kitchen which is at the back of the house as well as the kids bedrooms upstairs face the back which is so lovely as their rooms are lovely and bright.

Our bedroom and the living room are at the front which still get enough light but not warm and sunny like the back. The living room stays lovely and cool on really warm summer days

There are a lot of additional factors like slope and shade from neighbours that will really affect the light your house will get, so view with an eye for those too.

My garden is North facing so the front of the house gets the most sun. I like having the living areas at the front with the kitchen at the back so that the kitchen is cooler on really hot days but that's a personal preference. My house is on a hill by the coast and was designed by the original owner to get the most light and take advantage of the sea views so it probably doesn't reflect how bright the average house with a North facing garden is. The garden itself is raised and it gets plenty of light just not across the whole garden at the same time.

I currently live in a north facing house with a south facing garden (rented). I really don't like it, the living room and main bedroom are at the front so always dark and dingy especially outside of summer. I grew up in a house that faced SW so the house always felt very bright which I love.

We have recently moved. Our back garden faces north west which means it doesn’t get sun in some parts of the garden (left hand side of fence) but there’s so far always a sunny spot I’ve found to sit in. Also means the lounge is fairly shaded so hoping this means will also keep cooler in summer. Our kitchen diner is at the front so it’s a nice sunny room. Yet to have a full summer here so not sure which rooms will feel more comfortable. A lot
of people prefer a south facing garden but wasn’t a deal breaker for us as it’s a small garden and I just need somewhere to sit when the sun is out

We're east/west facing which is great for us. The living room faces east so it never overheats and we rarely have problems with glare when watching tv. The kitchen diner faces west so we get to appreciate some lovely sunsets! Both gardens get a good amount of sun but there's always somewhere shady to hide on really hot days.

It depends which rooms you spend most time in though. Personally I spend far more time in my kitchen during the day, than the lounge. I'm barely in my bedroom during the day, so again, that doesn't matter, plus it's cooler in the summer. Most importantly (to me!) is having the sun at the back, in the garden.

Sw facing garden
And kitchen
House faces ne
Living room is lovely and cool in the summer
Back of the house is always warm and cool in the sumner as we have a tree in the garden in the west/sw and shades the house in the searing heat of summer

We used to have an sout west back garden and north east front. It was a really bright house.

now due north at front and it’s really dark all winter at the front and loses the sun in the front of house at a lunchtime in summer.

back garden can be too hot to sit in and I’m planting shade…kitchen diner with big glass doors can get hot in summer but we just open the doors and is lovely in winter.

I was thinking just this morning how I'd love an east facing kitchen to get the morning sun for my morning cup of tea!
My current kitchen has west and north facing windows so is pretty gloomy in the mornings!

North facing front here lounge at the front kitchen at the back the kitchen does get hot in the summer as we have huge 1940s built windows but the lounge is cool so balances out , in winter the lounge is cosy and the kitchen is cool but dosent get freezing cold

East facing garden with a kitchen diner/French windows at the back, west facing front room. I love it in fact - sitting in the kitchen in the morning looking out on my sunny garden is wonderful. It's really noticeable most of the year that the back room and garden are quite cold, but it makes it an incredibly comfortable house in the hottest weather, and it'sthe best-insulated room. As I'm not a fan of heat, that works for me.

I'm about to move to a west facing garden which will be quite a shift.

You'll just have to swap your sunny morning coffee for a sunny evening wine in the summer 😊

My garden, small in a terrace, faces north. I have an extension with two skylights and the whole wall is glass (crittal style).
It's great! No direct sun into the back so it's bright but I don't need curtains, nothing fades and it doesn't overheat ever. The garden is sunny -one side in the morning, all of it mid day, the other side in the afternoon. The only thing is in winter when sun is low I don't get much sun at all, but it's still bright and I'm not outside and the plants are mostly dormant anyway.
We sat outside for lunch at Easter this year snd my daughter got a slight sunburn!

My previous house, a three bed terrace, faced south with the rear garden and bedroom facing north. Garden only got the sun at the bottom and was always in deep shade right by the house. It meant the front of the house got all the sun - main bedroom and boxroom both got quite hot in summer. Rear bedroom stayed cool.

Moved to current house, three bed semi. Faces north at front and south at the back with a much bigger garden than the terrace had. I LOVE the sun so a large sunny garden was high on my criteria list. It does mean that the living room and main bedroom face north, so are much cooler in summer months. (Central heating is on in winter so the temperature then is fine). But because it's a semi, we have windows on the east side so it's bright first thing in the morning, and bay windows so we get some west sun in the evening, even in the front rooms.

If I couldn't deal with the summer sun aspect, I'd get shutters and perhaps an awning for the windows at the back, to make the rear southerly rooms cooler. I wouldn't go back to north facing garden, ever. It's easier to add shade than add sun.

South facing garden with kitchen diner and lounge at back. The kitchen diner is fine with the extra light and the lounge is long (8m) with the TV area at the far end (plus a porch area outside the french doors which stops too much glare anyway). We live in a chalet bungalow and our bedroom is at the front which I love as it never gets too hot in the summer. The kids rooms are at the back though so can get very toasty in the heat of summer.

I love heat and light and specifically bought my house, since the back was south facing.
I don't like the north facing cold rooms - they're the utility, kids playroom and kids bedrooms.
The kitchen, dining, sitting room and my bedroom all face south and are always lovely and warm. Never gets too hot in summer and are comfortable in winter.
I love having a sunny patio right outside the back of the house too.
I wouldn't even consider a house that didn't face south or south-west at the back.

There was once a poster with a north facing garden who said they'd never pay a premium for a house with a South facing garden for the few weeks of the year we actually get some sun.

The irony wasn't lost on me!

My back garden is south facing which I'm quite happy with, although it can get baked on really hot days. Neighbouring houses and their extensions mean we miss out on early morning and late afternoon sun from east and west though.

I'd like more evening sun in particular, so if I could rotate my house, I would probably turn it so the back faced slightly more southwest (or knock down my neighbour's house!).

I wouldn't buy a house with a north facing garden unless it was long and open enough to catch some sun somewhere.

Our garden is north facing. I probably wouldn’t have chosen it but now I love it. We are on the corner on the end of a terrace and the garden is long so it actually gets sun throughout the day, but also doesn’t overheat which is essential
with small kids and we’re in London so have had brutally hot summers recently.

We are planning a kitchen extension with lots of glass and I think it wouldn’t be possible if we were south facing as it would be unpleasantly hot. Lots of neighbours have had to get special glass/expensive awnings/retrofitting openable glazing/installing air con because it’s so hot in their kitchens.

Bit late to this thread, but I thought I'd contribute as it's something I agonized over. I always wanted a south west facing garden, but we fell in love with a north east facing one. We very nearly didnt offer for that reason.
It is so much better than I thought it would be. The patio is bright and sunny first thing for breakfast, but is cool during the day. I love being outside but hate being overheated. I have small children so they can be in shade and not too hot and it isn't hot for cooking as the kitchen is in the back with big glass doors.
We are putting a patio down the end of the garden which gets sun till 6pm at this time of year, and later in the summer, which we can use for sunny dining. Our garden is about 65 foot long so not super long.
If you love a late evening bask in the sun on a patio by your house then you probably need a west facing garden, but depends what your priorities are. My parents have a beautiful south west facing garden but we can't eat out there in the hot summers as we just cook! The parasol doesn't keep the low sun out.

Late evening is bedtime for the kids so I'm inside anyway and by the time I'm out the sun is gone for pretty much any direction of garden.
Just my two penneth!