My new conservatory is too dark

[FluffyFluffy]

I'm half way through a conservatory build...
solid roof just on and walls and windows doors up.

I'm in a semi detached house so 2 shared walls

Wall1 and wall 2 are shared with neighbour or part of my house so won't change
Wall 3 big glass doors to garden... very little brick very happy with this

Wall4 ... partial brick (50%) and 1 window to garden ... I think I have made a massive mistake by opting for brick.

Room is too dark and gloomy and line of vision to garden interrupted too much

I don't think adding roof windows will help as it is also a line of vision thing

My question is ... how difficult or costly would it be to change wall 4... to remove as much brick as possible (maybe leave dwarf walls only) and have a lot bigger window ?

Should I pause the build and change now
Or
Let the build finish and see how it looks all done and painted

Pics would help?

Yes ... here it is

That's not a conservatory, it's an extension.

A conservatory would have a glass roof, what you have is an extension with a 'glass wall'. Which personally I prefer, but it is always going to be limited in the amount of light you get.

Not the point but if only one wall is glass (doors) then it a conservatory or is it just a room (extension)?

And here

I agree that is more extension than conservatory. I had a roof put on mine but it has windows all the way along and just a half height wall at the base. It will obviously be much lighter once plastered and painted. We asked them to keep the ceiling vaulted rather than put a flat ceiling in to give it a feeling of space in ours and it is very airy.

That's an extension with patio doors.

White window and door frames would look brighter, also once youve plastered and painted the ceiling white and walks painted it will look much better

Change definitely..
It looks like a room now whereas you want more of a sun room I'm guessing?
It will cost a lot though..

Everything feels dark until you get the plaster on and then paint it. I'd keep the faith and carry on as you are.

It is fine - it will look much lighter when it is painted (assuming you are not painting it black). But it is not a traditional conservatory and without a glass roof you are clearly not going to get as much light in!

Exactly this.
Don't worry, it'll look a lot brighter when it's finished

Half-built rooms always look gloomy and weird; I'd press on. I agree it's not really a conservatory but that's a good thing; conservatories are almost never useable all year round.

Yes went for something called a warm roof (so is solid)

What about the wall with the window... would having a wider window work better ? It's the proportion of brick to wall on this side that concerns me

It actually doesn't look as gloomy in the photos as it feels in reality

My husband thinks I'm mad and that it will all feel fine on plastering is done and painted in white

The blockwork is sucking the light out of the room at the moment. With a painted ceiling and walls, and a light coloured flooring it will be much brighter. The grey-plague PVC windows won't help though, as they'll make the openings appear smaller and darker.

But it's definitely not a conservatory. Not even close. It's not even a warm-roof conservatory, which would have a much larger proportion of those two walls as glazing.

It will
Look much lighter and spacious once it's finished - it's quite strange how things work like that

I think the half brick and solid roof are both the right thing

It definitely doesn’t look like a conservatory but on the plus side it will be usable all year , how are you opening it to the house ?

Surely if the roof was all glass, like it is in a conservatory, it wouldn't be dark?

You need Veluxes in the roof.

Honestly once the plastering and floor is done it will look much much lighter,

ps my friend just had similar done, she calls it a sun room. So so bright now it’s plastered and painted white.

A rooflight would make a huge difference op.

But also when it's decorated, it will look better. Does it make the room it's attached to gloomy though?

It will feel much lighter painted. It looks good and practical for all seasons.

@Floralnomad there is a door from my kitchen already opening into it so didn't have any problems on that side...

Thanks everyone for your positive thoughts... it's a big investment for us and I started maybe to overthink things...

I've got a similar extension but has got three veluxes in the roof. I don't have an issue with it being gloomy but the room behind it is a bit.