How can we keep a south-facing kitchen cooler with French doors?

[Thingamebobwotsit]

We have large French doors in our kitchen which are lovely most of the time, and we are in the house. This summer, however meant that when we were out the kitchen got too hot as it is a South facing room.

Any ideas or suggestions on what we can do to reduce the impact of the sun in the kitchen when we can't leave the doors open? We have pets so are quite worried about it next summer.

Amazon sells that reflective window film, which means the sun is filtered and reflected which is meant to increase privacy and also reduce heat. I don't think it is too pricey.

Another long term option would be to have a trellis or pergola outside and have a vine or jasmine etc on it to dapple the sun.

We tried everything but in the end all that worked were blinds (inside the glass) and air con.

Get an awning above the French doors. We did that for our large south facing living room window. It makes such a difference, and although not cheap, there are firms which offer interest free credit, which is what we did.

The awning is remote controlled, btw, which isn’t much of a price difference to manual (if you can get them).

Any recommendations of companies that do awning or blinds? We looked at Hilarys for the ones that can fit into the window frames but without seeing them in real life am a bit concerned they will look clunky.

Oh and how easy is it to fit a pergola into/over an existing sandstone patio?

From what I remember at our old house which had a patio, there are different options for the lower legs. You'd want the one you bolt onto the slab or possibly concrete in. Worth having a look as you can get various looks such as wood or metal - ours was wood as we had festoon lights on and used to sit under it with coffee and wine in the evenings...was similar to this: https://dunsterhouse.co.uk/garden-structures/lean-to-gazebos/leviathan-lean-to-pergola-w3m-x-d3m?infinity=ict2~net~gaw~cmp~21107673045~ag~181321202841~ar~745039414719~kw~~mt~~acr~6854345728&cq_src=google_ads&cq_cmp=21107673045&cq_con=181321202841&cq_term=&cq_med=pla&cq_plac=&cq_net=g&cq_plt=gp&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=21107673045&gbraid=0AAAAAD_DbrpGUEOG5gDhmq-EmuzeeAKcd&gclid=CjwKCAjw2aPVBhBkEiwA0Cptt4eTdNUn8tplT-GgCVt79Pzx9MOJGqsYD70ZGAOlfI6rkfayKyvwgxoCcdYQAvD_BwE

If you want instant shade (rather than growing vines etc) that company also do these Brise Soliel which are similar but with an adaptable sun shade/slats https://dunsterhouse.co.uk/garden-structures/brise-soleil-pergola?_gl=11sn06xr_upMQ.._gs*MQ..&gclid=CjwKCAjw2aPVBhBkEiwA0Cptt4eTdNUn8tplT-GgCVt79Pzx9MOJGqsYD70ZGAOlfI6rkfayKyvwgxoCcdYQAvD_BwE&gbraid=0AAAAAD_DbrpGUEOG5gDhmq-EmuzeeAKcd

Thank you! Will take a good look.

External shutters or other external shading.

I had a metal wardrobe rail installed over my kitchen window to act as a curtain pole and tied a heavy polyester replacement gazebo panel to it which I pull across on hot days. It cuts out a huge amount of heat but being cream in colour, it still allows enough light into the room to remain safe to move about.

Cheap, washable, very effective and gets put away in the shed come autumn.

We were told that the best thing to do is to stop the glass heating up in the first place, so although internal blinds/shutters can help, something which provides outside shading to the window is most effective. We used this company. All I can say is we’ve been very happy with them, and the end result. We also considered a pergola, but decided in the end that we didn’t particularly want a permanent structure outside the window, and a retractable awning was more flexible.

We bought a cheap shade sail, and just DIY’d fixings on the wall and fence to get it in the right place at the right angle. It made a huge difference to the temperature and usability of the room, and we’ve just taken it down and put it away to use again next year.