Client Testimonial: Mrs B’s orangery in Kent

From time to time we ask our customers to write for our blog. Here's Mrs B writing about how her new orangery has made a difference to her family home.

I expect a lot of people consider that orangeries only really come in to their own in the summer months, when the doors can be flung open creating a flow from the garden to the house. However, what has surprised me most about our new extension is the pleasure we are getting from it this winter. Not only is the kitchen itself flooded with light but the whole of the ground floor is also a lot brighter. I feel it’s given the entire interior a new lease of life. I’m also enjoying the views of our garden from a different angle and looking forward to watching how it changes through the seasons.

We enjoy entertaining and so our first thought was to relocate our previously smaller and darker kitchen into a new extension. It’s now the focal point of our home and means that when we have guests over, I’m no longer segregated from friends and family and can play host as well as chef.

Strangely enough, the extension has also given a whole new dimension to our house. Rather than feeling like an add-on, the wide entrance between the old and new areas enormously improves the more linear layout we previously had. It feels much wider and more spacious now.

Rather than incorporate the space that was previously our kitchen, we’ve now transformed it into a smaller TV room. I can’t imagine we’ll spend much time in it in the summer months, but it’s a really cosy snug for darker, colder evenings now.

Westbury said they offer a bespoke service and I can certainly vouch for that. They came to our home to assess what would and wouldn’t work rather than simply using our preconceived ideas. As a result the garden room fits perfectly; the style of the architecture, the colours and design make it feel as though it has always been part of the house.

We find we spend most of our time in the orangery now because it is such a lovely place to be – people are naturally drawn there. Our new puppy is very much at home there too – she’s got her favourite spot on the underfloor heating where she can keep an eye on the cooking!

Top tip: We had concerns that with so much glass incorporated in to the design, the room could be cold in winter. Nothing could be further from the truth – it’s actually the warmest part of our house.