Whether due to building restrictions, the design of your house, or privacy concerns, it’s not always possible to use windows to bring natural light into your space. That’s where skylights and roof lights are so effective, opening your room up to the sky for plenty of natural light through the seasons. Here’s a guide to the benefits of having an extension with skylights added to your home, from London’s leading custom home design and construction company.
The Benefits of High-quality Skylights in a Kitchen or Living Room Extension
- Energy efficiency – By bringing in natural sunlight, skylights and rooflights decrease your reliance on artificial lighting. Because you don’t have to keep lighting on in your home throughout the day, your energy bills will naturally decrease.
- Permissions – You don’t need any planning permission to install skylights and rooflights. Simply follow the permitted development rights for your property and your project can go ahead.
- Spaciousness – Like a window or glazed door, skylights naturally make your space feel bigger and more open. Even in smaller spaces, a few well-placed skylights can transform it from cramped – to comfortable.
- Cost-effective – Skylights are much more affordable than many people realise, especially if you are choosing standard sizes. The impact on the spaciousness and lighting of the space makes these a more than worthwhile investment.
- Visually appealing – Skylights and rooflights can add considerable impact to the overall design of your extension, becoming a high-impact feature as well as a functional addition.
- Versatile – Your skylights can be installed on flat or pitched roofs with ease, can be standard or custom-made, and can be placed in almost any area of your extension’s roof.
Of course, when it comes to skylights and roof lights, quality is everything. The best skylights have thick, high insulation glazing to keep your home warm, are fully waterproof against the rain, and exceptionally durable to cope with wind, hail, and snow. A good-quality skylight, like the ones installed by the Plus Rooms team, last a lifetime, are maintenance-free, and weathertight.
Be Inspired by Our Kitchen Extensions with Skylights
Flat Roof Kitchen Extension with Eye-catching Skylights
Flat roofs like the one in this Surrey home kitchen extension are ideal for skylights, creating a modern, bold ceiling design that brings the art deco property to life. With so much natural light, you can experiment with deep, rich colours without making the space feel small. The symmetry of the three skylights echoes the design of the three doors into the garden and the three beams across the ceiling, showing how skylights can enhance a home’s design and become a true feature.
A Glazed Delight of Natural Light
This Camberwell side return kitchen extension uses glazing to create a modern yet homey industrial aesthetic, with the design of the skylights enhancing the black-frame doors and windows. To maximise light into this narrow terrace property and make it feel as spacious as possible, almost the entire pitched roof of the side return is a skylight – one large, bold skylight and a custom-designed triangular skylight to complete the extension and enhance what would’ve been an awkward corner.
Wraparound Skylights Bring in the Sun, Moon, and Stars
In this Tooting home, skylights are again used as a design feature as well as a means of bringing in natural light and warmth. By using them along both sides of the pitched roof wraparound extension, it creates a feeling of elegance, simplicity, and openness. With so much glazing, enhanced by the full rear wall of bifold doors and glazing in the apex of the roof’s pitch, the vaulted room has volume and light as well as a strong connection with the garden.
This Wandsworth home shows just how essential skylights and the right design is to make a smaller home reach its full and most comfortable potential. The pitched roof side return includes three large skylights that ensure the long ground floor is flooded with natural light, creating spaciousness, and bringing warmth into the home. In this project, you can truly see the impact that a cost-effective investment in skylights can have on a small property.
Light and Warmth in Keeping with Character
Skylights also work well with character homes when they are installed as part of a thoughtful kitchen extension. This Sydenham home’s L-shaped kitchen extension looks like a natural addition to the property yet features four large skylights to flood the new space with warmth and light. From outside, the skylights are invisible, but indoors they form a modern feature that balances and harmonises with the exposed brick, parquet flooring, and supporting beam.
See more kitchen extension ideas here.
Bespoke Kitchen Extension Design and Construction for Your Home
Plus Rooms is a leading design and construction firm in London that specialises in custom kitchen extensions, including kitchen extensions with skylights and rooflights. Our talented team will lead you through the process from start to finish, helping you get the best floorplan, features, and quality for your budget. Whether you want a home for entertaining, for family living, or your own enjoyment and investment purposes, we’re here to make that dream come true. In over 17 years we’ve helped over 1,400 homeowners transform their houses – contact us today, let’s see what we can do for you.
