Meet Stacey Odwell who lives in Leighton Buzzard, a market town in Bedfordshire, with her husband, two children and their loveable dog Milo. When the Odwells moved into this property, it had a small conservatory with a footprint that would only allow for a dining space. However, they had big desires to build out and across the back of the house so that they could have an idyllic area to entertain friends and family, as well as a space to enjoy a quiet and cosy night in. And they found the perfect way to make that happen.

Making a dream, a reality

Stacey explains: “We toyed with the idea of replacing the conservatory and changing the roof. Whereas now, we’ve extended across the back of the house making it so versatile.”

“We’ve hosted birthday parties and Christmas where we can all sit around one big table and have dinner, or play a game of Monopoly together.”

“I often use this room to have a bit of time out and peace and quiet. I might grab a book or a magazine, the kids might do a bit of gaming on the TV, or in the evenings, we use it as a cinema room – it really does give us so many different ways of getting the most out of the area that we have.”

Maximum daylight under control

To ensure the room was adaptable, the Odwells installed blackout blinds so that no matter what time of day or night it is, they can change their surroundings to better cater to their needs. “The great thing about the roof windows is that we’ve put blackout blinds on, so when it’s really light, we can shut it out as and when we need to.”

“When we were considering our extension, we really wanted to make sure that we had enough daylight in the existing kitchen, and by installing roof lights it’s definitely helped flood that natural daylight all the way back. It’s also allowed this area and the kitchen to be one big open space, rather than two individual areas.”

Seamless transitions from the indoors to the outdoors

Not only did the Odwells want to open up the property and bring the kitchen and the room at the back of the house together, but they wanted to extend their living space to the great outdoors.

“Having the extension that backed out onto our garden was really important to us because we wanted to bring in that open space feeling. Doing that with the roof lights as well really does bring the outside in.”

“The roof windows bring in daylight and fresh air that we needed in the extension but having it back out onto our garden as well just makes the extension seamlessly run into our open space.”

Peace of mind in a climate-controlled environment

Whilst daylight was crucial to the Odwells, climate control was another factor on their minds. They wanted to ensure that their open kitchen and back of the house remained well-ventilated and a comfortable temperature throughout the seasons.

“Taking into consideration the very hot summer we had last year, we really wanted to think about how we can regulate the temperature. So, we’ve gone ahead and installed VELUX external blinds and hope it will help us with that.”

“Because our windows are high up and out of reach, we chose solar-powered options, which means I can open and close the windows and blinds all from a touch of an app in my phone.” Stacey concluded, “It really is just the centre, albeit on the back of the house!”

A multi-purpose space full of possibilities-woman on sofa with dog

“I often use this room to have a bit of time out and peace and quiet. I might grab a book or a magazine, the kids might do a bit of gaming on the TV, or in the evenings, we use it as a cinema room – it really does give us so many different ways of getting the most out of the area that we have.”

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