The modern-day kitchen is the heart of the home – a place where the family gathers to cook, eat, read, study, work and catch up on the day’s events. Everyone wants a kitchen that has ample light and is a bright and inspirational area for a whole range of activities. Kitchen skylights are the perfect way to bring in lots of natural light, which helps with meal preparation, reduces eye strain and can even help raise mood levels.
Natural light can also enhance the overall ambience of your kitchen, making strong colours richer, adding depth to more subtle hues and increasing design impact.
What's the best skylight for my kitchen?
There are a number of options for bringing more light into your kitchen space.
Skylights are an obvious choice but sky windows, solar tubes or domes also have their advantages.
So what’s best for your kitchen? That depends on what you want to achieve.
Adding a well-placed skylight or solar tube can deliver so many benefits including:
- Bringing in natural light and warmth
- Making the kitchen feel more spacious
- Enhancing architectural design impact
- Adding ventilation for eliminating condensation
Having these benefits clearly in your mind will help you decide which skylight type will work best in your kitchen.
My kitchen space is too small to install a skylight. Do I have options?
Yes, one of our small-sized skylights might be a good fit. Skylights can be as small as 550mm x 700mm.
Solar tubes too are ideal for tight spaces and can even be installed where there is no direct access to the roof.
You might even be able to fit a triangular/ pyramid shaped sky dome. A thoughtfully placed skylight or solar tube can increase the sense of space in a small kitchen.
Kitchen skylight design and ideas
Whether it’s a new build or a renovation, spend some time thinking about how skylights can transform your kitchen space.
From an optimal design point of view, windows/ skylights should add up to at least 10% of your floor space. And there are so many ways you can achieve this.
You can open up your roof to a marvellous sky vista through the use of multiple skylights.
Or you can use beams or skylight tunnels to emphasise the skylight as an integral part of the architectural features of your kitchen.
It may be worth your while to talk with an architect or designer, especially if it’s a major renovation.
Building consent may be necessary if structural changes are required and a professional can help you through these decisions and requirements.
Over kitchen/island bench
Positioning skylights over a kitchen island or bench is a very effective way to emphasise your kitchen’s important features and function.
You can build a light shaft to further enhance the highlighting effect of your skylights.
Skylights are perfect for creating a sense of a warm welcoming space around breakfast bars and kitchen benches.
Placement
Placing your skylight according to the aspect of your kitchen will change the overall impact.
- East facing skylights will allow morning sun to flood your kitchen – great for breakfast time.
- West facing skylights will bring in those lovely long summer evening sunshine hours.
- North facing skylights will ensure your kitchen has light most of the day.
- South facing skylights will bring in cooler light and will prevent the kitchen from becoming too hot.
Ceilings
Skylights can increase your perception of ceiling height. This is particularly effective where you have a narrow kitchen with no windowed walls.
Blinds
We supply a range of skylight blinds designed to ensure privacy, block out light and create highly effective thermal barriers.
Solar powered blind controls allow easy opening and closing and don’t require any wiring.
Large kitchen
Large kitchens give you even more space to play with when it comes to adding in skylights. Think multiple adjacent skylights or skylights separated by structural beams.
You can install skylights on both sides of a roof apex or emphasise unusual wall angles. Skylights will transform any large kitchen.
Should I be worried about condensation in my kitchen?
Skylights and sky windows are ideal for reducing condensation.
Steam and cooking odours naturally rise and so an open skylight will allow that moisture laden air to escape and drier air from outside to replace it. The result is reduced humidity and a fresh and dry kitchen.
Special coatings on the glass and the inclusion of argon gas will virtually eliminate any chance of condensation forming on the skylights themselves.
How do I clean my kitchen skylight?
Clean your kitchen skylights the same way you would your standard windows. Avoid using harsh chemicals or abrasive materials.
Standard glass cleaners available in most supermarkets are ideal but you can also use a solution of 1 part vinegar to 5 parts water.
Placing your skylights away from trees will help reduce the amount of external cleaning.
Kitchen skylight costs
Prices for kitchen skylights vary enormously according to quality, size and design features.
As a very general guideline you can expect to pay anywhere from $300 for a flat roof fixed skylight up to $2,500 for a large electric opening skylight.
Blinds, opening options and installation costs are an additional cost.
Council consent requirements (if necessary) and additional roof structural work will also affect the final cost of installing kitchen skylights.
DIY may be a cost saving choice for straightforward installations but you’ll definitely want to use a professional for more challenging installs.
A qualified professional may charge anywhere between $200 and $4,000 or more depending on the complexity of the job.
A qualified professional is also licensed and insured so the added peace of mind that this provides is more often than not worth the extra cost.
