Do lean to conservatories best suit when extending a contemporary kitchen?

For some reason lean to conservatories seem to be particularly well suited as an extension to contemporary kitchens. You will certainly hear arguments in articles on kitchen design against using a conservatory to extend your kitchen, there are a number of pros and cons. The last thing I want to do is to go through all of the pros and cons again, but I will give a brief summary.

The way your kitchen looks will be improved massively by using a conservatory to extend the room, it is quite uniquie! Using a conservatory instead of a traditional extension can also save you quite a lot of money. If you put a kitchen in a conservatory you will need to comply with building regs however, and this is arguably the biggest downside of putting your kitchen in a conservatory.

In my opinion the challenges are far outweighed by the great things about building a kitchen in a conservatory. If you are still reading perhaps it is fair to assume you agree with me? My focus in this article is on two styles of conservatory and kitchen that I think work particularly well together.

Due to the way they are designed to hug the wall of your property, lean to conservatories work well with almost any style of kitchen. By building a structure that stays close in to the house, rather than building right out, means that it is easier to get plumbing and electricity supplies to the conservatory. In fact, if you plan it carefully then you will be able to keep those utilities inside the main body of the house and avoid even needing to run them out to the conservatory.

There are many schools of thought on why contemporary kitchens work so well with lean to conservatories. If you look at cutting edge kitchen design you will see that modern kitchens tend to be minimalist in style and that the room tends to be large. You can add a lot more space to your kitchen by expending the front with a conservatory. The style follows through in more ways that this though, minimalist kitchens will be very well complimented by plenty of glass.

One of the best examples I have personally seen actually featured a very short lean to which only added a couple of metres to the kitchen itself. Exposed metal beams work exceptionally well in contemporary kitchens, and while the extension may only add a couple of meters in real space, the illusion of space that it creates is much greater.

This is not the only great partnership between a style of conservatory and kitchen. Edwardian conservatories, for example, are known for working very well with traditional kitchens. A less modern style of kitchen will certainly favour a more period look in the conservatory.