Why a west‑facing bedroom is not a mistake

Buyers ask for south. Then they move in, and the room they use most between May and September is the one that faces west.

In the Eixample most flats run from the street to an inner courtyard. One side gets the morning, the other the evening. The rooms on the evening side were built with this in mind: thick walls, tall timber shutters, floors of hydraulic tile that stay cool underfoot.

South has its advantages, and in winter they are real. But a south room in Barcelona gets its sun at the hours most people are out, and in summer the midday sun is so high that it barely clears the balcony above. The evening is when people are at home, and the evening comes from the west.

Built for the evening

A west bedroom in late afternoon is not a problem if the shutters close. Light still comes through the slats in thin bands; the heat stays outside. By nine the sun has gone and the room is the coolest in the flat, because it has had the shade since lunchtime.

The builders of the 1890s understood this better than many architects since. The walls on the courtyard side of an Eixample block are often 40 or 50 centimetres of brick and rubble, and they hold the cool of the night well into the afternoon. The shutters fold back into the reveal so the window behind them can stay open, and the ceilings are high enough for warm air to rise above your head.

The room with the evening sun is the room people end up living in.

What matters is how long the sun stays and when it arrives. That changes through the year, and it is why we visit every home at three hours before we write a word about it.

At 9:00 we note which rooms have the sun. At 13:00 we check where it falls and how warm the glass is. At 18:00 we stand in the west rooms with the shutters open, then closed, and write down the difference. The photographs are taken at whichever of those hours suits each room best.

A west window in Barcelona

These are typical times for a west window on a middle floor in the Eixample, with a building of the same height across the street. Your own window may differ by half an hour either way. The times shift a little every week, so we note the date of each visit next to the hours.

Height changes the picture more than most buyers expect. On a first floor the building opposite takes the sun well before it sets. On a top floor the light stays until the sun drops behind the hills of Collserola, and the terrace keeps it after the street below is in shade.

So when a listing says west, ask two questions: does the room have shutters, and what is on the other side of the street? A low building opposite means two more hours of light.

If the west room is the bedroom, the timing works in its favour. The shutters are closed while the sun is on the glass, and by the time you go to bed it has been gone for an hour or more. In January, when you want the warmth, it comes in through the open shutters at the end of the afternoon.