Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Happy New Year

Just a few words to say thank you to everybody who has made Shedworking such a pleasure to put together again this year and indeed over the last five years, not only at this main site, but also at reddit, twitter, Facebook, pledgie, Blip.fm, and brightkite (and not forgetting Bookshelf). Particular thanks as always to Uncle Wilco from Shedblog and readersheds.co.uk, and to our literary editor Sarah Salway and garden shows editor Emma Townshend, not least because she was instrumental this year in finding a publisher for the Shedworking book. Large thanks too to all those of you who have added comments to keep the shedworking conversation going or emailed me with suggestions for the site especially Lloyd Alter, Justin, Greg, Chris Routledge, and Emma Jones. Thanks as well to: Andrew Dunn (who agreed to publish the Shedworking book), Walt Barratt, Simon Draper, John Coupe, Heather Bestel and James Westwater; everybody who allowed me on their radio shows and podcasts this year (Colin Young, Julian Worricker and Sherry Borzo); Paula Wynne who asked me to help judge the Remote Employment Awards; and Martin Poole (who organised the beach hut advent calendar).

And last but not least, many thanks to the advertisers who have helped to keep the site going in 2009 with their generous ongoing support.

I look forward to meeting up for much more of the same with all of you in 2010 and finally getting that book published...

Image of The Shepheardes Calendar by Hilda Quick (The Works of Edmund Spenser, Volume I edited by Professer W. L. Renwick, 1930) courtesy of the rather nice
FromOldBooks

Video: Walk around a Homelodge garden office


A short video showing off the delights of a Homelodge garden office building. I hope 2010 is the year when garden office suppliers really get to grips with how video (and indeed audio) can be incredibly powerful in showing off their products.
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Wednesday's posts are sponsored by The Garden Room Company®, the UK's premier supplier of garden offices and garden rooms. Click here.

Solar shingles for your garden office roof?

There's an excellent roundup at Jetson Green of companies (in the US) which are providing solar shingles to add to your roof. While they're aimed at house-sized builds, there's nothing to stop you using these on your garden office. Well worth a read. Pictured above is an example from Sun Energy.
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Wednesday's posts are sponsored by The Garden Room Company®, the UK's premier supplier of garden offices and garden rooms. Click here.

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Shedworking UNDER your kitchen table


Many people tell us that they'd love to be shedworkers but they simply don't have the garden or the room for a garden office. Well, there's no excuses now thanks to this marvellous Daily Shelter by Ingrid Brandth which turns from a kitchen table into a, admittedly slightly cosy, shedlike atmosphere. She suggests using it to escape from family members but with a netbook and a cushion, it's a shedworking paradise.
Via Trendhunter
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Tuesday posts are sponsored by The Home Office Company, manufacturers of unique garden rooms since 1998. Now in 10 exciting new colours. Click here for more details.

Plankbridge shepherds' huts restoration case studies

Shepherds' hut specialists Plankbridge have redesigned their web site and also added an excellent section on case studies of restoration work they've carried out. Pictured above is an example, the Chawton House restoration, Alton, Hampshire, once the home of Jane Austen and her family. Here's what they say:
The hut had become very derelict in one of the woods, and they were keen for it to be on display again. We rebuilt it using as much of the original as we could. It had previously been some kind of agricultural wagon, very heavily built with an oak frame and stout ironwork. At some point it had been converted to a shepherds hut, hence the unusual proportions.

We had to restrain ourselves from doing too much obvious restoration, as it needed to look in keeping with the surroundings, and not in any way like a new build. The original pitch pine door and some of the cladding remains sound, but there were still many, many hours put into this project. The hut can now gently mellow down as the new oak weathers, and hopfully William Parsons, the old shepherd whose name is carved inside the door, would be proud to see his hut back home again.
Well worth a visit to read about the others.
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Tuesdays posts are sponsored by The Home Office Company, manufacturers of unique garden rooms since 1998. Now in 10 exciting new colours. Click here for more details.

Monday, December 28, 2009

Shedworking nominated for The Homies

Established as far back as 2008, Apartment Therapy's marvellous awards The Homies aims to raise awareness of what they describe as 'shelter blogs', the best home design blogs around. They also decribe it as a celebration rather than a competition but frankly there are votes to be cast and prizes to be won. And somebody (not me, I hasten to add) has very kindly nominated Shedworking in the Home Design category. If you'd like to vote for Shedworking, you can do so here.
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Monday's posts are sponsored by garden2office, the Swedish garden office specialists.Click here for more details.

Tiny maritime shed museum

Maritime enthusiast and retired boatbuilder Robert Carter has customised his 12ft X 6ft shed into a titchy, but highly impressive, maritime museum which holds treasures such as a powder keg from the Battle of Trafalgar. As reported on thisisplymouth.co.uk, entry to the Plymouth-based museum - which is perhaps the smallest museum in the world - is free. He told the: "It is great to see people's reactions when they come in. It is like they can't believe what they're seeing. Most people who visit are genuine enthusiasts so they really appreciate the pieces I have and how rare they are. My ambition would be to get a decommissioned light ship put in the garden so I could turn it into a full sized museum." Mr Carter has been working on the collection for more than 40 years. More photos, inside and outside, at the Daily Mail.
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Monday's posts are sponsored by garden2office, the Swedish garden office specialists.Click here for more details.

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Merry Christmas to all our readers

“Yo ho, my boys,” said Fezziwig. “No more work to-night. Christmas Eve, Dick. Christmas, Ebenezer. Let’s have the shutters up,” cried old Fezziwig, with a sharp clap of his hands, “before a man can say Jack Robinson.”
Shutters open again on December 28.

Shedworking apparel: Andy from Workshop Shed

Continuing our series featuring shedworkers' apparel, here is Andy from Workshop Shed (a great blog if you haven't visited yet about his thoughts on setting up and using a small shed as a workshop). Keep those photos coming in folks.
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Wednesday's posts are sponsored by The Garden Room Company®, the UK's premier supplier of garden offices and garden rooms. Click here.

How shedworking is saving lives of the homeless

An interesting piece by Mark Gould in The Guardian looks at a shed which is being used as an intermediate care unit for homeless in the gardens of the 120-bed Cedars Road Hostel in Clapham, London. It was set up by nurse practitioner Samantha Dorney-Smith and initial reports show that it is saving lives, reducing hospital admissions and cutting ambulance calls. Gould writes:
Department of Health economics experts are busy analysing the report's figures as the centre could offer a new model of care for homeless people. Dorney-Smith has high hopes that the intensive treatment on offer at the centre is a real magic bullet – saving lives at no extra cost to the NHS – and that its contract will be extended beyond next March.
Well worth a read - the unit is doing an outstanding job.
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Wednesday's posts are sponsored by The Garden Room Company®, the UK's premier supplier of garden offices and garden rooms. Click here.

Shedworking jewellery

This rather lovely shed pendant is part of the Country Garden collection available from Angel Eden. The theme continues in a range of insects, flowers, flowerpots and gardens tools as earrings.
Thanks to Emma Jones for the alert
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Wednesday's posts are sponsored by The Garden Room Company®, the UK's premier supplier of garden offices and garden rooms. Click here.

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Garenberg's new self-build range

Garenberg has just launched its new Selfbuild range, a DIY garden office with optional installation. Features include recessed lighting and chrome power sockets (pre-wired), full insulation and low E double glazing. Gavin Jones from Garenberg says: "The new Selfbuild also has some external blinds to help shading and privacy. It has engineered softwood multi-locking doors and windows and even has a green roof option."
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Tuesdays posts are sponsored by The Home Office Company, manufacturers of unique garden rooms since 1998. Now in 10 exciting new colours. Click here for more details.

Monday, December 21, 2009

New Sanctuary Studios garden office

Brent Wilson from New Zealand-based Sanctuary Studios has sent in this latest build: it's double glazed, with SIP floor for a low profile and warmth (as well as SIP walls and roof) and a solar power system. At 3.7m x 2.7m it just sneaks under the planning requirements in NZ and the need for a pilot vehicle as it was delivered by HIAB truck ready to use...
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Monday's posts are sponsored by garden2office, the Swedish garden office specialists.Click here for more details.

Twelve Cubed

James Stuart from Twelve Cubed writes to say: "I have fitted a full-sized bathroom, kitchen, bedroom ,and living area into a home measuring 12 feet by 12 feet by 12.5 feet. I moved in almost two months ago and live in it full time." But James points out that while it's a liveable space, it would also be ideal for shedworking and indeed the living area features a large work surface and shelves.
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Monday's posts are sponsored by garden2office, the Swedish garden office specialists.Click here for more details.

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Christmas sheds: Smart Garden Offices

Continuing our series of garden offices in the snow, here's one of Suffolk-based Smart Garden Office's display Duo models, dusted with snow this very morning. As Charlie Dalton of Smart points out, it’s particularly festive being Father Christmas red.

Saturday, December 19, 2009

Office garden shelf

Another one for the 'bringing the garden into the garden office' folder, this is the lovely Organic-Shelf Office, a plywood and wheat grass shelf made by Nicholas Todd for his office. Lots more photos at Nicholas' Flickr site.
Via Lifehacker

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Saturday's posts are sponsored by Euroffice, the UK’s most extensive office supplies website. Click here to get an exclusive 15% off the Greener Office range until the end of January 2010.

Friday, December 18, 2009

Steve Cowell's Christmas garden office

Continuing our look at seasonal garden offices around the country, here is Steve Cowell's shed in York.

Dennis Hollinghurst's Christmas garden office

Jewellery designer Dennis Hollinghurst (click the link to see him making a ring for Zoe, the daughter of Heather 'Shedworking tip of the month' Bestel and Peter 'designed Shedworking's Christmas twitter avatar' Bestel) has rigged up a rather splendid garden office decoration for Christmas. If you've done something similar with your garden office, please email me your photos.

Thursday, December 17, 2009

What do you wear when shedworking?

It's time for a new regular column on Shedworking, a look at what shedworkers wear in the comfort and privacy of their garden offices. First up is James Rudd (@TowcesterNews on twitter), hyperlocal newspublisher for the Towcester and NN12 area who describes his current work clothing as "standard winter kit, fleece and gillet, oh and a smile".

Please do send in photos of your shedworking clothes by emailing me here. I'm afraid if you work naked you might have to be a bit creative as this is a family blog.

Choosing a shed - London Garden Rooms

Epping-based London Garden Rooms is run by Steven Davis and offers a bespoke design service for its SIPs-built garden offices which come in an aluminium frame with tongue-and-groove cedar cladding and bi-fold doors. Options include underfloor heating, bathroom/shower room, and extended exterior decking.
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Thursday posts are sponsored by Vivid Green, the low energy garden building specialists. Click here for more details

Could you work in an Anderson shelter?

Could an Anderson shelter make the perfect garden shed, asks Lia Leendertz in The Guardian. It's a followup to her brief look at Anderson shelters in last weekend's Guardian magazine with readers' replies. Well worth a browse, especially if you're thinking of building one yourself.
Photo courtesy 1940s Experience
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Thursday posts are sponsored by Vivid Green, the low energy garden building specialists. Click here for more details

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

How shedworking can provide life tools

17-year-old Nick Coggin of Scout Troop 4 in Westborough is close to becoming an Eagle Scout thanks to his recently completed project: designing and building a garden shed for the Westborough Historical Society, as reported by the Westborough News. He did the whole thing from scratch, choosing materials, working on a design, and then obtaining funds to get the project off the ground before delegating tasks to scouts in his troop. Here's what he said:
“Building the shed taught me how to organize my thoughts into a plan, how to communicate what was needed, and how to organize a work team."

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Wednesday's posts are sponsored by The Garden Room Company®, the UK's premier supplier of garden offices and garden rooms. Click here.

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Metaplate

We feature a lot of shedlike buildings built for disasters on Shedworking since they're not only extremely worthy but very often contain elements which could usefully be reused or fiddled with to make applicable to garden offices. Here's a particularly fine example, the Metaplate by Kelvin Yong who describes it as:
A modular disaster shelter system designed for medium to long term needs. The shelter system is designed to be expanded and have the possiblity to accommodate piping, drainage and living facilities.
I think something like this would work well in the garden office market as it's rather distinctive (and perhaps some portion of the sales profits could then be ploughed back into disaster area-related causes).
Via The Design Blog
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Tuesdays posts are sponsored by The Home Office Company, manufacturers of unique garden rooms since 1998. Now in 10 exciting new colours. Click here for more details.

NeoGarden: Putting the garden in 'garden office'

We often talk on Shedworking about how to bring that garden atmosphere into your garden office. Here's a particularly pleasant possibility, a vertical garden wall panel from NeoGarden. The plants are grown up a special frame and need very little looking after.
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Tuesdays posts are sponsored by The Home Office Company, manufacturers of unique garden rooms since 1998. Now in 10 exciting new colours. Click here for more details.

Shed Christmas card

If you're still looking for a nice shedlike Christmas card, consider investing in this rather attractive one by ONonnieO available at Zazzle.
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Tuesdays posts are sponsored by The Home Office Company, manufacturers of unique garden rooms since 1998. Now in 10 exciting new colours. Click here for more details.

Monday, December 14, 2009

Cabin Living video tour

A really nice video tour of a bespoke luxury log cabin from Cabin Living which also has a shower room and utility area.
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Monday's posts are sponsored by garden2office, the Swedish garden office specialists.Click here for more details.

Habitat for Artists 2010

The marvellous shedworking Habitat for Artists project (pictured above) run by Simon Draper has some impressive plans for 2010 including a redesign of its web/blog site. Six (maybe even more) new HFA studios will be built in 2010 as the project comes to the central Hudson Valley region of Putnam County. Simon says" This initial 'hub' site will continue to have workshops on different topics through out a 5 to 6 month period, with artists taking up three week residencies with a potential to work together and with other community groups." There will also be HFA projects in; Vermont; Burlington Community College, NJ; and Work Space Harlem. For more details, go here.
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Monday's posts are sponsored by garden2office, the Swedish garden office specialists.Click here for more details.

Shedworking Christmas Party today - UPDATED

Don't forget to come to the Shedworking Christmas Party today at 1pm. You need to click here and then follow the instructions (all very easy) but don't turn up until 1pm because I'm still putting up the decorations (and will be on Radio Shropshire at 12.35-ish for a while)...


2pm - Thanks to everybody for coming, it was a great party, especially all the hats and mince pies. Same time, same place next year!
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Monday's posts are sponsored by garden2office, the Swedish garden office specialists.Click here for more details.

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Shipping container garden office

A nice piece by Ruth Mullen inThe Oregonian focuses on Mike Corvi (who sells luxury leather jackets) who has customised an 8ft x 20ft shipping container into a backyard office. It's a particularly useful article as it goes into some depth about just how the container was turned into something suitable for living and working (e.g. dealing with insulation and condensation issues). So happy is Corvi with the results that he's now planning to set up shop refurbishing containers as a business.Via Tiny House Design

Saturday, December 12, 2009

Beach Hut Advent Calendar in full swing


Just a quick note to say that the beach hut advent calendar we previewed at the end of last month is proving to be a great success. You can see all the huts day by day at The Independent and extra photos and information at the Beyond blog. And of course if you're in the Brighton area, do drop in and enjoy the fun.

Friday, December 11, 2009

Wheel of Dharma retreat wagon

Now here's lovely, Tim Kasten's towable wagon built on a small utility trailer as showcased on Tiny House Blog. It's all kitted out for actual living (folding mattress, camping stove, fairly basic lavatory...) and built by Creative Carpentry and Construction in Montpelier, Vermont using plywood, Douglas fir and pine bead board. While it would be a marvellous place to work in, Tim has other uses for it:
I use the wagon for meditation and made a portable altar for my Buddhist practices. (I have taken to calling it the “Wheel of Dharma retreat wagon” and plan to paint some auspicious emblems on the outside.) I took the wagon down to Cape Cod in September for a solo retreat.