Thursday, January 30, 2014

How to build a tiny house


A fascinating feature by Tom Rawstorne in the Daily Mail about how to build your own tiny house in a week (even if you're not especially handy in terms of DIY) using the new kit from Mark Burton at Tiny House UK. Here's a snippet:
By lunchtime, I have completed the rectangle of walls without any major difficulty. Structurally, my little house is already remarkably strong given that it is held together only by a handful of screws. The next step is to add the pointy gables onto either end of the house and to connect them by the ridge beam — a long strip of wood which runs the length of the roof... I’ve already noticed the neighbours peering nervously through the hedge at this new addition to my garden...
It's quite a long piece but well worth a read. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Homestead Timber Buildings - Manufacturers of Quality Timber Buildings

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Loopholes in planning laws


An interesting article on the subject at Gizmodo - neither we nor they suggest breaking the law but it's an intriguing roundup of ways some of them can be bent a little... Here's a snippet:
Of course, there are tons of reasons to subvert (or break) the law when it comes to buildings: Sometimes they are well-meaning, other times, they are deeply misguided and illegal, and it's worth pointing out that building code itself should never be broken. But it's easy to get excited about well-placed loopholes—especially if it means you could build (or help build) your own space.
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Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Garden offices that look like teapots


Probably not an ongoing series this, but here's a fine example of the genre. The particulars from agents Rettie for the 'detached house' known as The Magical Teapot, at Lilliesleaf, Melrose in the Scottish Borders suggest that this two storey property would be ideal for a playground, fishing hut, tea room, VIP lounge or 'Hobbit Hideaway'. It would, of course, make an ideal garden office too.
It's 21ft in diameter and buyer collects. Yours for £10,000.





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Tuesday posts are sponsored by Garden Spaces, suppliers of contemporary garden buildings, offices, gyms and studios, many of which do not require planning

Monday, January 27, 2014

Shedquarters


Cambridge-based Shequarters offer a collection of handmade products including bags, prints and stationery, using contemporary textiles, colours and textures which "fit seamlessly into your everyday life and home". Everything is made by them in their shedlike atmosphere which they set up last summer after working in the design industry in London for several years, turning an old shed into a fully working studio. Well worth a browse.


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Thursday, January 23, 2014

braaiBOX




As promised yesterday, here is the second project from imby3 - called braaiBOX - which is not only great for shedworking but is also an all-weather barbecue and entertainment area.

 "The main purpose of this bespoke design for the South African owners is to recreate some of the experiences of ‘back home’ for their young family, where the outdoors plays a big part in family life – and the eating of barbecued meat is integral," explains Nicholas Taylor from imby3. "The intention from the outset was to provide the opportunity for them to barbecue (or ‘braai’) all year round, regardless of the weather, allowing them to keep an element of their South African lifestyle alive in Surrey. 

"It can comfortably seat 15 for dinner or double that for a party with standing room. The bi-fold doors open out to the garden on two sides so that when the weather is fair the braaiBOX bleeds back into the garden and feels like an outdoor space. During the colder months the doors can be closed tight and the building, warmed by the barbecue fire, takes on a different charm."


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Homestead Timber Buildings - Manufacturers of Quality Timber Buildings

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Photographer's garden office



Nick Taylor from West London based architectural design company imby3 has been in touch about their freedomBOX range of garden buildings. Pictured above is a studio - sunk down 900mm into the ground - designed for Zelda Meyburgh, a photographer specialising in newborns and family portraits.  

"Zelda works from home, but with her business outgrowing her house it became more and more difficult to successfully carry out photo shoots," says Nick. "The ideal solution was to build a bespoke studio in her garden, with enough space to shoot in a series of different environments and with enough space to store all her equipment.

"Zelda wanted two studios, one allowing as much natural daylight as possible penetrating through and the other a smaller, darker, more controllable space. There was also a need for everyday garden storage and WC facilities, so we divided the allocated plot into three separate areas and allowed the building to express each element, using form and cladding. Underfloor heating was also very important in this project so that the floor could be warm and cosy for the many toddlers and babies waiting for their moment in the spotlight."

More pictures of the build below and we'll be looking at another imby3 project tomorrow. 



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

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Tiny House Kit


Mark Burton from Tiny House UK has put together a special Tiny House Kit for the growing numbers of people in the UK who are following the US trend and want to build their own shedlike atmosphere. It's being put together - in a five day test drive - by journalist Tom Rawstorne for an article in the Daily Mail this coming Saturday (early peak above looks impressive but it will be revealed in its entirety in the feature).

"Over the last couple of years I have received a vast amount of emails from people wanting to take on the challenge of building a Tiny House," says Mark. "Most people seem to think its as easy as building a shed on a caravan chassis but worry about putting three tons of timber on a frame designed to take just over a ton. Others are wondering how the structure will not twist and over time pull apart." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday posts are sponsored by Garden Spaces, suppliers of contemporary garden buildings, offices, gyms and studios, many of which do not require planning

Monday, January 20, 2014

Infrared heating for cold shedworkers

Heather Edwards from Multiheat & Energy Systems has been in touch to say she has some ex demo infrared heating panels at half price at the moment which are ideal for the cold shedworker. More details here.

"These heating panels on offer are ideal for those working in colder conditions," she says, "with higher surface temperature and higher power output the warming infrared rays can be felt even through chilly air, infrared warmth can be felt on the face and hands directly and so is the ideal heating choice for those sat working all day in a cold environment, like workshops, craft rooms, writing sheds or summerhouses."

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Monday posts are sponsored by garden2office, the Swedish garden office specialists. Click here for more details.

Thursday, January 16, 2014

Could garageworking take off in London?


A fascinating article by Jonathan Moules in the FT suggests that converting empty garages in London owned by 10 housing associaitons into shedworking atmospheres could provide homes for around 3,275 new businesses.

It's all part of a plan by the Conservative group on the Greater London Authority - From Lock Up to Start Up: Londons micro businesses thriving out of empty garages - which suggests each conversion would cost £26,000 but this would swiftly be recouped by renting it out to potential shedworkers. It's well worth a read (the link above clicks through to the pdf proposal which has lots more detail) including case studies such as the one below:


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Homestead Timber Buildings - Manufacturers of Quality Timber Buildings

Wednesday, January 15, 2014


If you enjoy a seasidey beach hut theme in your shedlike atmsophere (or indeed want to make your existing beach hut more beach huttish), then Coastal Home has a fine selection of beach hut cushions, boxes, hooks, doorstops (which the Shedworking staff have taken a bit of a fancy to), signs, and mugs. -----------------------------------------------------
Wednesday posts are sponsored by The Stable Company®, the UK's premier supplier of garden offices and garden rooms. Click here

Monday, January 13, 2014

1 in 10 commuters want to cry by the time they get to their desk

Citing inevitable delays, inability to get a seat and fellow travellers' body odour, one in ten commuters say their morning journey is so stressful and miserable, they want to cry by the time they arrive at their desk. And almost a fifth of Brits arrive at work so deflated they want to go straight back to bed.

The research was carried out by evian who quizzed 2,000 commuters about their daily journey to work. Commuters estimate they do eight days less work a year on average because their daily journey sees them arrive so tired and unhappy, the study reveals. The typical commuter feels they manage to do almost 18 minutes less work every day so based on an average working day of eight hours, employees are wasting eight whole days at work thanks to their morning commute. -------------------------------------------------------------------------
Monday posts are sponsored by garden2office, the Swedish garden office specialists. Click here for more details.

Friday, January 10, 2014

Paint it black



London-based garden office builder Paul Winters has been in touch to offer a succinct piece of advice: paint it black.

"I've been building garden offices and studios for about four years," he says, "and I have found that people round here really like it when I paint or stain them black. The building seems to blend in really well when it's black and it really shows off the greenery and colours of the garden."

As evidence for his claim, pictured above is a garden office built by Paul in High Barnet and fitted out with filing cabinets and storage units - he has stained the cedar cladding black and the flooring is Black Oak engineered board ----------------------------------------------------------
Friday posts are sponsored by Warwick Buildings, manufacturers of outstanding quality timber buildings. Click here for more information.

Thursday, January 09, 2014

"Shed's on fire": Guardian blatantly sets fire to shed in advert in a bid to win readers

Can't condone this sort of thing. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Homestead Timber Buildings - Manufacturers of Quality Timber Buildings

Wednesday, January 08, 2014

Black timber garden studio + model-making workshop


Here's a marvellous double shedworking construction by Rodic Davidson Architects in Cambridge. Here's what they say about it:
Hidden in amongst the trees at the end of a long garden, we have designed and built two separate timber-framed buildings for use as a home office/studio and a model-making workshop. The structures are clad in vertical black-stained softwood boarding of varying widths – wider on the studio and narrower on the workshop. On the studio, the cladding forms a continuous rainscreen and wraps the entire building. The larger studio building is very highly insulated (using 150mm Cellotex combined with Super Tri-Iso) and incorporates a super efficient air-source heat pump. Calculations indicate that the annual heating bill will cost less than £21 in electricity costs. The building is wrapped with a black timber rain screen over a complete wrapper of a rubber membrane for water-proofing.

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

Tuesday, January 07, 2014

Cabin made out of windows: shedworking/living


A lovely video for those who are thinking both of shedworking and getting away from it all, a 'glass cabin' built largely out of old windows by Nick Olson and Lilah Horwitz in the loveliness of West Virginia. It's a lovely seven minutes which will have you thinking that 2014 is the year you leave the rat race behind and go in a different direction... Thanks to Christian 'Documentally' Payne for the suggestion. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday posts are sponsored by Garden Spaces, suppliers of contemporary garden buildings, offices, gyms and studios, many of which do not require planning

Monday, January 06, 2014

Beach hut news roundup


There will be no enforcement action taken against a Bournemouth beach hut owner who refused to repaint his beach hut in more ‘uniform colours’, reports the Bournemouth Echo, after the owner John Sandford-Hart pointed out he had merely refreshed the blue and white stripes painted on the beach hut when he bought it five years ago... The BBC reports that in East Yorkshire, a Bridlington council scheme to rent out its beach chalets during the winter has been so successful that all 61 have been snapped up until March, and that next winter's waiting list is already filling up...
Businessman Peter de Savary is planning to splash out £1.5 million New Year on an extension including luxurious beach huts on the cliff-side alongside the de Savary family's Cary Arms Hotel at Babbacombe beach, reports the Torquay Herald Express... Canterbury City Council has been told by its lawyers to raise beach hut rents in order to act in taxpayers' best interests by running beach huts on a commercial basis, says the BBC... The East Anglian Daily Times reports that Tendring District Council has been repairing beach huts at the Wailings in Frinton after the recent bad weather (eight Grade II liste beach huts were also destroyed in a recent fire in Scarborough and six more in a landslip in Southbourne)
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Friday, January 03, 2014

Dylan Thomas's pop-up writing shed goes on the road


There's a veritable flurry of events to mark the 100th birthday of shedworker Dylan Thomas this year including an intriguing pop-up writing shed, a replica of the poet's garden office in Laugharne (pictured above), which will be on the road throughout the year including stopovers at The Hay Festival, The Royal Welsh Show and The Carmarthenshire 2014 Eisteddfod in Llanelli. It will also be open all day on March 22 at St Catherine's Walk, Carmarthen, as part of the Poetry Takeaway day where you can get a bespoke poem written to order by Poet of the Day Martin Daws.
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