Monday, March 30, 2015

Cabin Fever: why it's good to build a garden office

A nice article by Heather Hansman on re-form ('Cabin Fever: What your brain gets out of building in the forest) looks at the delights of making a shedlike atmosphere. Video above and snippet below:
"Going to the woods to live deliberately hasn’t been news since Henry David Thoreau hiked out of Concord, but the most recent fascination with flannel and timber framing might not just be superficial. We have a neurological need for both natural spaces and productive physical work, and the farther we sink into Snapchat, the more we’re missing it. That’s why building a cabin is appealing."
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Monday posts are sponsored by garden2office, the Swedish garden office specialists. Click here for more details.

Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Improbable Libraries

A video clip of me talking about my new book Improbable Libraries on the BBC flagship news programme Today earlier this morning. The book is officially published on April 6 and features a shed library (as well as elephant ones, bike ones, undergound ones and many more).

Monday, March 23, 2015

Design a shed for the RHS Flower Show Tatton Park

An exciting new feature called ‘Garden Hideaways’ will be established at the RHS Flower Show Tatton Park 2015, 22-26 July. It’s all about turning a shed into a beautiful and innovatively decorated hideaway.

"We give you a 6x4ft Shed," says Isobel Coulter, Assistant Show Manager. "You have ultimate creative power to transform the shed into a wondrous creation that no gardener has ever seen before.  The sheds should be designed as a haven at the bottom of your garden for sanctuary and creativity, a place that showcases your passions and interests.

"All designs must link in some way to gardening so that means there must be plants involved either in, around or all over your shed. You get to keep the shed afterwards or you can donate it to the RHS to find it a suitable home in the local community."

You can download an application form here and the factsheet is below.
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Monday posts are sponsored by garden2office, the Swedish garden office specialists. Click here for more details.

Monday, March 09, 2015

Garden office pod build (video)


A nice video from Garden Fortress featuring a build in Banstead, Surrey. Also a great soundtrack. Lots of similar ones on their YouTube page. --------------------------------------------------------------------
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Monday posts are sponsored by garden2office, the Swedish garden office specialists. Click here for more details.

Thursday, March 05, 2015

Rural homeworking: latest figures



According to the latest report from Defra (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs of the 24.9 million people in work in England in 2013, 3.5 million were homeworkers (those who usually spend at least half of their work time using their home, either within their grounds or in different places or using it as a base).

The highest rate of homeworkers is in rural hamlets and dispersed areas, at 33 per cent, compared with 12 per cent in urban areas. Overall rural areas had a higher rate of homeworking compared with urban areas, says the report - in 2013, there were 994,000 homeworkers in rural areas and 2,490,000 in urban ones.

Between 2006 and 2013, the rate of homeworking increased faster in all rural areas compared with urban ones. The highest increase was in rural hamlets and 'dispersed areas' at 4.7 per cent.

According to the Office for National Statistics, homeworkers are more likely to be working in higher skilled roles and earn on average a higher hourly wage.
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Wednesday, March 04, 2015

Garden office: audio dictionary definition (video)

To the point, if unlikely to be nominated for an Oscar. ----------------------------------------------------
Wednesday posts are sponsored by The Stable Company®, the UK's premier supplier of garden offices and garden rooms. Click here

Tuesday, March 03, 2015

Bespoke music studio


Built by Tinyhouse UK for a composer near Guildford, it has six inch thick walls providing additional soundproofing and high ceilings. Features include a cedar roof and extrior walls in Waney Edge. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday posts are sponsored by Garden Spaces, suppliers of contemporary garden buildings, offices, gyms and studios, many of which do not require planning

Monday, March 02, 2015

Nuclear bunker garden office

 
 


 
It needs some slight refurbishment, but if you've ever fancied working in a former nuclear bunker, here's the very thing, on with Clive Emson Auctioneers to be sold by public auction on March 23 (guide price £10,000-£15,000).

The bunker is on the Peninsula Way (A228), close to Hoo villae, Rochester, Kent. It is around 7’ x 15’ with access from ground level down a vertical ladder. According to the auctioneers, it was once manned by two or three people (so adequate room for a shedworker) and was one of 1,500 similar underground monitoring posts around the UK build in the 1950s to report a nuclear attack and monitor the fall-out. This one up for sale was a master post which served other local ones nearby and like them was closed down in 1991.
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Monday posts are sponsored by garden2office, the Swedish garden office specialists. Click here for more details.