Friday, September 30, 2016

The Welsh Den Company


If you are after a garden office on wheels but are not so keen on the shepherd's hut aesthetic, The Welsh Den Company could be right up your street. Based in Llanbrynmair in Wales, they are keen on sourcing local materials (Welsh roof slate, Welsh-made Chilli Billie Penguin stove, locally sourced timber and sheep wool insulation).


It's first model - The Snowdon - can be moved around easily (though is not really for road towing - they are working on a new model called The Hafren which will be) comes on a steel chassis with twin axles, a mezzanine (one of the Shedworking staff's favourite features), veranda, decking and the usual electrics. Optional extras include curtains, sofa bed and kitchen. There's a nice gallery of pictures at their site here.

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Thursday, September 29, 2016

How to get broadband to a garden office


An interesting post by Paul Ockenden on Alphr on this question that crops up again and again in which he looks at various ways of getting your shedlike atmosphere digitally wired. Here's the scenario:
Frank's office is actually a posh shed, built from wood, but with insulated walls, double-glazed windows, lighting and heating. However, there’s no telephone line or internet connection. Frank has a fairly reliable broadband connection to his house, but this is more than 150ft away; he can’t pick up his home Wi-Fi network from the new office, since his broadband router is (and must remain) on the opposite side of the house. Frank is going to run his business from this office (he’s a freelance project manager), so he wanted to know the best option for receiving a reliable data connection.
If this sounds like you, it's well worth a browse.
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Thursday posts are sponsored by Cabin Master: garden offices and studios to fit any size garden. Top quality contemporary or traditional buildings.

Wednesday, September 28, 2016

Tiny House of the Year


Sheds, beach huts, and treehouses all have one, and now tiny houses are getting in on the 'of the year' competition fun. The Tiny House of the Year 2016 is run by USA tiny house guru Michael Janzen (entry deadline end of October) and like other similar competitions has a range of categories - best front door, best bathroom, best stairs, best transforming furniture, best interior design, best exterior design, best kitchen, best ladder, best loft, best storage feature, best use of reclaimed materials -  as well as an overall winner. Pictured above is one of the early entrants, Tina & Luke's Basecamp Tiny House.

Click the link above for full details of how to enter, but essentially it's open to all adults who have a tiny house less than 500 square feet in size.

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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, September 27, 2016

Garden office chair

If you want to add an extra element of garden to your garden office, here's just the thing from design studio Lula Dot. Here's what they say about it: "The user can rest their feet on real grass and get that garden feeling. The grass is easy to keep and will thrive indoors with a little water, light and occasional trimming." It's made from steel pipes, natural fibre rope (which helps let the grass see the light) and comes with a fibreglass footrest covered in soil and grass.


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Monday, September 26, 2016

Exclusive Toolshed Colouring Book sample

https://www.scribd.com/document/325344473/Pg-16-17-Cutters-and-Electrics

We previewed the shed colouring book and journal emerging from Lee John Phillips’ Shed Project back in July (details here) so we're delighted to offer you an exclusive download from the book which is published this week, courtesy of the nice publisher folk at Laurence King.

To get your free download simply click this link (or the image) to go to a Scribd page and download from there. Happy colouring!

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Friday, September 23, 2016

designjunction sheds at London Design Festival


Design show designjunction is up and running in London's King's Cross around Granary Square as part of the annual London Design Festival until Sunday. Look out for the eight bespoke red sheds/tiny houses filled with, what it says here are, "immersive design concepts" which "play home to conceptual installations, high caliber creative projects and live activity from a host of luxury brands".

Look out too in the same area for the SmartHouzz from Houzz, a bright green pod that showcases ways to maximise small space living through smart design, storage ideas and technology, including in small shedlike office spaces.
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Friday posts are sponsored by Warwick Buildings, manufacturers of outstanding quality timber buildings. Click here for more information.

Thursday, September 22, 2016

Property Search Group: Shedworkers


A nice piece in Welsh News Extra about Property Search Group which has left its previous HQ on an industrial estate and gone down the garden office route in a model designed by Rubicon Garden Rooms. As a result, the owners Julian and Kerry Lee say they are now able to hire more staff. According to Julian:
“It’s great. We’ve got the perfect, self-contained space with everything we need. We can now open our French doors and have lunch on the patio in a lovely established garden, which is something most people would love. We had an office on a local business park, but being able to move into our own premises here has been a wise business move.”
The office is actually an L-shaped structure, just under is 30 square metres, including a kitchen and lavatory as well as the large open plan office.

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Thursday posts are sponsored by Cabin Master: garden offices and studios to fit any size garden. Top quality contemporary or traditional buildings.

Wednesday, September 21, 2016

How to decorate a garden office



An excellently detailed pictorial post at Lobster and Swan by Jeska who runs The Future Kept home decor shop shows how she put together the interior of her new Swedish-style garden shed (a B&Q 6x4 Apex Shetland shed painted in Cuprinol Terracotta Garden Shades). Well worth a browse for inspiration. ----------------------------------------------------
Wednesday posts are sponsored by The Stable Company®, the UK's premier supplier of garden offices and garden rooms. Click here

Tuesday, September 20, 2016

Why people hide in the garden office


New research by Shedstore.co.uk indicates that a fifth of people admit to hiding from their partners and children in the shed, with 1 in 7 spending at least 10 hours in there each week. More than a third describe it as their sanctuary.

Almost four in ten of all shedowners polled have turned their shed into a hobby or craft room, with woodwork and painting rooms the most popular usages, while nearly 10% work or run a business from their sheds and a similar figure used them simply to read, listen to the radio and watch television.

One in 20 admitted they often use their sheds to do things that their other halves wouldn’t approve of, such as drinking and smoking.

Shedstore.co.uk also asked shedowners how much they thought the contents of their sheds were worth. Around 17% have possessions worth at least £2,500 in their garden sheds and almost a third said put the figure at over £1,500. The overall average was £750. Only 4% said nothing had been stolen from their shed, although a fifth said they never locked it.

Tracey Hartwell, sales manager at Shedstore.co.uk, said: “The simple garden shed has evolved into something much more than a place to stockpile possessions and de-clutter the house. It’s become an extension of the house; a place to work, rest and play." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday posts are sponsored by Garden Spaces, suppliers of contemporary garden buildings, offices, gyms and studios, many of which do not require planning

Monday, September 19, 2016

Roald Dahl's writing shed was inspired by Dylan Thomas's writing shed


One of the most famous modern shedworkers Roald Dahl was inspired to build his own garden office (pictured top) to escape the distractions of family life following a trip to see Dylan Thomas's writing hut in Wales.

In an interview with the BBC (which you can see here) Dahl's widow Felicity said:
"He realised he had to have a space of his own in the garden away from the children and the noise and the general domesticity and he remembered that Dylan had felt the same. And so he went down to Wales to look at Dylan's writing hut and, like everybody, fell in love with it. He built it exactly to the same proportions as Dylan's hut, the same roof, one skin of brick. Of course Dylan's hut was a garage originally, whereas Roald had nothing, it was an empty space that he built on."
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Friday, September 16, 2016

MINI LIVING 'Forests': spaces between spaces

 

At the London Design Festival which runs from tomorrow for a week, MINI is collaborating with Asif Khan, whose installation MINI LIVING “Forests” explores three interpretations of “spaces between spaces", better known as 'third places' (something that falls between work and home, often used by freelancers e.g. coffee shops). They are each designed to encourage specific uses: relaxation, getting together or productivity, using plants to improve city living.

“My response is inspired by the Japanese concept of ‘shinrin yoku’, which literally means ‘forest bathing’," explains Asif Khan. "It means every sense switches to absorb the forest atmosphere, what you hear, what you smell, even the feeling underfoot. On another level, we use plants as a tool to assert our personal space at its boundary with public space, whether on our desk at the office or at the perimeter of our home."



The three installations are located within walking distance of one another in Shoreditch, London, a deliberate contrast to Shoreditch’s urban setting. They are all rectangular forms, with walls made from several layers of transparent, corrugated polycarbonate. The green of the plants shines through the walls while from the inside, the materials of the walls offer a diffused connection with the outside world and, say the designers, "generate an intimate, private space amid the hustle and bustle beyond".

The three rooms that make up the installation differ in size and intended use. The Connect Space is a place for meeting up and catching up, the Create Space offers an ambience conducive to work (specifically for making pitches and presentations), and the Relax Space has lots of plants and provides a space in which to take a step back and relax. Visitors enter via the underside of the installation and there is a bench inside on which to take a breather. 

The MINI LIVING “Forests” installation is open to the public and available for use during the London Design Festival (17 – 25 September) at Vince Court, Charles Square Gardens, and the
Corner of Pitfield Street and Charles Square.
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Friday posts are sponsored by Warwick Buildings, manufacturers of outstanding quality timber buildings. Click here for more information.

Thursday, September 15, 2016

Basic garden office ventilation

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Thursday posts are sponsored by Cabin Master: garden offices and studios to fit any size garden. Top quality contemporary or traditional buildings.

Wednesday, September 14, 2016

How to build a garden office in seven days


A really interesting stage-by-stage walkthrough in pictures by The Garden Escape showing how they put up a garden office in a week. Above is how they started ("Day 1. Foundations go down. In this case concrete but in many cases where root systems are nearby we will use low impact screw piles."), below is how they finished. Click here to see the whole thing.


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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, September 13, 2016

Poolroom and sauna




Perhaps one for shedrelaxing rather than full shedworking, this poolroom and sauna was built by Spacetwo’s German partners Chiemgauer Holzhaus. The clients wanted a space where they could relax and get away from it all as well as using the room as a sauna all year round. In the summer months they wanted a place for their family to play and relax around the pool as well as providing an area for cooking and eating outside while the sun shines.

It was built using Spacetwo's trapezoidal cladding system with aluminium corner profiles. This system uses solid logs which have been machined. On the outside it looks like horizontal cladding but internally you have the natural beauty of a solid wooden wall. The walls are built using 140mm solid Austrian Spruce logs which fit together like building blocks (the solid logs provide outstanding insulating capabilities, perfect for installing a sauna). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday posts are sponsored by Garden Spaces, suppliers of contemporary garden buildings, offices, gyms and studios, many of which do not require planning

Monday, September 12, 2016

The Rug Room


 
This atmospheric cor-ten steel-clad plywood structure is at the end of a narrow garden looking out onto  the rear of an early Victorian crescent and a secret garden. According to its architect Nic Howett it is where the owner makes rag rugs (as well as relaxes).

"Offset from the garden’s end, with entrance doors to one side and rear, the building’s angled, double layer,  plywood structure is sleeved inside cor-ten steel," says Nic. "With a work table that faces the house and lined in shelves full of fabrics and books, all of these elements help brace and support the structure."



Developed through drawings and models, the Rug Room was designed so that Nic could also be the contractor. It was made offsite in a joiners workshop before delivery.

"A flurry of activity ensued after a delicate manoeuvring of the hand crafted components - sized smaller than 8x4ft - through the house and down an awkward narrow staircase," says Nic. "The Rug Room was constructed upon six small pad foundations, the plywood was assembled first, then glazed, insulated and finally clad in raw cor-ten. Belying permanence in its short assembly and following existence, the cor-ten has since weathered alongside the autumn rust. The Rug Room although new, feels familiar, its age indeterminable, providing a timeless sense of place."


Details
Floor area: 8m2
Total cost: £25,000
Architect/contractor: Nic Howett
Consultant and Structural Engineer: Webb Yates Engineers
Carpentry and Joinery: Spaces Bespoke Joinery
Corten Steel Supplier: Lotus Steels
Photographs: Damian Griffiths --------------------------------------------------------------------
Monday posts are sponsored by garden2office, the Swedish garden office specialists. Click here for more details.

Friday, September 09, 2016

NOA: Modular shedworking



Although Estonion designer-inventor Jaanus Orgusaar's intriguingly-shaped NOA has been designed as more of a living space, it would also make a marvellous garden office (it's modular so a single module would be sufficient for most shedworkers). NOA stands on three feet and does not need a foundation. The floor plan is a hexagon

According to Jaanus: "The base element is a specific rhombus and the base for the structure is the rhombic dodecahedron. The rhombic dodecahedron can be used to tessellate three-dimensional space. It can be stacked to fill a space much like hexagons fill a plane."

More details at Katus which sells an interesting range of similar structures.

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Friday posts are sponsored by Warwick Buildings, manufacturers of outstanding quality timber buildings. Click here for more information.

Thursday, September 08, 2016

Treehouse of the year



'The Faraway Treehouse’ in Norwich has been named UK’s Top Treehouse in a competition run by Center Parcs.

The winning treehouse was built by the Jennings family from Norwich as a joint project between dad Matthew and his six-year-old daughter Ruby, with mum Becki acting as assistant. The design was inspired by Ruby's love of the Enid Blyton series of Faraway Tree books and was built using recycled wood sourced by Matthew, an architectural technologist.

A shortlist of ten announced earlier this summer included treetop creations with double-length slides and climbing frames as well as family-made structures that has been passed down multiple generations. But the judging panel - made up of adventurer Steve Backshall, CEO of Center Parcs, Martin Dalby, and Center Parcs’ Chief Treehouse Builder Tom Courtney - were especially impressed by the imagination behind ‘The Faraway Treehouse’, the teamwork involved and the ongoing commitment to improving and evolving the treehouse as a space that the entire family can enjoy.

“Ruby and I spent almost every weekend for three months working tirelessly to build something that matched her creativity and we’re so proud of what we have made," said Matthew. "Not only does The Faraway Treehouse give us so much joy as a family, it just shows that a small budget and quality time spent together can really turn into something special. This is just the beginning, if I have my way we will keep adding to the garden for years to come.”

Steve Backshall added: “I think one of the coolest things about it is the little touches from fairy doors and windows, to a ship's bell to announce your arrival and the signs that invite you in – it’s simply a place that is meant to make your imagination run wild. It’s not just a building, this treehouse tells a tale and in my opinion, any place that can do that is really very special.” ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday posts are sponsored by Cabin Master: garden offices and studios to fit any size garden. Top quality contemporary or traditional buildings.

Wednesday, September 07, 2016

Men's Sheds make men healthier, new report shows


 The Men’s Sheds health initiatives increase men’s confidence, self-worth and sense of wellbeing by providing an environment for men that is appealing, safe and socially acceptable, indicates new research by Leeds Beckett University.

As regular readers know, Men’s Sheds began in Australia, and the first England-based Shed was established in 2009. Their aim is to bring men (often of retirement age) together around practical tasks on a regular basis. They offer men a place to share skills, learn informally, pursue individual and community projects, and achieve a sense of purpose and social interaction. Many Men's Sheds focus on activities like woodwork and metalwork, with health and wellbeing a subsidiary outcome. 
The study, by Steven Markham, Lecturer and Researcher in the School of Health and Community Studies, found that by being given the resources to help others, men felt more connected to their local communities and a greater sense of purpose.

Through in-depth interviews Shed organisers and participants, Steven found that the Men’s Shed encouraged men to talk and share in a friendly environment. Men were able to be themselves and communicate with humour in a non-judgmental way.

“Men die an average of 3.7 years younger than women and suffer more chronic conditions," he said,  "topping the death rates for 15 of the leading causes of death. My research has implications for the development of new Men's Sheds and regarding the way health, social care and wellbeing services can successfully appeal to men and improve health and wellbeing outcomes.

“Evidence exists that Men's Sheds improve health and wellbeing, however less is known about how they achieve these improved health and wellbeing outcomes. The Shed I investigated primarily focuses on wellbeing and has introduced other subsidiary activities, such as volunteering on community projects, foodbanks, and woodwork. They meet two evenings a week and on a Saturday daytime.”

The men in Steven’s study reported that they felt more secure, emotionally connected and more connected to their local communities as a result of their time spent at the Shed. These things led to reduced social isolation and brought a sense of meaning to the men's lives. They enjoyed and wanted to help other people. “This is a key point," adds Steven, "because men often do not want to be the recipients of 'services'. Through the Men's Shed, the men were given an avenue, the resources and encouragement to be able to help others. By doing so, this increased their confidence and sense of self-worth and improved their wellbeing.”

Steven will present his new research at the British Sociological Association (BSA) Medical Sociology Group annual conference at Aston University, Birmingham, today.  ----------------------------------------------------
Wednesday posts are sponsored by The Stable Company®, the UK's premier supplier of garden offices and garden rooms. Click here

Tuesday, September 06, 2016

Rent a garden office


We're starting to see enough examples of people renting out their garden office spaces to suggest it might be the shedworking trend of 2016. Some of this is due of course to the folk at Vrumi who we have mentioned before here. Above is the latest example we've spotted on their site, The Pod, which is in a peaceful setting in Kingston upon Thames near the Kingston Gate of Richmond Park. Pretty spacious, it can seat up to six around a table and is available Monday to Thursdays, 9.30am to 5.30pm, with wi-fi, free parking, and tea/coffee.
Available Mondays to Thursdays 9.30 - 5.30. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday posts are sponsored by Garden Spaces, suppliers of contemporary garden buildings, offices, gyms and studios, many of which do not require planning