I'm very pleased to report that Dominic Jones's marvellous One Grand Designs shedworking project is very close to finishing (so close that he's already starting to post from his shed). Pictured above is the nearly finished thing, below an atmospheric night image.
And here he is, officially shedworking. More details at One Grand Designs.
Dominic Jones, Head of User Experience at Liverpool Direct Limited, is another brave soul embarking on a selfbuild garden office project which he has called One Grand Designs. Pictured above is what he has at the moment... "I went round with a tape measure and was amused to find out that every single dimension is different ;-) It’s 82″ tall at the front, 76″ tall at the back and various widths along its length. I’m particularly intrigued that the roof seems to slope, yet the walls are the same height - which means the floor slopes I guess!"Highly commendably, Dominic doesn't want to pay thousands of pounds for a garden office, he's trying to bring it all in on a budget of about £1,000, but still make it beautiful, clean and workable. Definitely one to keep an eye on.
One Grand Designs - one of Shedworking's favourite selfbuild garden office projects - is almost at the finishing line. Do nip along and enjoy this very honest account.
While the market for off the peg garden offices seems as strong as ever, lots of people have been contacting Shedworking recently with details of their plans to self-build their garden office (such as One Grand Designs), a task for which I have nothing but admiration since I would never attempt this myself. The latest I've seen is Humble Designs which describes itself as: "A celebration of DIY reskilliing, handbuilt shelters, low impact structures, shed architecture and tiny houses, and a riposte to the disempowering idea that self-build projects need to be expensive or 'Grand'!"Run by permaculture expert Graham Burnett, pictured above is his first design sketch for his new garden office. The design highlights another strong trend towards ecofriendliness - it features recycled windows, a rainwater harvesting system, photovoltaic panel to power a laptop, and waterbutt to feed the small garden pond.
I'm starting to get really quite excited about Dominic Jones's One Grand Designs project which we featured recently, not least because his initial thoughts are quite like the kind of new Shedworking HQ that I'm after myself - somewhere to work and somewhere to store more traditional shedlike stuff (bikes, gardening implements, etc). Above is the first glimpse of his plans and you can read more of how he hopes to put it all together here: his thoughts on insulation will be particularly helpful to others considering a selfbuild.
Wednesday's posts are sponsored by The Garden Room Company®, the UK's premier supplier of garden offices and garden rooms. Click here.
The build for One Grand Designs starts in earnest next week and we'll all be able to watch it as it unfolds since Dominic has set up a webcam to record the action. It goes live tomorrow (Saturday) at 10am. Or if he gets up a bit earlier or later, then it goes live then. Watch it all unfurl here... There are other shedcams, notably The ShedCam and Dean Urbano's.
Do nip along and check out the continuing work on these two excellent self-build garden office design projects, at different stages of construction. Dom's OGD is nearly up now (he's at the falling in love with Kingspan stage) and Graham HD is sketching out plans (he's at the not sure Freecycle is going to work stage). Well worth a browse
Today we're very pleased to have a guest post from Norwegian Log on the subject of craft studio garden offices.
A bright and light garden craft room can provide space and inspiration for a myriad of creative projects. Here’s some crafty design tips to consider …
Build zones into your layout Get creative before you even start your projects by segregating areas of your log cabin for different tasks. This will help you stay organised and reduce clutter in those areas where you want to create. Consider having dedicated areas for storage, cleaning up and crafting. For example, why not add plumbing for a kitchenette and sink, and laminate flooring for easy cleaning. If more than one member of your family is going to be crafting at the same time, consider side boards with dedicated space for each person. A mood board is a fun way to share ideas – and your floor-to-ceiling views are sure to trigger off grand designs! Contain your craftingWith good crafting, comes a good deal of ingredients – and if you want to have space to shape, mould and forge, you’ll also need room for your tools. Draws with compartments allow you to stash small items such as sewing thread, scissors, glues and buttons in one place, while storage trolleys on wheels mean you can take your kit to wherever you’re working. A pegboard with hooks and pins maximises vertical space, while separate baskets for ‘works in progress’ mean you can pick up projects quickly after a break. Think about ladder shelves for storage jars or hanging racks for fabric, paper and ribbon.
Read here how Norwegian Log customer Francoise Read expanded her craft business with a contemporary log cabin studio.
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Blacksheep House, the converted shed we featured recently, is up for a Grand Designs Award. Owner Christine Hope writes: "We were really pleased to see our house, Blacksheep House on your site, and thought you may be interested in voting for us in the Grand Designs Home of the Year Competition. Blacksheep House has been entered for the conversion category which will be broadcast at 8.05 next Sunday (May 4) - there is a short film about the house and then a public vote. If we get voted as the best conversion we will be through to the final on Friday 9th so we need every one to vote for us!"
It was very compact inside with a small double bedroom, shower room, small kitchen and living area but would be ideal for teenage son in need of his own space and then later to either rent out as a self catering unit or to convert to a glorious garden office. I think the design works very well from the outside; I could imagine it sitting above a large swath of ferns and hostas. I am also a sucker for the wood palings on the outside – as is my son.What were your highlights of the show?
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Monday posts are sponsored by garden2office, the Swedish garden office specialists. Click here for more details.
Welcome to Shedworking's celebration of National Work From Home Day (which is today). I'll be updating this post throughout the day, there'll be Twittering in the right hand column opposite, and please do leave a comment to say hi and perhaps a little bit about where you're working and what you're doing today.
11.39: As it's a Thursday I realise that many regular readers will be wanting a Thursday Outhouse. Here's a nice one from the very browseable The Rustic Way.
