Thursday, March 31, 2011

Cotsmill Avant Garde


Cotsmill Garden Offices have extended their flat roofed range with the Avant Garde. Designed to be planning permission friendly with a greater depth than width the Avant Garde continues Cotsmill Garden Offices improvements such as the move to an EPDM rubberised roofing system that has a life span of up to 50 years and the option of uPVC doors and windows. Cotsmill still offer cladding types including Thermowood, Cedar, Redwood and Weatherboard and an optional engineered pad based foundation system. Cotsmill plant two trees for every building manufactured as part of its environmental policy, an industry first.
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Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Craftedspace

Craftedspace is a collective of designers who create handmade buildings. Among their intriguing designs is the traditional green oak garden room with a view to the sea pictured above for Kay and Jeff Zitron in Wales: the goal was to create a framework over two levels that would be quickly overgrown with tunnels and bowers of wisteria and clematis. There is also a large deck area specifically built for use as an outdoor office (and from which the sand dunes can be seen).

We also rather like Caradoc's Hideout, pictured below, a space for everyday climbing and playing as well as for local legend storytelling.
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Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Tent: shedworkers

Branding, design and marketing agency Tent is has recently become a shed-based branding, design and marketing agency as its business development director Sarah Raad explains below - it's quite a long post but full of interesting detail whether you're already a shedworker or considering becoming one:
We had been based in an excellent business centre in town for five years but when we decided to make the move to a slightly more rural setting for our home, we thought it made sense to cut down the commute and improve our work/life balance by building an office garden. The houses in our village all have long, allotment style gardens, designed for feeding the families of pit workers who lived there years ago and now perfect for putting an office at the bottom. And so The Shed as we have named it was born!

We needed planning permission from the local council as technically it’s in the front garden of the house and also because the village is a conversation area, the council’s conservation department had the opportunity to look and comment on the style etc. Luckily this all went through without too many issues.

We bought a kit from Dunster House and employed a local builder, electrician and IT company to construct it and wire us up to the 21st century complete with phone lines, broadband and wifi.

Inside we have worked with our current brand in terms of colours and overall look – we even have fake turf instead of carpet – bringing the outdoors inside! It is such a creative environment to be in, very quiet, just the sound of birds and the occasional car crunching down the lane.

Clients love it, it’s so inviting and cosy and a nice break from the hustle and bustle of town and city. It’s also proving to be an excellent space for us to run one to one marketing planning and training sessions as it’s so peaceful and a bit of an escape from people’s everyday business environments. And even though we’re tucked away we are only 20 mins or so from the centre of town and not that far from the A1.

We decided to heat it by using a wood burner, although we burn smokeless fuel. The Shed is so well insulated though that even on a fairly cold winter’s day we only needed the burner going for 4 hours and then it was warm for the rest of the day and into the evening. With summer approaching we are looking forward to flinging open the double doors and really getting the feeling or working in the garden.

Working where we live has really improved our work/life balance and means we can be responsive to our client’s needs when needs be without compromising on family life. Working in our shed means that we can lock the door on work at the end of the day too rather than bringing it into the house which is important to us.
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Deborah Nagan: How green is your garden?

Deborah Nagan’s latest shed-based work (we've covered her previously here) is called 'How Green is your Garden?' and has been on display at at Canada Blooms, the country’s largest flower expo. Deborah's installation includes five sheds (complete with individual garden areas) and aims to examine how we think about our gardens and their impact on the environment in terms of chemicals, pesticides and general rubbish. Here's what she says about it:
This is a hybrid of my garden for the Metis International Festival held in Quebec in the summer  each year and questions the so-called sustainability of domestic gardens.  The only plants are white tulips wrapped in paper with messages left by visitors to the garden in Metis – otherwist, visitors will have to make sense of charcoal, salt, blue tape, glass.
This garden was put together with the assistance of Landscape Ontario and sponsored by Le Groupe Germain.
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Monday, March 28, 2011

Start Up Britain

A big welcome to the many new visitors to the site if you've just discovered Shedworking via Start Up Britain. Please do have a browse around and feel more than free to get in touch or leave a comment. If you're not sure what Start Up Britain is then here's some blurb:
StartUp Britain is a new campaign by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs, launched on 28th March 2011. Designed to celebrate, inspire and accelerate enterprise in the UK, it has the full backing of the Prime Minister, the Chancellor and HM Government. This is a response from the private sector to the Government’s call for an ‘enterprise-led’ recovery. We believe that many of the important functions and services necessary to foster and champion new enterprise can be open-sourced, instead of provided by government directly. We aim to do this by creating a living market-place online for the wide range of enterprise support that is already available.
Regular readers will recognise that Emma Jones of Enterprise Nation is one of the chief organisers.
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French 'garden office'


A remarkable garden office in Paris, designed by Christian Pottgiesser for two companies, Pons and Huot: the former industrial workshop now has not only a self-cleaning glass roof and individual plexiglass-domed work areas but as you can see from the photos, a spectacular collection of Ficus-Panda trees.


Via Treehugger

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Sunday, March 27, 2011

Barnworking



A lovely shedworking atmosphere in Weybridge, Surrey, an American-style barn/garden studio by Mark Burton Construction (and here) which includes all the heating, lighting and power you'd expect plus plenty of windows to bring in natural light and a door within a huge door.
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Saturday, March 26, 2011

Exclusive: special shed discount offer for readers of Shedworking

Readers of Shedworking can enjoy an exclusive 5% off all orders over £150 until April 11 with Garden Buildings Direct. Simply CLICK HERE, select the shed you want and once you've entered your billing information it will ask you if you have a voucher code which is: shedworking1
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For all your home and garden needs visit B&Q.
Making it easier.

Friday, March 25, 2011

Heather Bestel - shedworking tip of the month


This month, Shedworking's Calm Editor Heather Bestel asks, are you a Busy Bee?
Shedworking means that you have to motivate yourself to get your daily tasks done. But do you ever find that you’ve been working all day without making the tiniest of dents in your to-do list? We can fill our whole work day with busyness but that doesn’t necessarily mean we’ve been productive. Here are our seven steps to getting things done:

1. Think about what you want to accomplish

2. Set a reward for yourself (this could be a snack, a coffee break, a wander round the garden) this will keep you motivated and inspired.

3. Shut out any distractions – switch on the answer machine and switch off facebook and twitter

4. Start small with short periods of time (like 30-45 mins)

5. Focus on only that activity

6. Keep going until you achieve it

7. Celebrate with your reward - then you can set your next priority.
More stressbusting advice from Heather at her site here.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Tania Hershman: shedworker



Bristol-based author Tania Hershman, currently the writer-in-residence in the Science Faculty at Bristol University, has recently become a shedworker (see her blog for more details and 'before' and 'after' photos of her writing shed).

It's an interesting build: there was already a shed in situ and they simply moved all of the contents out and brought in a builder to spruce it up a little and insulate it. Pictured above you can see Tania's inspirational Einstein poster and collections of short stories (she is the founder and editor of The Short Review). Particularly interesting is that Simon her builder built her a special area where she can work standing up.
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Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Garden2office expands further into Europe

Garden2office is now supplying garden offices (kits of the 3.8 x 3.8sqm Sportskabin) to shedworkers in the Netherlands. Above is a demo model from a recent Dutch home and garden show.
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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, March 22, 2011

In The Shed: Expo shed stand

Nicola Brown recently took her In The Shed graphic design business on tour to the Shropshire E-commerce Expo and set up a marvellous shedworking-themed stand. You can also see Nicola towards the end of this video about the Expo.

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Monday, March 21, 2011

MicroStructures (screencast)


You can visit MicroStructures here.
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Sunday, March 20, 2011

Garden offices and arcadian links


Integrating the garden office into the garden is high on many shedworker's list of priorities. Here's a nice example from Belleweather, plus a line drawing below showing a basic concept with a garden office building on one end and a gazebo on the other for sunny shedworking days: the arcadian link between provides pleasant dappled light.

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Here for Ms Martin's class is a special link about log cabins. Thank you for coming to Shedworking.
http://www.gardenbuildingsdirect.co.uk/log-cabins

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Saturday, March 19, 2011

How to get married in a shed


If you've always wanted to get married in a beach hut, head to Bournemouth because from this May onwards you should be able to get hitched on the beach. Tourism bosses have applied for planning permission to set up a cream-coloured beach hut "chapel" measuring 11sq m (118sq ft): there is certainly a demand as the local council receives more than 60 inquiries a year about beach weddings on the town's beaches.

Peter Charon, leader of Bournemouth council, claimed maybe a little optimistically. "With seven miles of sandy beaches, palm trees and luxury beachfront hotels and restaurants, Bournemouth can rival anywhere in the world as the perfect beach wedding location."

If it does receive the planners' green light, the wooden hut will be put up near the sea wall and the resort's cliff lift and will be available through summer until October. Interestingly, the concept of a permanent structure is a key one as legally this is needed for a marriage or civil partnership to be valid in England and Wales.
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For all your home and garden needs visit B&Q.
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Friday, March 18, 2011

Nomadnessyurts: Home Of The Modern Yurt


Nomadnessyurts is run by Jonathan Ridgeon and Greg Kemp who originally started making yurts from hazel coppice and reclaimed army tents. Their current models, ideal for a garden office with a considerable difference, stand up to very strong winds, are fine with wet weather and claim to be virtually maintenance free. "We now use ultrasonically welded UV stabilised PVC and our new product is only now just going into manufacture," says Jonathan. "Currently we are deleloping an off grid hot shower solution using heat from the stove and water collected from the yurt roof." You can find out more about them at their web site, on Twitter and at their Facebook page.
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Thursday, March 17, 2011

Les Maisons Sylvestres

Remarkable garden office spaces for shedworking artists in France, these shedlike structures Les Maisons Sylvestres by Matali Crasset (but rather more approachably also here) are essentially mid/long term work-live spots. The first ones are under construction - built from acacia wood, douglas pine and galvanized steel and without foundations - and should be finished by Easter. There is a strong eco-theme to these buildings, that they work with and within their surroundings though Shedworking isn't too sure about that...
Via designboom
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Chelsea Flower Show 2011: RBC New Wild Garden

Details are starting to emerge about some of the gardens at this year's Chelsea Flower Show (May 24-28) including the RBC Wild Garden featuring a garden office. It's sponsored by the Royal Bank of Canada, designed by Nigel Dunnett & The Landscape Agency, and built by Landform Consultants. According to the RHS the garden studio will be built using a recycled shipping container and will have habitat walls and a green roof. Here's what they say:
"The studio sits within waves of colourful, impressionistic and naturalistic planting. This is the first full-size rain garden at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. The garden combines ecological awareness with an artistic and sculptural use of materials, and the theme of sustainability runs through the design. Reflective pools capture rainwater and sculptural dry stone walls present ever-changing views. The garden takes inspiration from the planting ideas of Victorian horticulturist William Robinson and a fresh look at the quality and craftsmanship of the Arts and Crafts movement to create this forward-looking Wild Garden."
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Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Modern-Shed: on the road (video)

Modern-Shed: work studio from Dominic Arizona Bonuccelli on Vimeo.

Owner/founder of Modern-Shed Ryan Grey Smith is putting together a nice collection of testimonial videos of people who have bought their garden offices. Here's the latest with video filming/production by Dominic Arizona Bonuccelli featuring a film director's shed in Los Angeles.
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The beauty of garden offices (video)


Another video - this time set to rather stirring music - outlining the delights of garden offices, by in.it studios
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Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Robert Frost: shedworker

American poet Robert Frost had a particular fondness for rural life and indeed wrote some of his most famous works such as The Road Not Taken in this cabin pictured above in Ripton, Vermont, where he spent many summers in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s until his death. The marvellous photos are part of an ongoing project by Don Shall who has been visiting and photographing all 17 National Historic Landmarks in Vermont. You can see more photos by Don of Frost's cabin here.
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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.