Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Shedworking in the Daily Mail


A nice piece about garden offices in the Daily Mail by Andrea Childs (which includes a generous namecheck for Shedworking) looks in some details at the shepherd's hut belonging to watercolour artist Jean Batterbee near Chelmsford, as well as writer and interior designer Sarah Stewart-Smith's renovated 1960s breeze-block workshop in the garden of her crofter’s cottage near Hereford. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday posts are sponsored by Garden Spaces, suppliers of contemporary garden buildings, offices, gyms and studios, many of which do not require planning

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Intellectual property, the British Library and garden offices


An interesting video featuring David Ajasa-Adekunle, the designer behind Tetra Shed, and how the British Library has helped with his IP queries. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday posts are sponsored by Garden Spaces, suppliers of contemporary garden buildings, offices, gyms and studios, many of which do not require planning

Monday, July 22, 2013

Slightly underground garden studio for a choreographer


A lovely shedworking atmosphere in the back garden of a mid-terrace London flat for a choreographer from Scenario Architecture - the brief was to make it as secluded as possible with plenty of natural light and a garden office that faded into the background.

According to Scenario: "Partially submerging the structure into the ground as well as splitting the large roof into three sections, each sloping at a different angle to break its continuous expanse, contributed to a structure that looks smaller than it actually is. The studio is designed to achieve high energy efficiency and reduced CO2 emissions, mainly via passive means - high levels of insulation, air tightness and use of recycled materials."

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

Friday, July 19, 2013

Video of George Bernard Shaw in his writing hut

Although we've featured numerous photographs of George Bernard Shaw's writing hut, both with and without him in it, this is one of the very few pieces of video of GBS in it that we've come across. It's a clip from an excellent video at the East Anglian Film Archive all about Shaw and his home and garden at Ayot St Lawrence in Hertfordshire which also features an appearance from that funster Danny Kaye. Well worth a browse. ----------------------------------------------------------
Friday posts are sponsored by Warwick Buildings, manufacturers of outstanding quality timber buildings. Click here for more information.

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Walden: the t-shirt

 

You've read the book, you've seen the film, you've joined the society, now buy the t-shirt. Available from outofprintclothing.com in any colour as long as you want olive and apparently "purchase of this shirt sends one book to a community in need". -----------------------------------------------------
Wednesday posts are sponsored by The Stable Company®, the UK's premier supplier of garden offices and garden rooms. Click here

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Vivien Leigh visits George Bernard Shaw's garden office


The famous actress (and wife of Laurence Olivier) numbered among her film roles a starring part in the celluloid version of Shaw's play Caesar & Cleopatra. As writer Kendra Bean says on her website vivandlarry.com - which should be your first stop for all information about the couple (and book emerging soon) - there are various photographs of them visiting the great man in his garden office taken by studio photographer Wilfrid Newton including this one on her site featured below of Viv and George inside and which includes details of Kendra's visit to the hallowed hut.


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

Monday, July 15, 2013

Stan Cullimore on the search for the perfect shed


We mentioned a while ago about Stan 'Housemartins' Cullimore and his newfound love of shedworking and there's a really nice piece by him in The Observer about his search for a shed in which to write songs for the marvellous songsfromtheshed.com folk. Here's a snippet:
I went online, and somehow I stumbled across what is possibly the poshest shed in the south-west: a cute little place called Breakers, in Whitsand Bay, Cornwall, that took my breath away. From looking at the pictures, I didn't know whether to call it a chalet, a glorified beach hut or some kind of five-star shed on steroids. What I did know is that if hobbits lived in huts, this is the sort of place they'd want to live in. In fact, I'll go further. If hobbits lived halfway up a cliff in Cornwall and had great taste, unlimited budgets and a love of surfing, this is exactly the place where you'd find them.
 Well worth a browse. -------------------------------------------------------------------------
Monday posts are sponsored by garden2office, the Swedish garden office specialists. Click here for more details.

Friday, July 12, 2013

Tiny House craned in over houses in London

An intriguing video from Tiny House UK underlining that all is not lost if you want a shedlike atmosphere at home but no side or rear access to the back garden. Here's Tiny House's Grand Designs exhibit finding a longterm home in the Big Smoke. ----------------------------------------------------------
Friday posts are sponsored by Warwick Buildings, manufacturers of outstanding quality timber buildings. Click here for more information.

Thursday, July 11, 2013

Henny Penny: Because chickens need sheds too


There's no reason why your chickens should be left out when it comes to shedlike atmospheres with top top working conditions. "When I rescued four ex-battery chickens three years ago I discovered how difficult it was to find a hen house that was both practical and attractive," explains Penny Roberts, founder and director of Henny Penny Henhouses. "So I was inspired to design my own. All our products are handmade in Yorkshire using sustainable products and I have recently partnered with Farrow & Ball paint so that our customers can chose any hen house in any F&B ‘eggshell’ colour.  The photo shows our first rescue chicken modelling one of our various models." Lots more examples ono their website. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Homestead Timber Buildings - Manufacturers of Quality Timber Buildings

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Beach hut on sale for mere £200,000


If there was some doubt about whether the beach hut bubble had burst, then this property - Hut 305 - from Waterside Properties at Mudeford may help you decide. With a leasehold expiring in 2029, it's on for £200,000 (plus a £1,900 service charge and £500 council tax bill). For your two hundred thousand bananas you get great views over the Solent and Isle of Wight, room to sleep four (bunk beds and two bench beds), solar panels to power spotlights and socket, gas cooker, ridge, sink, indeed a fitted kitchen, and decking. It's also apparently slightly set back for extra privacy.
-----------------------------------------------------
Wednesday posts are sponsored by The Stable Company®, the UK's premier supplier of garden offices and garden rooms. Click here

Tuesday, July 09, 2013

Shedworkers work the equivalent of an extra month a year

Shedworkers and other homeworkers put in an average of 24 more days work a year than those in traditional office surroundings, according to a new report from video conferencing specialists UCi2i who polled 1,000 UK office employees.

The figures show how much 'overtime' homeworkers put in, underlining the fact that working from home is far from a lazybones' charter, even though 25% of those who work in offices believe homeworkers are skiving off.

Homeworkers said they were more efficient when working from home because they were surrounded by peace and quiet for productivity (26&), they worked the time they would have spent commuting (18%) and it allowed a good work/life balance (13%). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday posts are sponsored by Garden Spaces, suppliers of contemporary garden buildings, offices, gyms and studios, many of which do not require planning

Monday, July 08, 2013

How did Shed of the Year start?


There's a great interview with Uncle Wilco from readersheds.co.uk at WalesOnline about the hows, whys and wherefores of the birth of the Shed of the Year competition and National Shed Week. Here's a snippet:
“It’s not just about the building, it’s about the passion of  people. They treat it as their escape,  their haven when they want to  get away and OK, they may  have gone a little bit mad on it,  but it’s what they want, that’s their space."
Well worth a browse. -------------------------------------------------------------------------
Monday posts are sponsored by garden2office, the Swedish garden office specialists. Click here for more details.

Thursday, July 04, 2013

Shed of the Year 2013 is...


The Boat Roofed shed, owned by Sheddie Alex Holland from Machynlleth in mid Wales. Congratulations! Full details at Shedblog. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Homestead Timber Buildings - Manufacturers of Quality Timber Buildings

Wednesday, July 03, 2013

The top 8 garden offices of the year 2013


As we wait for the announcement of Shed of the Year 2013 tomorrow, here's a rundown on Shedblog of the top 8 garden offices as voted for by members of the public this year. Pictured above is the Cross Keys Signal Box, a replica of a Victorian signal box designed and built by John Dukes. -----------------------------------------------------
Wednesday posts are sponsored by The Stable Company®, the UK's premier supplier of garden offices and garden rooms. Click here

Monday, July 01, 2013

Peaceful consultation room



Here's the latest finished project from Roomworks for a client who wanted a peaceful consultation room in his garden. "What was particularly interesting was that even though his single story home was over over 15 years old it had a living roof," says Paul Barton, design director at Roomworks. "Not surprisingly he wanted somethin similar on his new room. He has wild meadow flowers on the house but we decided that sedum might be  more manageable on the consultation room. Considering the sedum was installed only a few days before this photo it is already looking pretty good, one of the benefits of sedum turf rather than shoots."

The client had very specific ideas on the design of the room and in fact designed it himself so the room isn't a typical Roomworks look. -------------------------------------------------------------------------
Monday posts are sponsored by garden2office, the Swedish garden office specialists. Click here for more details.