Wednesday, May 20, 2015

Shed of the Year finalists announced

Bernard Shaw's Writing Hut Full details over at shedblog - Shedworking is backing George Bernard Shaw's writing hut.

Interestingly, the idea of a moveable garden office appears to be gathering pace - The Cloudy Bay garden at Chelsea Flower Show this week included one on tracks. See video here.

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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, May 19, 2015

Sheds at Chelsea Flower Show 2015

For more photos of these and other working retreats, take a look at this post by Shedworking's literary editor Sarah Salway who was there yesterday for press day. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday posts are sponsored by Garden Spaces, suppliers of contemporary garden buildings, offices, gyms and studios, many of which do not require planning

Monday, May 18, 2015

Drop



Technically, this shedworkingesque design from Urban Square is a mini luxury eco-hotel, but we think the wood and steel construction also has pleasant garden office potential. Large circular windows. In all, it measures 23m2 with sitting room, bedroom and bathroom, plus nice deck area. --------------------------------------------------------------------
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Monday posts are sponsored by garden2office, the Swedish garden office specialists. Click here for more details.

Thursday, May 14, 2015

Black Spider Letters: Prince Charles backs iconic hut preservation


The Guardian's publication of some of Prince Charles' letters this week was a bit of a damp squib, but we were intrigued to see that among them was this call to preserve Scott's iconic huts in the Antarctic. ----------------------------------------------------
Wednesday posts are sponsored by The Stable Company®, the UK's premier supplier of garden offices and garden rooms. Click here

Wednesday, May 13, 2015

Garden offices increasingly popular 'extension' option


Extending living space has become increasingly attractive to Britain’s homeowners over the past couple of years, according to new findings from Sainsbury’s Home Insurance. Its report indicates that extensions to the rear and side of properties have been the most popular kind of residential extension over the past 24 months, with almost a third of people who have extended their homes having opted for one.

But the full list makes for interesting reading. Conservatories are the second most popular residential extension (29%), followed by loft extensions (15%), garage conversions (11%) - and then comes the construction of an outbuilding such as a garden room or home office (5%).

A separate poll of builders by Sainsbury's shows that bigger kitchens and kitchen diners were the most frequent reason cited for a home extension, and the second most popular intended use was for additional bedrooms - again, there was considerable interest in home offices which came in third.
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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, May 12, 2015

Slice garden room by Todd Saunders


A lovely shedworkingesque space by Todd Saunders who we've featured numerous times before on Shedworking, Slice is a 15m2 small garden office/house in Slåttevik, Haugesund, Norway. Features include a bed, kitchen and bathroom, with a charming patio/courtyard area complete with mature plum trees.

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

Monday, May 11, 2015

Feature on seaside cabins in B&W Photography magazine

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

Thursday, May 07, 2015

Nuclear bunker shedworking - part 2





Those of you who missed out on the nuclear bunker garden office we featured in March need fret no more as another underground option is now on the market, on with William H Brown for £15,000  in Drybread Road, Whittlesey, Peterborough (details here).

It was built in the early 1960s and comes with its own secure steel hatch and ladder leading down to the open plan space with storage area. This main room has electricity connected. The bunker is in a secure fenced location, so that's one less dealbreaker to worry about, and will be auctioned on 4 June at Barnham Broom Golf & Country Club at 11.30am

Wednesday, May 06, 2015

Jo Thompson's garden office for Chelsea Flower Show 2015


Shedworking's favourite garden designer Jo Thompson is putting together a lovely garden - A Sylvan Retreat - for this year's Chelsea Flower Show. Commissioned by M&G (who sponsor the whole show), the garden is a retreat featuring a two-storey oak-framed shedworking structure inspired by author Vita Sackville-West's writing room at Sissinghurst Castle. It also features a natural swimming pond, woodland area and a really beautiful garden. Jo's sixth garden is being put together with her all-female gardening team. We'll post updates on this as it unfolds...
 
Wednesday posts are sponsored by The Stable Company®, the UK's premier supplier of garden offices and garden rooms. Click here

Tuesday, May 05, 2015

vrumi shedworking


When the people from vrumi first approached me to ask if I'd be interested in writing about their launch earlier this year, I have to admit that I wasn't too keen - at best I thought it was a rather weird idea (renting out unused rooms during the day to people who wanted affordable workspace) and at worst, well, I won't go into details about that...

Anyway, I hope the Shedworking staff is big enough to admit it might have been wrong about the idea and we'd be very keen to hear from anybody who's tried it (either as landlord or renter). Pictured, for example, is a garden office in Hackney, London, which offers free parking, tea/coffee, and a lavatory. "Lovely garden office perfect for working alone in the peace and quiet," says the owner, Sophie. It's £40 a day and unavailable at the weekend. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday posts are sponsored by Garden Spaces, suppliers of contemporary garden buildings, offices, gyms and studios, many of which do not require planning

Monday, May 04, 2015

Myrtle Cottage Garden Studio




Winner of the RIBA South West Award 2015, Myrtle Cottage Garden Studio is the fine work of Bath-based Stonewood Design who describe is as "space to work, to sew, to play guitar, to sleep, or as a hide to observe the woodland wildlife. The key driver to achieving the brief was to create a design which worked seamlessly with the natural forms and levels of the garden, in order that an architecture is created which is less of a building, and more of a landscape."

The designers add out that "the intensive planted roof disappears into the flora of its surroundings. The walls become stone garden walls which retain the undulating level changes on the site. The project has been accepted by the local deer community, who have been spotted wandering over and around the Garden Studio."

The shedworking space is clad in pre-patinated copper to blend with the natural colours of the landscape and features a sofa bed, wood burner, and cupboards inside.

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

Friday, May 01, 2015

John Steinbeck: shedworker


Continuing our look at writer John Steinbeck's life in garden offices, here are images of his 'Joyous Garde' writing shed (named for Sir Lancelot's castle), a hexagonal structure at Sag Harbor inspired by Mark Twain's own garden office with fantastic views over the cove near Bluff Point. The attractive hut was built by Steinbeck himelf and he worked in a director's chair inside which he labelled 'Siege Perilous' - he wrote Travels with Charley and Winter of Our Discontent inside.