Gardeners' World Live: The Partners Garden

There are plenty of garden offices and shedlike environments on the drawing board for Gardeners' World Live in Birmingham in June and we'll be profiling them all next week here on Shedworking. First up is The Partners Garden, a collaboration between John Lewis Home Solutions and the APL (Association of Professional Landscapers). They describe it as "an inspirational and useable space that visitors will undoubtedly relate to. The beautifully designed space will show visitors what can be achieved in a small garden with a combination of formal and informal soft landscaping, a garden office and wonderful structural hedging." We look forward to the first images of its construction.

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Garden office wallpaper

Photowall has launched a new wallpaper collection called Dawn Chorus which is a colourful assortment of lovely spring-inspired Nordic patterns by Swedish illustrator Saga-Mariah Sandberg. There are eight hand-drawn wallpaper designs to choose from. Our two favourites are pictured above, The Forest Meadow (a spruce forest with bluebells, anemones, and lilies of the valley) and The Moss Garden (a shaded garden with snails, ferns and mosses) while Saga-Mariah is pictured at work below. It's all for sale exclusively from Photowall and the Shedworking staff believe it would look rather nice in any garden room.

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Saturday posts are sponsored by iHUS Projects, specialists in the design and build of granny annexes for elderly and disabled care.

How to choose a site for your garden office

There are various legal considerations when choosing where to site your garden office - depending where you live, you need to consider its square footage, proximity to boundaries, height, and so forth. But there are also aesthetic issues to ponder. Here's science and nature writer Sarah Boon on her decision-making process for her writing cabin:

I’d been having a hard time deciding where in the yard I wanted it to be – some locations looked better than others when I was down in the yard, but when I looked at them from the house I thought they were too exposed to the neighbours or too close to the house. My husband had a good idea: he suggested I take a stool and a notebook, sit in every potential shed location, and write about it. Wow, it worked like a charm. I carried my stool (really a small 3-step foldable ladder) around the yard and sat and wrote at every potential shed site. I wrote about what I liked and didn’t like about it, what worked and didn’t work, what spoke to me and what didn’t. 

It's well worth reading the rest of the piece here as well as her earlier post about why she wants one.

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

Wall-less garden office

While this is not technically a garden office, it could certainly be used for shedworking and could provide some inspiration for garden room designers. It comes from Italian architect Beatrice Bonzanigo of IB Studios who calls it Casa Ojalá - it's transportable, off-grid (rainwater harvesting, solar panels) and she'll be showing a model of it at Milan Design Week at the beginning of next month.

It's circular and the whole thing measures 27 square metres with a couple of dozen different possible layouts thanks to a series of pulleys and levers which alter the wall configurations/fabric room dividers by sliding them around - essentially, there are two bedrooms, a terrace, small kitchen, living room and bathroom.

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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.

Iglucraft

Estonia-based (though delivers worldwide and a new showroom has just opened in Belgium) Iglucraft is pitching its domed shedlike atmospheres at the cabin, sauna, and tiny house market. Models vary hugely in size but the smallest, and best suited to most shedworking activities, is this one, the Cabin Model 1 in the Igluhut range which is 4.9m x 2.3m and packs in a kitchen/dining room, hot and cold running water, and a double bed, not to mention the lovely Spruce shingles on the exterior. All huts are built in the factory and delivered in their entirety by truck. ------------------------------------------

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Shed Manual published today

The publication dates for my shed manual co-authored with John Coupe have been moving gently around but it's definitely published now and as it's my birthday today I'm taking the liberty of officially announcing it now. Best place to buy it is direct from the publishers Haynes who currently offer six quid off the price, followed by your local bookshop, and then if there's no other recourse, by an online retailer. I'm a little biased, but I think it's a great book and I'm sure you'll like it too. Here are a few spreads...

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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

Garden office home brew

Of course all shedworkers work hard in their garden offices, but all work and no play makes a shedworker a bit dull, so many combine hobbies or interests with their workspace. For many years, the first Shedworking HQ was where the staff also brewed their own cider with mixed success and it's good to hear about others who have gone down a similar garden path.

Writer Allen Boroughs is one of these and he explains in a blog post exactly how he makes his own ginger beer. Here's a snippet:

The shelves of my office usually groan with experimental batches of ginger beer that tinker with the precise ratios of ginger, lemon juice, sugar and frogspawn in search of the perfect brew. Its fun, it’s quite tasty and it does wonders for my ‘mad professor’ persona when I have visitors. I even have an experimental batch of chilli ginger beer on the go which I have high hopes for.

Image of Whisky HQ Shed owned by David Nicks from Taunton in  Devon courtesy Cuprinil and Readersheds -------------------------------------------------
Monday posts are sponsored by garden2office, the Swedish garden office specialists. Click here for more details.

Pub sheds in America

The concept of the pub shed has become so popular in the UK that it now has its own category in the Shed of the Year awards. Interestingly, it is now crossing the pond as discussed in this excellent article on Wide Open Country by Shannon Ratliff who interview Sarah and Chris Bullock about their pub shed on a small island in Washington State. Here's a snippet of what Sarah says about it:

"Our favorite part of the shed is the indoor stove and outdoor fire pit. We love to cook over open flame and host dinners at the shed! In summer, we're always outside and the Bar Shed is a staple. In the winters, we'll bring the picnic table inside and use the stove to make hot toddies and enjoy the shed with our friends! The bar can be removed from the shed to make room for a huge vintage rug and a big air mattress. The bar shelves make for a pretty awesome headboard! Our whiskey barrels double as nightstands which are useful for guests to enjoy their nightcaps. A refill is always within reach! We have friends who fight over who gets to wake up to the beautiful view in the Bar Shed!"

Well worth a read.

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Sunday posts are sponsored by eDEN Garden Rooms. Stunning, bespoke high quality garden rooms, to suit your unique space and style

Garden office room configurator

There are a couple of garden room configurator tools out there on the internet but our eye here at Shedworking was caught by this latest 3D one from Modern Garden Rooms which has just launched.

In brief, you choose the style of garden office you're after, then its size, add doors/window/exterior options, choose your colour scheme, and then it gives you an estimate. All the way through the process you can add or take away items, zoom in and out, and spin your design round to see what it might look like from the side or back. All in all, it seems to work fine, is not too complex, and actually loads which is better than at least one of the others available. Also, you don't have to give them your email to get your price. -------------------------------------------------------

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

Garden offices in Russia

We're having a bit of a world shedworking tour this week and here's the latest installment, Russian shedworking courtesy of St Petersburg-based SA Lab and their Flexse design. They describe it as "a modern view of a traditional Scandinavian grill house" and a prototype of a compact module, featuring double opening glass doors and a large porthole window. It is squarely focused on the the garden office and tiny home market, although they add it could be used as an office pod or small café. Flexse is assembled on site and is made of 100% recyclable materials (although no exact details of this are currently available).

Photos by: Ekaterina Titenko

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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.

Garden offices in Italy

Italian shedworking is not a subject that gets much airtime on the media, but of course that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Koala is based in Bergamo and has a range of designs from 3m x 4m up to 4m x 6m as well as bespoke options, all using an interlocking blockhouse system of laminated wood. Most of the website is in Italian but some pages are in English.


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Garden office decor

A nice short blog post by marketing and social media consultant Lisa McLaughlin for Malvern Garden Buildings looks at how to design the interior of your garden office with a monochrome theme (pictured above). Here's a snippet:

I didn’t have a big budget to spend on creating the space. We painted the outside ourselves and I simply varnished the floor and white washed the walls. I already had much of the furniture, such as the vintage desk, retro office chair and old French leather club chair but I mixed these pieces with practical and affordable office furniture from Ikea. I then added the finishing touches; such as a cow hide rug, cushions, plants, pictures and vintage finds sourced from antique fairs to make it feel homely and cosy.

 Well worth a quick look.

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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

Writing shed cat

Writing shed cat. #Maybe https://t.co/acvrn4yDYS pic.twitter.com/o8k8xQE2Sl

— Christi Daugherty (@CJ_Daugherty) March 14, 2019

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

Free tickets to National Homebuilding & Renovating Show

Shedworking has free tickets to give away to you lucky readers for this year’s National Homebuilding & Renovating Show at the NEC, Birmingham, March 28-31 2019. There are various masterclasses , a new self-build stage and builder Sian Astley,  presenter of BBC2’s Your Home Made Perfect talking about fresh design ideas, cost-effective styling, and mixing traditional style with a contemporary edge, to underfloor heating and insulation.

There are more than 500 exhibitors and 16 free daily seminars and masterclasses, covering everything from eco heating to planning permission. Tickets to non-readers of Shedworking are £12 in advance or £18 on the door (children under 16 free) but for a special e-ticket free of charge, simply click http://homebuildingshow.co.uk/shedworking and follow the instructions. ---------------------------------------

Sunday posts are sponsored by eDEN Garden Rooms. Stunning, bespoke high quality garden rooms, to suit your unique space and style

New shed and garden landscaping increase value of property

New research from Post Office Money indicates that homeowners spent £295bn in the last five years renovating their home, with home improvements like new sheds and garden landscaping providing the biggest return on investment.

Their figures show that while the most common improvement since 2014 was a new kitchen (25%), it was closely followed by garden landscaping (18%) and then a new shed (16%). These homeowners spent £14,015 on average - though the number of homeowners making improvements has dropped by 10% since 2016, the amount spent per home has increased from £12,000.

Those who have made changes to their home estimated that the improvements increased the value of their property by £40,000, from an average of £210,000 before the improvements to £250,000 afterwards. Overall, the report's authors argue that these kinds of works add about 10 per cent to the price of  a three-bed semi-detached home in the UK.

Post Office Money spokeswoman Chrysanthy Pispinis said: “Over the past few years, house price growth has slowed, so homeowners have turned to other options to add value to their homes – with renovations being a clear opportunity. Making the right changes to your home can increase its market value significantly; if improving your home’s asking price is your priority, it’s important to keep in mind the cost of the improvement and the value it could add.”

While only 5% of those surveyed made improvements to their home with the express intention of moving, one in four improvers (28%) did so because they thought it would be a good investment and would add value to their property. The most popular reason for making home improvements was to improve the look of a home (59%).

In order to fund these renovations, three quarters (74%) of homeowners used their savings to fund their renovation, one in five (18%) used a loan or credit card, while one in fifteen (7%) used equity release or mortgages to fund their improvements.

Chrysanthy Pispinis added: “Home improvements are not all about making changes which add value for re-sale. Nearly two thirds of the homeowners we polled had no plans to move. Renovations allow homeowners to create homes that reflect their needs and tastes, with the potential added benefit of adding value in the long term.”
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Saturday posts are sponsored by iHUS Projects, specialists in the design and build of granny annexes for elderly and disabled care.

Homesick: Why I live in a shed

Published in July by Quercus and described as 'The story of a personal housing crisis that led to a discovery of the true value of home', this is one to look out for if you're interested in tiny homes as well as shedworking. Here's the bumph:

Aged thirty-one, Catrina Davies was renting a box-room in a house in Bristol, which she shared with four other adults and a child. Working several jobs and never knowing if she could make the rent, she felt like she was breaking apart. Homesick for the landscape of her childhood, in the far west of Cornwall, Catrina decides to give up the box-room and face her demons. As a child, she saw her family and their security torn apart; now, she resolves to make a tiny, dilapidated shed a home of her own.

With the freedom to write, surf and make music, Catrina rebuilds the shed and, piece by piece, her own sense of self. On the border of civilisation and wilderness, between the woods and the sea, she discovers the true value of home, while trying to find her place in a fragile natural world. This is the story of a personal housing crisis and a country-wide one, grappling with class, economics, mental health and nature. It shows how housing can trap us or set us free, and what it means to feel at home.

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

Virginia Woolf's writing hut as a cushion

Artist Amanda White has produced an excellent series of cut paper collages of writers' homes available as cushions and prints as well as calendars and greeting cards. Above is Virginia Woolf's writing shed at Monk's House, presenting the scene in which Leonard tells her that The Waves is marvellous. 

So whilst trying to catch my new box labels in a good light, I’ve realised I’ve also captured one of my favourite @AmandaWhiteArt cushions. From her ‘Writer’s Houses’ range this is Virginia Woolf’s writing shed. Check out Amanda’s beautiful work #art #collage #cards #original pic.twitter.com/9A7gRm8r3b

— The Saw Maker's Wife (@skeltonsaws) March 13, 2019

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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.

Herringbone studio

Probably our favourite build so far this year, this lovely Larch-clad herringbone-patterned garden office for an artist in Mapperley, Nottingham, comes from Sheltered Spaces. It's in an L shape, marking off an area for work from a rest area and with all main windows and French doors facing east for the morning sun. ------------------------------------------

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Yoga garden studio

This garden room in Enfield, London, was built by eDEN Garden Rooms for a client who had previously been renting a village hall for her yoga business but wanted her own space at home, to improve both her work-life balance and what she could offer to customers in terms of small, private classes.
 
"More and more we are being asked to create spaces that combine a profession and a passion," says Mia Walmsley from eDEN. "This bespoke yoga studio is a fantastic example of just that, and shows how a garden room can not just add value to your business, but also bring a lifelong dream to reality."

The studio is 7.3 x 4.3m (its height fine for planning permission due to distance from the boundaries) with an internal height of 2.4m, and a dividing wall to store customers' bags as well as yoga equipment. 

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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