Wednesday, July 31, 2019

Monty Don's writing shed


Gardener and broadcaster Monty Don has posted a photo of his garden office on Twitter captioned "Writing shed in the early morning light" and he is getting plenty of positive reaction...

Tuesday, July 30, 2019

Mary Price: shedworker



There's an interview with Bristol-based artist Mary Price (who we mentioned last week as a finalist in the Shed of the Year 2019 competition) who works out of her Dunster House Lantera log cabin on the Dunster blog. Here's a snippet:
I have always painted, but since having a studio in my garden, my practice has transformed. For years I worked at the dining table and had to pack everything away after each painting session. Now I can leave work on the easel or table and carry on where I left off without having to set up art supplies each and every time. I still really appreciate this.
You can vote for Mary's shed here. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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 29, 2019

Beach hut news roundup: Prices and police

 
It's that time of the year again when seaside sheds aka beach huts start to hit the headlines again. As always, it's the ludicrous price of beach huts on Mudeford Spit, Christchurch, Dorset that the media love to get up in arms about (the Metro is particularly 'outraged'). Pictured above is one of the most expensive, on at £275,000 with beach hut specialists Denisons which was built only eight years ago. It's double glazed and insulated, with a battery-operated pumped water system and water tank under the hut, gas water heater, inside lavatory with removable waste tank, mezzanine floor for sleeping, plus fridge, and solar panels. Could just about sleep 6.


For just the price of a pint however, reports the Bournemouth Echo, you could nip along to the Nelson Tavern in Mudeford and relax in their new beach hut-style booths.


And finally in Mablethorpe in Lincolnshire, police have set up summer shop in one of the resort's beach huts in an excellent piece of community policing.

“The chalet is absolutely beautiful and located on a beautiful stretch of the beach," said Sgt Cherry Kelly. "It was kindly donated to us for 2019 by Mablethorpe & Sutton on Sea Town Council and we’re just thrilled with it. Holidaymakers are a community in themselves over the summer so not only does the chalet give us that presence at the very heart of the community during the busy summer months, meaning we can respond quickly to any live incidents that might occur as well as actively engaging with the public, but when the season dies down in the winter we can use it to show other chalet owners how to protect their property.

“Some of the chalets are vandalised in the colder months and we want to show owners how to protect them. Ours has been decked out with fire resistant paint, specific locks and bars, and special film over the windows. While I would love to have my team patrol the chalet area permanently, it’s just not possible and so we’re hoping that showing owners how to protect their huts will help prevent any damage to them."  -------------------------------------------------
Monday posts are sponsored by garden2office, the Swedish garden office specialists. Click here for more details.

Friday, July 26, 2019

Large log cabin


Here's an interesting custom-designed large log cabin (7m x 4m) in 70mm timber by Garden Affairs in Bristol with an integral 1.5m store room and half glazed door. It has a flat roof reaching up to 2.5m high and is used as a general purpose garden room for family including a bar. Features include roof and floor insulation, double glazing, factory painted doors/windows, plus of course full electrics. -------------------------------------------------------
Friday posts are sponsored by Warwick Buildings, manufacturers of outstanding quality timber buildings. Click here for more information.

Thursday, July 25, 2019

Shed of the Year finalists announced


The finalists in this year's Cuprinol Shed of the Year have been announced as the judges have whittled down the entries from hundreds to just three finalists per category - these will go head-to-shed in a bid to win the coveted title. This year a new category has been added with entrants being invited to show off their 'Nature’s Haven' with designs inspired by nature and the other categories are Unexpected, Cabin/Summerhouse, Workshop and Studio, Pub and Entertainment, Budget and Unique.

The two that particularly caught the Shedworking staff's eye were Mary Price's blue artist’s workshop in Bristol (above and here if you want to vote) and Stuart Campbell's The Ark (top and here if you want to vote for it) where he makes musical instruments and small furniture, but there are plenty more examples including for those who like a bit of 'thats not a shed' controversy, a live-in shed/lorry in Hampshire, a Shakespeare themed boat-come-shed, and a playhouse that required planning permission

A winner from each category will be decided by a public vote, then an overall winner will be crowned by a panel of shed experts with a giant golden crown for the winning shed. The best shed will receive £1,000, a plaque, and £100 of Cuprinol products.

Head judge and founder of the competition, Andrew Wilcox, said: “We’ve been absolutely blown away by the incredible, imaginative and innovative sheds entered into this year’s competition. Every year there are more and more outstanding entries that take us by surprise. The creativity and imagination of all entrants never fail to amaze the judges. This year’s bunch are second to none. We’ve been really impressed by the aesthetics of the sheds - especially those that entered the brand new Nature’s Haven category with entrants really demonstrating how important it is to welcome nature into our lives and our gardens.”

Public voting is now underway for the 13th annual competition and will close on 29 August. You can cast your vote at www.readersheds.co.uk ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday posts are sponsored by Cabin Master: garden offices and studios to fit any size garden. Top quality contemporary or traditional buildings.

Wednesday, July 24, 2019

Writer's shed covered in ivy


A remarkable 10 square metres garden office build by Australian architect Matt Gibson for a client in Melbourne. While it's lovely and light inside where everything is plywood-finished, it's outside that attracts the attention since the entire building is covered in fast-growing Boston ivy on top of a synthetic rubber membrance of Butynol which is waterproof, resists ageing, and also acts as insulation.

Via dezeen where there are lots more photos as there are also on houzz.

Tuesday, July 23, 2019

Jobs with the UK Men's Sheds Assocation


Jobs in the shed world don't come up that frequently so it's pleasing to see the UK Men's Sheds Assocation advertising for a couple of positions, Digital Communication Officer (fixed term) to manage the website, social media and monthly newsletter, and Membership & Support Services Officer (Maternity Cover) who is the first point of contact/public face of UKMSA.  Closing date is midnight on August 11 and interviews will be on 29 and 30 August. More details at the link above. Good luck!


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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, July 22, 2019

The Light Shed



A cracking home designed and built garden office by architect Richard John Andrews which he calls The Light Shed, or as he puts it "my approach to creating a holistic studio, office and business without the pressure of commercial letting and the rigid location that comes with owning an office". So while it is an office with space for two or three people, it is also going to be used as a family and entertaining space.

Richard describes the materials as "fairly cheap and hard wearing materials, although these have been finessed in craftsmanship to create an elegant and cosy workspace measuring in at 12sqm internally". Features include timber sliding doors, diffused polycarbonate roofing panels (hence its name), black corrugated fibreglass cladding, and plywood-lined interior. More photos at his site here.

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

Sunday, July 21, 2019

Garden office feature of the week: store deck and ladder


Time for a new regular feature to invigorate Sunday posts. Welcome then 'Garden office feature of the week' in which we will post some of our favourite garden office features that don't always come as standard. First out of the blocks is this store deck and ladder setup from Homestead Garden Rooms (the company behind the first Shedworking HQ) who point out that: "With any small business, storage can be an issue very quickly. With a store deck and ladder, you’ll instantly gain that much-needed storage space for any equipment or stock you may have." ---------------------------------------

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

Saturday, July 20, 2019

Black garden office


We've looked at black garden offices before on Shedworking as they seem to be gaining in popularity. Here's another one, owned by Emma who lives in a ground floor flat in London which happily has a decent-sized garden in which to locate this garden office from Malvern Garden Buildings. It's a workspace for her to work on her illustrations and her partner to play the guitar, plus the occasional spot of entertaining friends. Here's what she says about it:
"I think the dark makes it blend in to the garden but also look smart and sophisticated. The garden itself goes from English country garden to tropical around the seating area in front of the garden room. With our love of the sea and surf, we wanted the garden room to be a little beachy pocket of our house, we went with a modern approach and chose a bohemian, scandi style with beach hut influences."


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Friday, July 19, 2019

What is your ideal garden office?


Although there are many ways of making your garden office feel exactly like home, we're all slightly constrained by the circumstances of our back gardens. In an interview with readingzone.com, Helen Peters talks about her excellent new book Anna at War and was also asked about her garden office wishlist...
Q: Can you describe your ideal writers' shed, and where it would be?

A: This is something I think about a lot! Whenever I visit a stately home with a beautiful summerhouse in the garden, I redecorate it in my imagination as my writing shed.

So my ideal writing shed wouldn't really be a shed at all, but a grand summerhouse with brick walls, tiled floors and a high ceiling. All along the front wall would be floor-to-ceiling French windows, and the other walls would be lined with books. I would have a big table facing the windows, and a fireplace in one wall, so I could keep cosy with a log fire in the winter.

The summerhouse would be in a garden full of flowers and fruit trees and singing birds, and all around the garden would be woods and hills. The garden would be walled on three sides, but at the front it would open out on to a lake. When I needed a break from writing, I would swim in the lake or walk in the woods and hills. 

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

Thursday, July 18, 2019

Building a garden office: Part 7


One of the garden office builds we've been following this year is nearing completion. Web designer and developer Jack McConnell is now at stage 7 of the build (you can see the others here) and the video below shows him building and insulating the roof, adding OSB boards to his side walls, and weatherproofing the whole build. There's a very nice surprise right at the end of the video...

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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.

Wednesday, July 17, 2019

Holloway Lightbox


A great design and build by London-based architects Studio Bark in Leyton, London, called Holloway Lightbox. This garden office is used as a photography studio, an office for a screenwriter, and also as occasional extra family space. The 1,200 handmade coloured tiles took three weeks to make and are a nod to the digital age, representing a pixelated facade. Here's what they say about it:
"This modern yet sustainable skin [made using waste timber fibres] presents an emphatic juxtaposition between new and old, incorporating chalky surface tones, helping to complement the rigid Victorian masonry adjacent."
The final design features an asymetrical pitched roof and a fixed rooflight. It's also available as an Air bnb rental.




Photos by Jon Holloway.

Holloway Lightbox from ALVIN HUNG on Vimeo.

Tuesday, July 16, 2019

Musician's garden studio: before and after


Here's a fascinating 'before and after' 15sqm garden office build by architectural design studio made with volume for a jazz pianist in Forest Gate, east London. Above is how it looks now and below is the garden shed they had to work with...


Here's what they say about it: "We kept what was salvageable from the dilapidated existing structure and created a highly insulated space for our client to compose, arrange and relax from. Not a bad spot to work from! We have approached the project with a sensibility in terms of budget and materials that will allow the client to undertake some works themselves with some external help. The project involves upgrading the existing structure and replace elements that are either damaged or not fit for purpose."


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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, July 15, 2019

Garden office counselling room


A counselling room designed and built by Garden Affairs in Hove, East Sussex. It's one of their Linea garden room range coming in at 3m x 2m, is fully insulated, double-glazed, has paint-stained walls and painted doors/windows.  -------------------------------------------------
Monday posts are sponsored by garden2office, the Swedish garden office specialists. Click here for more details.

Saturday, July 13, 2019

Thoreau's Walden Pond cabin: stud sections and nails

Some fascinating artefacts from the godfather of shedworking Henry David Thoreau's famous cabin. The block of wood above measures 10 x 23 x 10 cm and the two nails approximately 8 and 16 cm. -----------------------------------
Saturday posts are sponsored by iHUS Projects, specialists in the design and build of granny annexes for elderly and disabled care.

Friday, July 12, 2019

Allotment shed roof


Here is former Shed of the Year winner Joel Bird enjoying his new shed roof allotment. Pictured below are more images of him setting up its irrigation system as he admits that the roof gets quite hot and dry plus a plan of what crops he plans to grow. If you're planning something similar, remember that it's going to be pretty heavy - here's a good guide to green roof weights.



Below is a reminder of his original 2014-awardwinning Shed of the Year design with fellow shedworker George Clarke.

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

Thursday, July 11, 2019

Garden office accountancy firm


Sometimes we forget the 'garden' element of having a 'garden office'. Here's an excellent example of what can be done by accountant Jack Richmond who has colourful meadow flowers planted outside his office door in a build by Norwegian Log.

Jack has gone down the shedworking route and works in his father’s accountancy firm but needed enough extra room in the garden office for a future employee, as well as a large desk area. He found what he was looking for at a RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show and bought the Norwegian Log 5m x3 metre GRV building which was being used as a display model there and was eventually craned into place in his own back garden. As Jack’s home is on a corner plot, his clients can reach the office via a side gate in the garden fence.

“The building retains heat brilliantly in the winter," says Jack. "I used it on the coldest day last winter and it was warm and cosy. This summer I’ve sat here with the doors open, looking out onto the garden.”
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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.