Wednesday, March 31, 2021

Garden studio for a musician



A lovely garden studio designed by Paul Archer Design for a musician in the back garden of a Grade II listed Victorian terrace in Lambeth, London. One unique feature is a fan which regulates humidity to protect the musical scores on the back wall of the 'library'. Here's what the designers say about it:

"The tiled flooring flows through from the kitchen of the main house across the garden down into the lowered floor of the studio. The added height removes the sense of restriction, giving a sense of openness of the studio nestled in amongst the raised planters. Facing back towards the house, the two facing sides are glazed, providing another visual link to the new rear extension. This has been made possible with the cantilevered steel structure fixed along the rear and flank walls...Using glass in this way helped to minimise the wall thickness and maximise the footprint of the studio."

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Wednesday’s posts are sponsored by Norwegian Log Buildings  - Log cabins and garden buildings for a better quality of life. Click here for more details.

 

 

 

Tuesday, March 30, 2021

Garden office Airbnb business

Larger garden office buildings can also work as a business opportunity in themselves. Here's an example of using a Garden Affairs building in the Welsh countryside as Rose Lodge, an Airbnb holiday let. It's a standalone timber log cabin, measuring 4m x 8.5m with an additional porch, interior feature beams, and fully insulated. 

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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, March 29, 2021

Alcove homeworking pod

Hard on the heels of last week's look at Wilma by Moonalabs, here's the Alcove homeworking pod from the same company. It's the same idea, i.e. shedworking indoors, but a little spacier with room for up to three people, a rather nice long bench seating section, and a decent bookcase. The spec is similar to the Wilma (rubber plywood with various optional extras including casters) but it's larger, at 2.4m (l) x 1.2m (w) x 2m (h) and has a mahogonay table. Nice.



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

Sunday, March 28, 2021

Entries flooding in for Shed of The Year 2021

A garden sanctuary created by an NHS worker is among the many incredible entries for Cuprinol Shed of The Year 2021. Diane Goring, from Newport, who has been working tirelessly as an NHS Nurse Consultant throughout the pandemic, uses the space to unwind and enjoy her favourite pastime of arts and crafts. Key worker Robert Adam Bell, from South Yorkshire, has built himself a haven on a budget - complete with a secret whiskey cabinet - where he seeks peace and a space for woodworking.

The entries shine a light on how the pandemic has changed the role of the humble garden shed for many of us and come as competition sponsors Cuprinol make a last call for entries ahead of the competition closing on April 12.

Other noteworthy efforts include a yoga cabin built in just one week. Geraint Nicholas, from Essex, constructed it for his wife to teach her holistic classes in. And to boost well-being for the whole family, the shed also doubles as a lockdown cinema room and with the full spectrum smart lighting - complete with disco mode - to host kids parties.

Despite living in Merseyside, Mike Vermiglio and wife Sue have built a piece of 1930s Birmingham in their garden with a Peaky Blinders-themed shed. The Garrison has kept the family bubble entertained with its 50s-style jukebox and fully-stocked bar, in which they hope to screen the Liverpool Derby when lockdown ends.

Ruth Davidson, from West Midlands, has also entered her family’s garden boozer. Previously a chicken run, the Pink Flamingo Tiki Bar, built by her husband, was used to host Christmas Day and now contains a pizza oven for alfresco dining.

Entries have been flooding in since February and Cuprinol and competition founder Andrew 'Uncle Wilco' Wilcox are calling for all shed-enthusiasts to ensure their work of art receives deserved recognition by entering the much-loved competition before it closes.

Andrew said: “The entries we’ve received so far really show how the nation is pushing the boundaries when it comes to creating spaces for entertaining and relaxing in their gardens. The past twelve months have been amongst the most challenging ever for many of us, and it’s been fascinating to see how that has spurred sheddies onto ever more creative heights. With just a matter of weeks now until the deadline, we’d urge anyone thinking of entering to get their skates on.”

Now in its 15th year, Cuprinol Shed Of The Year 2021 invites entrants to submit their creations into one of the seven categories, which include the new lockdown category introduced last year. Cuprinol launched the new category to shed some light on how much the year has changed our relationships with our outhouses and how many ambitious projects were undertaken during lockdown.

Last year’s shed-building superstar Daniel Holloway walked away with the coveted title of Cuprinol Shed of the Year 2020 after wowing judges with his nature-inspired refuge Bedouin Tree-Shed, built around two tree trunks in his back garden. Ashley Bates took home the competition’s first ever Special Commendation in 2020, after setting up The Shed School to help educate children while lockdown closed classrooms.

Entries can be submitted via Readersheds.co.uk until 12 April.

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Sunday posts are sponsored by Henshalls Insurance, specialists in insuring garden offices and other garden buildings. Click here for more information.

Friday, March 26, 2021

Wilma: Multi-Function Family Nook




Open up the 'interior garden office' folder because there's a marvellous new model on the block. What they've named the 'Wilma' (which happily is the name of one of our member of staff's wife) comes from London-based Moonalabs who describe it as a "mini home office pod". It's aimed at families who want some kind of personal haven as well as shedworkers. "Wilma is a mini multi purpose nook for the
whole family," they say. "Watch Wilma transform from a mini office for your conference calls to a
colouring nook during playtime. Wilma adapts to the needs of the moment."

Features include a small quiet fan for ventilation, toughened octagonal glass windows, optional shelving, table, power sockets, an anti-static low-pile carpet with rubber lining, plus LED ceiling and table lights. Outside the rubber plywood frame is clad in fabric (20 colours to choose from, including black) with an acoustic HD foam lining. An optional extra is casters with lockable rubber wheels. The whole thing measures 1.2m (l) x 1.1m (w) x 2.1m (h).

Tomorrow, we'll bring you another faboulous interior shedworking atmosphere...

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

Thursday, March 25, 2021

Terrazzo Studio tropical garden office



A clever garden studio in Hackney, London, designed and built by Sonn Studio which also features a bedroom with custom forest green wraparound terrazzo cladding (a kind of marble and cement composite). It's also a good example of not needing a huge amount of room to have a garden office since it's the outside space of a one-bedroom garden flat on a Victorian terrace. Here's what Sonn say about it:

"The concept for the space was to provide a tropical haven within a tight urban context with a designed focused on views and flexibility. Engineered stone cladding wraps around the full building with dark grey aluminium framed glazing to the south and west facades. The natural coloured flecks within the stone reflect the planting within the garden. Iiternal walls are lined with dark stained cork and polished concrete flooring continues from the internal space to the outside."

It's on the shortlist of this year's annual Don't Move, Improve! competition run by New London Architecture to celebrate interesting domestic builds in London.

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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, March 24, 2021

Win a private tour of Cressida Cowell's writing shed

The National Literacy Trust is running an online auction to raise money for its fine work bringing books to children in need across the UK. One of the items is this wonderful chance to virtually meet Childrens' Laureate Cressida Cowell, author of the How to Train Your Dragon and The Wizards of Once series – and the Waterstones Children’s Laureate.

Over a private Zoom call, Cressida will take you on a virtual tour of her writing shed, chat what inspires her work, give yoy an exclusive look at her sketchbooks and take an exclusive peek at what she is currently writing.

You can bid here.

There are of course various t&c including: children to be accompanied on the call by an adult; date and time subject to mutual availability; prize to be claimed by 1 December 2021.

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Wednesday’s posts are sponsored by Norwegian Log Buildings  - Log cabins and garden buildings for a better quality of life. Click here for more details.

 

Tuesday, March 23, 2021

Kate Holland's cowshed book bindery (video)


Kate Holland is one of the UK's leading bookbinders, producing contemporary fine bindings and books for commissions and exhibitions - you can see her binding one of the shortlisted Booker Prize titles, The Mars Room by Rachel Kushner here. She also organises the national bookbinding competition sponsored by the Folio Society. Kate has very kindly prepared a video tour of her workplace, a converted cowshed at her home, for readers of Shedworking which you can enjoy below:

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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, March 22, 2021

Hybrid working the way forward, says major new report

Post Pandemic Places, a major new report from think tank Demos and Legal & General, has found that huge increases in shedworking and homeworking, coupled with a desire for continued flexibility, could support significant increases in local spending. Consequently, they are calling on the government to incentivise the establishment of more local offices and hybrid-working initiatives.

According to the new research, 65% of the working population were forced to change their place of work during 2020 as a result of the pandemic. Of these, 79% want to continue to have some form of remote working in future. However, the findings - taken from a poll of 20,000 adults - indicate that a desire to work remotely is not necessarily the same as wanting to work from home all of the time.

Relatively high levels of support were recorded for ‘local desk space’. This was particularly stark among younger people, with one fifth of those in their twenties rating it their top priority for employment premises in their locality. When asked how people were intending to spend their money once the restrictions were over, the research found that 36% of people plan to spend more money locally than they did before the pandemic. Among people required to work from home, this rose to 47%.

The report suggests there is an opportunity for government and business to support more hybrid working and flexible local desk space, to give people the flexibility they want and also make progress on the 'levelling up' agenda, by spreading spending power across a wider geographic area.

As a result of its findings, Demos is calling on the Government to promote remote working as a regeneration tool. An example would be introducing employee tax incentives, such as ‘remote-working vouchers’, similar in design to the current childcare voucher scheme.

"Throughout the pandemic, an overwhelming number of people were forced to change the location they work in, whether they were required to work from home or furloughed," said Kitty Ussher, Chief Economic Advisor at Demos and author of the report. "But for those people, as our new report out today demonstrates, they’ve built a new-found relationship with their local area that’s here to stay beyond the pandemic.

"This major shift to remote and flexible working has led to a desire for spending more cash and more time locally. In other words, flexible working has the opportunity to make local areas thrive beyond expectations. This presents an opportunity for Government to actively support hybrid working, not just because it’s what people want and because of its long-understood potential to narrow the gender pay gap, but also as a key tool for local regeneration."

Image courtesy Warwick Buildings 

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

 

Saturday, March 20, 2021

Shaw's writing hut opens to the public for the first time

The public were officially allowed in to Shaw's Corner for the first time on March 19, 1951, when the National Trust flung open the doors. The BBC archive has an excellent little video about it which includes a very short piece of footage of the rotating summerhouse in which he wrote that starts at the 3:30 mark. A nice little treat for the weekend.

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Saturday posts are sponsored by woowoo waterless toilets, the best toilet for your garden office

Friday, March 19, 2021

Garage office conversions high on buyers' must-have lists


New research by property portal specialists Rightmove for the BBC has indicated one of the consequences of lockdown in terms of working from home.

It appears that the search term "garage" was the most popular keywords on searches for property over the last nine months. Rightmove argues that this is because of high numbers of buyers looking to buy a property with a garage which they can then convert into a garden office.

Rightmove's director of property data Tim Bannister told the BBC: "More space has always been the most common reason for people moving home, but the evolution for many from balancing their laptop on the end of a bed last March to making an office a permanent addition to a home has led to a need for even bigger homes than before."

The research also shows that in an Escape to the Country-like twist, Cornwall has been the most searched area this year (especially Truro and Looe), overtaking London, followed by Devon. Dorset has jumped from 20th spot to 10th.

Image courtesy re:think homeworking

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

 

Thursday, March 18, 2021

Interior garden office village




Here are the brand new inside garden offices built for Citibank Singapore's 'Wealth Hub' as a kind of 'banking conservatory' for its super-rich clients by Ministry of Design. It's all pretty lush with greenery (including palms, ferns, and arums, with a hydroponic system) including an observation deck, feature bar, banquette seating, lounge niches and most exciting of all, garden meeting pods which are described as "alternative discussion environments". It's all inside a soaring atrium with walls of tinted glass. Here's what the designers say about it all:

"Shrubs and trees evoke an atmosphere where everything seems to flourish in a natural and sustainable manner... Although drawing from the virtues of biophilic design, the scheme aims to create a cultured conservatory and not a wild forest. Introducing a measure of control and order amidst nature’s abundance, we created a series of carefully detailed planter box arrangements, sinuous in shape to allow for pathways and meeting spaces to be carved out in-between the landscape."

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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, March 17, 2021

Garden office lighting


Lighting in your garden office is a key issue so here's something nice from 'iconic' light specialists Anglepoise, two new wall lights in its Type 80 collection with extended arms and angular articulation. Available in Matt Black and Grey Mist, they offer "a ‘halo’ light-escape feature in the shade, creating extra dimension in low light environments and suitable ambience." Basically, there's a big one (above, which can easily be fixed to your wall to help with desk clutter) and a little one (below, which is nice but perhaps of more limited use) - they're not cheap but there is a lifetime guarantee (they will service or replace any light if an issue develops).

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Wednesday’s posts are sponsored by Norwegian Log Buildings  - Log cabins and garden buildings for a better quality of life. Click here for more details.


Tuesday, March 16, 2021

Sheds in the Idler magazine

The new issue of the Idler magazine is out now which includes my regular column on garden office and other shedlike structures, this time focusing on low budget self-builds. For those of you who enjoy snooker, in my other regular column I take a look a diversity in the game, rather more serious than my normal scribblings. Best value is to take out a subscription (details at the link above) which not only saves you money but also wins you a free tote bag featuring the Idler snail.

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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, March 15, 2021

Garden office on a lake




Here's one for the 'when I win the lottery' folder, a truly fabulous garden office on the lake at Chelwood Gate in East Sussex from Brighton-based A Room in the Garden. It measures a whopping 16am by 7m and includes a kitchen, bathroom, and sauna. Features include a decking platform, and smart home automation.

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

Friday, March 12, 2021

Garden office boom, tax holidays and headaches

The boom in garden offices can create tax holidays and headaches when homeowners choose to sell, according to tax expert Natasha Heron from chartered accountants and tax advisers Hillier Hopkins.

“Sellers, buyers and their estate agents often fail to realise that a garden office if it meets certain criteria can lead to quite substantial savings for stamp duty land tax under what is called multiple dwellings relief," says Heron, who adds that multiple dwellings relief will usually see stamp duty land tax charged not on the total sale price of a home but on the sale price divided by the number of properties acquired regardless of their size or value, and that can represent a significant saving.

“The relief does, however, come with strict qualifying criteria, with a garden office needing to be independent from the main house and with its own cooking facilities and bathroom. Independent does not necessarily mean detached, but attached garden offices, or granny annexes, will need a separate entrance. Savvy sellers can use this relief to increase the sale value of their home, sharing the reduced stamp duty land tax liability with buyer.”

But warns Heron, business owners that have funded a garden office through their business could face an unexpected capital gains tax bill.

“Garden offices can add significant value to a property and consideration is required if that space is classed as a business asset. Capital Gains Tax (CGT) does not usually apply to your primary residence when you sell it. However, it may apply if part of your residence is used solely for business. Business owners will need to keep a watchful eye particularly is a sale is on the cards any time soon.” 

As always on Shedworking, we strongly advise talking to your tax adviser/accountant about all matters relating to your tax.

Image courtesy Plankbridge

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