The history of home and the office

An excellent piece in the Financial Times by Edwin Heathcote ('Office scenes of domesticity mask a few home truths') takes a swift look at the historical relationship between office and home.  Here's a snippet, talking about the effects of the pandemic: 

The boundary that might once have delineated home and work dissolved. And the strange thing about this is that it represents the exact opposite of what had been happening over the past couple of decades as the office attempted to convince us to hang around for longer, to chill, but to keep working, to treat it as a second home (one supercool co-working ­outfit adopted precisely that name).

Well worth a read. 

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John Steinbeck's writing hut in Rooms of Their Own

As I've mentioned before there are several writing sheds and huts in my recent book Rooms of Their Own (dare I say it, the ideal Christmas present for a loved one or even yourself as a special treat). Here is the section on John Steinbeck's, accompanied by the lovely illustrations by James Oses which appear throughout the book.

 

In a 1958 letter to his friend and agent Elizabeth Otis, American  

novelist John Steinbeck outlined his plans for building what he  

described as his “little lighthouse”, somewhere that was too small   

for a bed so that it could never be used as a guest room. “It will be  

off limits to everyone,” he told her. “One of its main features will  

be an imposing padlock on the door.”  

 

Steinbeck’s writing hut on Long Island, New York, was so dear to him that he actually gave it a name, Joyous Garde (he even handmade a sign for it and stuck it above the door outside). Named for Sir Lancelot's castle, the hexagonal structure at Sag Harbor was inspired by Mark Twain's own garden office and enjoyed marvellous views over the cove near Bluff Point. The attractive hut with windows in every wall was built by Steinbeck himelf and he worked in a director's chair inside which he labelled 'Siege Perilous' – indeed, Joyous Garde had only one chair so visitors had nowhere to sit down. A large desk took up much of the room allowing him to spread out papers and books and a bookshelf ran all round the room over the windows. In this cosy abode, which he initially planned to call Sanity’s Stepchild, he wrote his travelogue Travels with Charley and his final novel Winter of Our Discontent.

 

As well as Joyous Garde, Steinbeck (1902 – 1968) enjoyed the peace of his writing room in his apartment on the upper East Side of New York which he described as “a quiet room where nothing ever happens”, so quiet in fact that he talked about getting a myna bird and teaching it to ask him questions. He had a sign on the outside of the door which read ‘Buzzard’s Despair’ and on the reverse ‘Tidy Town’ which is how his wife adjusted it to show she had been in and tidied it while he was out. A keen builder all his life, he used the same room to build a kayak-like boat.

 

But whichever writing room he worked in, Steinbeck – who liked to write rapidly - had one prerequisite. Pencils. And plenty of them.

 

“I like the feeling of a pencil,” he said, which is something of an understatement. He used hundreds on each new book, sharpened to a point which he son Thom called ‘surgical’. “The pure luxury of long beautiful pencils charges me with energy and invention,” said Steinbeck.

 

He was particularly keen on round ones, as he found hexagonal pencils cut into his fingers. Nevertheless, he wrote with them so often that he developed a grooved callus on his finger where the pencil rested. Another requirement was that they be black so that they did not distract him.

Steinbeck also had an electric sharpener of which he was very fond, calling it his most used and most useful possession. Since he began each morning with a wooden box of 24 fully sharpened pencils which he rotated and resharpened during the day, it was certainly a great help. As one began to blunt after a few lines, it would be placed into a second box to await resharpening while he picked up a new pencil to continue writing. As the process continued, the pencils would shorten and once the metal holding the rubber on the top touched his hand, he would hand them over to his sons.

“For years I have looked for the perfect pencil. I have found very good ones, but never the perfect one. And all the time it was not the pencils but me. A pencil that is all right some days is no good another day.” Had soft writing days and hard writing days, according to pencils. Sometimes it changed in the middle of the day. Super soft pencils didn’t use very often as “must feel as delicate as a rose petal to use them”

Favourite brands included the Blaisdell Calculator 600, the Eberhard Faber Mongol 480 (actually yellow), the Eberhard Faber Blackwing 602 (tagline ‘half the pressure, twice the speed’). Bought four dozen pencils at a time. When the metal of the rubber on the pencil touched his hand, he discarded it to make way for a new one.

Steinbeck acknowledged that this love of pencils, what he called his “pencil trifling”,  was one of his eccentricities. But he had others. He wrote his novel East of Eden on the right hand pages of a book (in pencil, naturally), while using the left hand ones to compose letters to his friend and editor, Pascal Covici about the progress of the book, as well as general news, what his family was up to. In fact he started his morning work with the letter to warm up - Steinbeck explained he felt the need to ‘have to dawdle a certain amount before I go to work.’

Despite this low-tech obsession, Steinbeck was actually keen to make use of new technology, using a Dictaphone to try out dialogue for his novels, and typing up manuscripts on his olive green Hermes Baby typewriter, one of the earliest portables. On its case he scratched ‘The Beast Within’.

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Studio Mate

There's an excellent new-ish podcast called Studio Mate presented by illustrator Steven Lenton who chats to fellow childrens' book illustrators about their work life, inspirations, and process. Particularly interesting is the latest episode, out this morning, which features an interview with shedworker Lydia Monks who is talking about working with Julia Donaldson and her latest title Adoette. Pictured above is her splendid garden office.

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Garden office better investment than loft extension, says survey

Research by property maintenance solution provider, Help me Fix, suggest that certain home improvements - such as home cinemas, loft conversions, and solar panels - actually reduce the potential sale income of a property.

So on the plus side, their figures indicate that a garage conversion can increase sale profit by £15,840, and building a garden office by £12,693. Here's what they say though about rebuilding your attic:

"Loft conversions are wildly popular, especially in densely populated, urban areas, but their huge expense (£37,500) means that even a 10.8% value add to the property price can’t stop a resulting -£5,542 decline in sale profit."

Ettan Bazil, CEO and Founder of Help me Fix said: “There is an assumption that major home improvements are always a good investment due to the fact that they add to a property’s market value. But what a lot of people don’t do is account for the initial cost of completing the improvement and measure it against the value added to the home. If the former outweighs the latter, your home will certainly sell for more, but your personal profit will still be reduced. We would advise homeowners to take their time and conduct thorough research before committing to any major improvements to ensure that they’re going to be better off at the end of the day."

Image courtesy Cabin Master 

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Sulari Gentill: shedworker

Australian novelist Sulari Gentill - her latest book is The Woman in the Library - is also a shedworker. There's a nice interview with her on the Australian Writers' Centre site where she talks about her octagonal writing hut's unusual location on a truffery, and her intriguing weather vane. Here's a snippet:

Inside, Sulari has a green leather chaise longue (“because I like to write with my feet up” she says), an oak bookcase, a small cabinet that houses her manuscripts, a heater for chilly days, an armchair and a tin of snacks. The talented writer is also a true Renaissance woman because she’s not only a writer and truffier (grower of truffles), she’s also a portrait painter. So she also has a matching twin hut nearby, which serves as her artist’s studio.

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Andy Zaltzman: shedworker

If you listen to Test Match Special then over the past few years you'll have been treated to the marvellous commentary of Andy Zaltzman, comedian and cricket statistician par excellence. You'll be delighted to hear that much of his work is done in his home garden office in south London. He often talks about it in his interviews (often bemoaning poor phone signal but strangely powerful wifi connection) and most recently in a chat with Si Hawkins for The British Comedy Guide's Circuit Training slot. The whole thing is worth a read but here's a snippet about what he's got in there: 

Lots of stuff, like my big collection of cricket books from my cricket obsessed teenage years, bits and bobs of weird stuff I've bought as props, I've got a giant wooden duck I bought as a prop for a show that I ended up not doing because of Covid. Some day maybe the giant wooden duck will make its emotional stage debut. But at the moment, it's just cluttering up the back of my shed. I've got a green screen up, to cover the mayhem.

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Sheds for birds

Perhaps more widely known as birdhouse, Thorsten Van Elten from Wowhaus has a truly exceptional range of wooden sheds for birds which would make excellent additions to your garden. As Thorsten says: "Birds deserve some architectural style too." Pictured above is the 1920s De Stijl birdhouse and feeder. Click the link for lots more marvellous examples.

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Ronald Duncan’s writing hut

Here's the cliff-top writing hut in which poet, novelist and playwright Ronald Duncan worked in Devon. Rather overlooked today, Duncan had an impressive roll call of friends (Mahatma Gandhi, TS Eliot, Ezra Pound, Gerald Brenan, Benjamin Britten, and Kathleen Ferrier).

He built the hut in the 1960s (it replaced a rather rickety lookout post) and although it fell into disrepair after he died in 1982, it was rebuilt and now contains his old writing desk (a door from a ship wrecked nearby) and copies of his works which can be taken by visitors (it is a popular area for walkers).

There's a special collection of information about Duncan at the University of Exeter's site with useful links to other images of the hut.

Image courtesy Steve Bittinger

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Celebrating George Bernard Shaw's writing hut

It was the anniversary of the death of one of the 20th century's most famous shedworkers earlier in the month (November 2, 1950) and National Trust volunteers and staff at his home Shaw's Corner in Hertfordshire, just up the road from Shedworking HQ, along with members of the Shaw Society marked the occasion with a wreath laying on his marvellous writing hut, accompanied by three readings.

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White garden office music studio

Black garden offices have been in vogue for some time so maybe it's the turn of white ones next. Here's an example from Modern Garden Rooms who offer bespoke soundproof garden music rooms and garden sound studios, made to specification, and insulated for temperature and sound. Here's what they say about them:

For many, making music is an essential part of life, whether as a career or a much-loved hobby. However, finding a space to practice or play can be a challenge – especially if you live in a crowded neighbourhood. Fortunately, garden music rooms provide the perfect solution. These fully insulated and sound-proofed garden studios offer a peaceful haven where you can make all the noise you want without disturbing your neighbours. Whether you’re a seasoned musician or just starting out, an acoustically treated garden music room is the perfect place to let your creativity flow.

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Pub Shed of the Year announced

Slightly earlier than expected, the Pub Shed of the Year award has been made and first place has gone to The Dog & Ball in Portsmouth, owned by John Simmons. It was built using reclaimed wood from salvage yards and Facebook marketplace and was finished this summer, in time for his 50th birthday. Features includeoak beams from an old dock yard building in which John used to work before it was demolished, a dart board, country pub-style seating, and an outdoor beer garden. Full details here.

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Garden office in Constable country

A lovely garden office has just come onto the market in Dedham, Essex, right in the heart of Constable country which the painter immortalised in several works. The property has a 75m garden in which there is this splendid riverside garden office/studio, as well as three bedrooms, three receptions rooms, and a private dock. On for £850,000 with Savills whose property agent Tom Orford comments enthusiastically: "The view across the river and surrounding countryside is simply amazing - this must be one of the very best settings of any property on the river!"

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Garden office tops survey of garden building uses

An interesting study by Crown Pavilions (an example pictured above) reveals the popularity and financial importance of garden offices. It found that at the top 10 things people use their garden room for is as a garden office, with playroom second, and guesthouse third, followed by man-cave/she-shed, music room, bar, yoga room, cinema room, beauty studio, and in 10th spot pool house.

Breaking down those figures, more than two thirds of people between 35 and 44 mostly use their garden room for an office, and more than a quarter of people over 65 use their garden room for a bar.

Overall, the survey indicates that one in eight people have some sort of garden room. A third used them as garden offices and more than half run some sort of business from them, for example as beauty studios or personal training spaces as well as home offices.

In terms of a garden office's effect on a property's value, they estimate it as anything up to 16% depending on its size, location, privacy and extra features. "There are endless ways to make the most out of your garden. Building a dedicated area for your hobbies, a tranquil work environment, a fully functional home gym, yoga studio, playhouse or garden office, can add real value to your home”, said Luke Dejahang, CEO & Co-founder of Crown Pavilions.

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New garden office space for luxury wedding venue

Staff at a luxury Cornish wedding venue have a new, fully equipped garden office, thanks to a grant from BIG Productivity and help from Access to Finance. 

The team at Treseren, a beautiful Georgian house and grounds near St Newlyn East, had been managing the day-to-day running of the business from laptops at home or around a kitchen table. Owner Emma Caddis wanted to create a more professional office space and applied to BIG Productivity for a grant. Access to Finance supported Emma and her staff through the application process and grant of £24,951.27 was awarded last year.

The much-needed cash boost has gone towards funding a timber-framed office, supplied and built by local firm Garden Buildings Cornwall, based in Goonhavern.

Emma says having a separate space for her team to manage and plan events has been ‘hugely transformative’ for her growing business, which has gone from being a husband-and-wife team to having four employees, plus hospitality staff. “Having our new office means that we all feel connected to the business,” said Emma, explaining that her team used to meet around her kitchen table, or virtually on laptops, when they weren’t working to prepare the venue. This way, we can all be together and bounce ideas around. Having a dedicated space for work and planning just works for us in so many ways. The impact has been huge.”

Treseren’s team plan and coordinate up to three weddings a week during the venue’s busiest time of year.

Since it was launched by Emma and husband Paul in 2019, Treseren has won four gold awards for Wedding Venue of the Year in the Cornwall Tourism Awards and for the whole region in the South West Tourism Excellence Awards. 

The venue is a go-to choice for couples who want an intimate wedding in luxurious surroundings. Up to 22 people can enjoy exclusive use of the 200-year-old country house and grounds, once home to the captain of the local mine.

The new, custom-built office is an ideal workspace, plus it provides a welcoming reception area for visiting photographers and videographers, who need to set up and recharge equipment. A dedicated laundry facility within the office has also been created, which has freed up space within the venue to create a valuable props area. In addition, the housekeeping team also use the office as a base, connecting the wider team together.

The timber building has been a much-needed addition to the business and Emma says the BIG Productivity grant, plus support and advice from Access to Finance meant it all came together sooner rather than later

“It accelerated a process that needed to happen,” said Emma, adding that having the extra financial help and guidance gave her the confidence to make the investment. “It’s kept our business growth on track. It’s been a real highlight on our journey as a venue and as a team.”

Lyn Newby, BIG Productivity’s Programme Manager, said: “We’re delighted that BIG investment has made such a difference to Treseren by providing modern workspace where Emma and her team can come together. Not only has it boosted the productivity of the business, it has helped accelerate growth and create jobs.”

Jackie George, Business Finance Specialist at Access to Finance, said: “The Access to Finance team, which provides impartial support to SMEs in Cornwall, supported Treseren to access funding aimed at increasing the productivity and efficiency of the business. 

“After an initial meeting to discuss the needs and aspirations of the business, we worked closely with Emma and the team at every stage – explaining the grant application and procurement processes, supporting documentation requirements, and providing guidance on how to form the application into a successful submission. Securing this investment has made an incredible difference to the business and we wish the team every success in the future.” 

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Stay in a Plankbridge shepherd's hut competition

Shepherd's hut specialist Plankbridge is partnering with Farmstead Glamping for a competition to win a two night stay at the luxury yet sustainable shepherd‘s hut retreat in North Dorset. You'll have to nip over to Instagram to find the details and take part. Entries close on November 24.

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Dylan Thomas's writing shed in Rooms of Their Own

Dylan Thomas died yesterday in 1953. Several of you got in touch to ask if we could mark his life and work and shedlife in some way, so here's the chapter in my recent book Rooms of Their Own on this very subject, with illustrations above from it by James Oses.

Dylan Thomas – the appeal of small rooms in Wales

Explaining how he had selected the poems of his he was about to recite for a BBC broadcast in 1949, Welsh poet and playwright Dylan Thomas said: "I decided not to choose those that strike me still as pretty peculiar, but to stick to a few of the ones that do move a little way towards the state and destination I imagine I intended to be theirs when, in small rooms in Wales, arrogantly and devotedly, I began them."

Thomas (1914 – 1953) certainly found inspiration in compact spaces. He wrote in a caravan at the end of the garden while living in a flat in Delancey Street in London; produced most of his Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog in a summerhouse in the grounds of Laugharne Castle in Wales; enjoyed the use of a summerhouse at Magdalen College in Oxford provided by his patron Margaret Taylor; and was pleased to write in the 'Apple House' outbuilding at Llanina Mansion near New Quay, Wales, owned by Lord Howard de Walden.

The most famous of his writing rooms was his last, a former garage in Laugharne built in the 1920s to house the local doctor’s green Wolseley, the first car in the town. It stands on cast iron stilts, cantilevered off the road and jutting out beyond the cliff where it overlooks the Tâf estuary below. In 1949 it was converted into a writing shed for Thomas while he and his wife Caitlin moved into their nearby home known as The Boathouse, paid for again by Margaret Taylor. “All I shall write in this water and tree room on the cliff, every word will be my thanks to you,” Thomas wrote in a letter to her.

The shed was very much Thomas’s personal sanctuary. He had windows and a stove installed, and decorated it with pictures of his favourite writers (Louis MacNeice, Lord Byron, Walt Whitman, WH Auden, and DH Lawrence), lists of words, and reproductions of art including Botticelli’s Birth of Venus and Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s The Peasant Wedding. As well as piles of paper on his desk (its legs painted red), he also liked to keep his favourite boiled sweets close at hand. There were also shelves of books although Caitlin is said to have taken out the Raymond Chandlers and other thrillers to encourage him to concentrate rather than settle in for a comfy read. Here, he wrote out everything by hand, simply throwing unwanted drafts onto the floor.

"My study, atelier, or bard's bothy, roasts on a cliff-top," wrote Dylan Thomas in a letter to his friend Hector MacIver. From this peark, it certainly afforded him fine views across Carmarthen Bay and to the Llansteffan peninslar. Through the windows he could also see St John’s Hill which features in his eponymous poem (“Over Sir John's hill/The hawk on fire hangs still”). The shed itself features most dramatically in his ‘Poem On His Birthday’ to mark his 35^th which starts “In his house on stilts high among beaks/And palavers of birds” and goes on to describe the author as “the rhymer in the long tongued room”.

Thomas also wrote “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night” and parts of Under Milk Wood here.

His normal writing routine was as simple as his shed. In the morning he would read, write letters, or complete crossword puzzles, go for for a drink around midday at the local Brown’s Hotel, return for lunch at 1pm, then work in the shed from 2pm until 7pm. And then return to Brown’s with Caitlin for the evening. To encourage him to work, Caitlin sometimes locked him in the shed.

The shed has remained popular long after Thomas’s death. It motivated Roald Dahl to build his own writing hut to exactly the same proportions following a family trip to Wales, a recreation featured in the 2011 Chelsea Flower Show, and a pop-up replica version of the writing shed went on the road in England and Wales to mark Thomas’s 100^th birthday. After falling into disrepair, it was renovated in 2003 at a cost of £20,000 (it had cost £5 to build) and the interior is a recreation of his working environment, alongside empty beer bottles, his blue and white striped mug (copies of which are now on sale by an enterprising Welsh pottery company), and a jacket over the back of the chair.

Visiting information

The Boathouse (www.dylanthomasboathouse.com) now contains a museum dedicated to Thomas. Visitors can peek into the shed but it is closed to the public. The shed’s original doors were rescued from a council rubbish tip in the 1970s and are on display with other Thomas memorabilia in the Dylan Thomas Centre in Swansea (www.dylanthomas.com).

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Model replica garden office Christmas present

Huddersfield based model maker and miniaturist  Lee who runs LNR Models on Etsy has a brilliant idea for a Christmas present, as he explains:

"Sheds, cabins and outhouses... Have you a sheddie in your life that might like a replica of their man cave, she-shed, pub shed or summerhouse? Ideal original Christmas gift. Limited commission spaces available."

Contact him at the above link or @lnrmodels on the Twitter.

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Garden studio with veranda

It's well worth thinking carefully about your garden office design and exactly what you'd like as part of it. Here's a good example from Crane Garden Buildings of a 3m x 5.4m garden studio built from FSC® Scandinavian Redwood for a customer in Slough which has a pleasant, and useful, covered 3m veranda. Features include double door, three floor-to-ceiling windows, and natural matchboard internal lining.

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Malvern Garden Buildings offer a premium collection of garden buildings, displayed at 11 UK showsites.

 

Roof top garden studio

It's good to see a new roof top garden studio. There was a bit of a trend for this a decade ago but it has fallen a bit out of favour since then. This marvellous example is a Swift model for a penthouse roof terrace in Liverpool put together by Urban Landscapes including a seaside-themed area where the wrap-around roof faces out towards the Mersey estuary.

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Garden office pub for sale

Just to follow up yesterday's post about the number of properties coming onto the market being marketed heavily for their garden offices, here's a particularly fine example on with Purplebricks. It's in Crowcombe in Somerset, and as well as views towards the Quantocks and the Brendons, it also has this fabulous garden room with fully operational bar in the back garden. Comes with 4 bedroom house for £850,000.

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