Beach hut asking prices rising by up to 100% a year

We're heading into beach hut silly season stories again in the media with The Sun and Daily Mail both reporting gleefully that five huts at Mudeford have gone on sale for a combined £2.1m. While this seems preposterous, new figures from digital home information pack provider Moverly indicate that the average asking price for a beach hut has risen by 43% over the last 12 months.

Their report shows that a typical beach hut is currently on the market for £49,290, but in Dorset beach hut inflation is now at at 101% and you'll need to find an average of £123,524 from down the back of the sofa to buy one. After Dorset are Kent and Essex with average prices at £42,257 and £42,008 respectively.

In terms of the highest annual rate jumps, West Sussex is in second spot with the average asking price of a beach hut leaping 77% in the last year. Norfolk is third (48%), then East Sussex (42%) and Hampshire (25%).

Ed Molyneux, Moverly co-founder, said: “While the rest of the UK property may be slowing under the pressure of economic uncertainty, it certainly doesn’t seem to be impacting the appetite for the Great British beach hut, with the average price tag having shown positive growth across all areas of the market over the last year.

“Beach huts continue to command an extremely healthy price given their rather modest offering and this is down to their seaside adjacent location, as well as the finite level of stock available on the market to prospective buyers.”

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

 

 

Blue Forest at the Chelsea Flower Show

Continuing our preview of shedlike structures at the 2023 RHS Chelsea Flower Show, here is a reminder that there is plenty to see in the exhibitors' areas outside the main show gardens. It's from Chelsea regular Blue Forest,who you can find on the Main Avenue at stand number MA 333, and is called The Magical Hideaway. As treehouse specialists it's not a great surprise that it focuses on a lovely Hobbit-ish treehouse, with a hillside feature and meadow garden. It's designed for young folk but can of course be enjoyed by young folk of all ages.

It was created in collaboration with landscape architecture company Randle Siddeley Limited and with help from a range of sponsors:

• DCM Surfaces– for the play surfacing
• Deepdale Nurseries – for supplying the magnificent trees
• Havwoods – for the flooring and hillside hollow internal cladding
• John Cullen Lighting – for the outdoor lighting
• Make Limited – for the handmade Oak windows and doors of the treehouse
• Marley Limited – for the Cedar shingles used on the treehouse

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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 can add 7.5% to the value of your property

Latest figures from Midlands estate and lettings agent Barrows and Forrester indicates that garden offices are an excellent investments in terms of adding value to your property.

They analysed figures for 15 common renovation projects. In terms of adding value, garage conversions came top (£13,750 cost but adding 10% to home value, based on the current UK average house price of £294,329), with garden offices in second spot - for this they reckoned a price tag £9,500 which then adds 7.5% to the average house price, making an actual value total of £12,575.

Interestingly, their research suggests that a property extension adds the most value, around 15%, but with the average cost estimated at £40,000 that means only £4,149 in actual added value.

“Home renovations aren’t always about adding market value to a property before selling, they’re often about adding to the enjoyment of living in our home," said Managing Director of Barrows and Forrester, James Forrester. "There is, therefore, no right or wrong project to get stuck into.

"But, if you are specifically looking to maximise your potential payday from an imminent sale, it’s really important to do plenty of research before committing. The worst thing you can do is embark on a major project on a whim without thorough research or planning and chances are, it will leave you out of pocket."

Image courtesy Garden Spaces 

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SMART designs and manufactures industry leading garden rooms from our very own Suffolk factory and installed all over mainland UK

 

Garden office with shower

A genuine multi-use garden office/studio/building in Edinburgh, built by the enivronmentally-friendly Bothanna Cabins under the aegis of Kris Grant Architect. Not only does it function as a garden office, it is also used for yoga, table tennis, and general entertaining. Features include an oak frame, natural wood fibre insulation, a green roof, and ground screws rather than concrete foundations, not to mention a shower room.

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

Bush Studio

We negligently don't feature Australian garden office and studio designs much on Shedworking so here to partially make up for that is Bush Studio by Dane Taylor Design based in New South Wales. The build is surrounded by blue gum trees and is used for "gathering, studying, and retreat" by its clients. Features include a solar-passive roof, glazed clerestory, and plenty of Austrlian hardwood cladding.

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Monday posts are sponsored by Garden Spaces, contemporary living spaces offering premium quality, bespoke buildings without the hefty price tag

Children's playhouse/garden office and storage

A tremendous build for the shedworkers of the future from Londdon-based architects and landscapers a small studio. Designed for a young family who wanted additional storage space for their terraced house in East London, it also doubles up as a playhouse. Here's what they say about it:

The design is practical and convenient for storage while playful and secretive for the kids. Importantly, it is designed to be flexible: in the future the inner partition can be easily removed so the shed can become a larger playhouse for the kids or a small home office. This was a fun project involving collaboration with a children’s illustrator and working closely with a carpenter.

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

 

Garden studio and banya

A rather special build this from Cooke Fawcett Architects for a client in Hampstead, London, recently shortlisted for the NLA's annual Don't Move, Improve! competition. It's a garden studio with a separate 'banya', a Russian sauna which is less hot but much more humid than the ones most of us are used to. The construction is on mini-pile foundations so as not to disturbe the surrounding area of mature trees. This is particularly relevant to the competition since this year it features renovations that highlight the importance of improving the sustainable credentials of London’s homes on a 'Green Ambitions' theme.

Features include large glazed sliding doors, large wrap-around rear rooflight window, wood-burning stove, underfloor heating system. The whole thing is clad in a textured impregnated larch. It's in a conservation area so planning consent was required.

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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.

 

RBC Brewin Dolphin Garden at Chelsea Flower Show

Garden show season is upon as and designs are in for Chelsea Flower Show. We'll look at some of the ones featuring garden offices, studios, and other intriguing garden buildings over the coming weeks, but this is one that particularly caught our eye.

It's the RBC Brewin Dolphin Garden which says it "draws creative inspiration from the way knowledge is passed down from generation to generation and interpreted for the modern world. The inspiration of the garden is that of a young couple who have taken on the experience and expertise of their grandparents to make a garden which expresses their ideals of longevity, biodiversity and habitat for the future."

In this biodiverse space will be a hand-built oak pavilion structure with a bespoke metalwork roof. We hope to bring you some photos of the build and installation nearer the time.

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SMART designs and manufactures industry leading garden rooms from our very own Suffolk factory and installed all over mainland UK

Shepherd's hut buying guide

Richard Lee at shepherd's hut specialists Plankbridge has put together a useful buyer's guide for anybody considering investing in one for work. It covers essentials such as planning permission, the best chassis, interior features, portability when moving house, heating options, eco-friendliness, and longevity.

There's also an interesting look at the numbers of using your shepherd's hut as part of a glamping business. Here's a snippet:

A shepherd’s hut is a great investment and with holiday letting sites such as Canopy and Stars and Airbnb advertising huts for between £100 and £265 a night, even with 50% occupancy at a cautiously low average nightly rate you could generate well over £21,000 a year. Many small scale Glamping businesses achieve 75% occupancy, a good target to aim for, but 75% does need a good setting and all the magic ingredients that guests look for together with a successful marketing strategy. 

Click the link for the full guide which is well worth a read (and always worth it for the fabulous gallery of images on the site). 

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

 

Lymington property with garden office

If you're looking to start shedworking in Lymington, Hampshire, this rather nice garden office/studio is a tempter. It comes with a three bedroom, three storey, terraced town house (which is apparently "within easy walking distance of all local amenities including the High Street and Waitrose, as well as the local schools") and is on the market with Caldwells for £470,000.

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Monday posts are sponsored by Garden Spaces, contemporary living spaces offering premium quality, bespoke buildings without the hefty price tag

Friday Finery: William Cowper's 'sulking room'

For the latest in our occasional Friday Finery series we're very grateful to the The Cowper & Newton Museum in Olney for this lovely photo of William Cowper's summerhouse (or 'sulking room' as he called it) enjoying a sunny spring day today.

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

Arctic Cabins on tour

A few garden office suppliers have showrooms, but if you can't make it to their HQs then the next best thing is to head to one of the many shows throughout the year where they are exhibitors. Among the most travelled is Arctic Cabins who, in addition to their Nottingham Show Site, are regulars at these events. You can find a full list of where they'll be over the next few months here, but this is their schedule for the rest of April:

• 15 - 16: Newbury Garden Show, Newbury Showground

• 20 - 23, Harrogate Spring Flower Show, Great Yorkshire Showground

• 21 - 23, The Garden Show at Firle Place, Firle Place

• 22 - 23, SEAS Spring Live!, South of England Showground

• 28 - 30, BBC Gardeners' World Spring Fair, Beaulieu

• 29 - May 7, Grand Designs Live (ExCeL London), ExCel Center

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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.

 

Jetson Mute: interior garden offices

We've had a few inquiries recently about interior shedworking and what's new on the market. Here's the latest from workplace furniture specialist Mute - meet their office pod for inside use called Jetson. It's made out of hardwearing but light aluminium and apparently can be put together by two people in less than an hour (and without tools) - Mute call it the "the first truly DIY acoustic pod". 

There are plenty of accessories to go with it including magnetic whiteboards and moveable bookshelves which you can install either inside the pod or on the outside walls. Comes in black and white versions, and in individual or double-benched models. 

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SMART designs and manufactures industry leading garden rooms from our very own Suffolk factory and installed all over mainland UK

Worcester community garden opens new garden office

Worcester community garden has unveiled a new office and tool store, funded by an award from the National Lottery and a grant from Worcester city council. The build sits on a giant pontoon so that when the annual garden floods occur the structure will float above the floodwaters, protecting the volunteers' tools and equipment.

Pictured above cutting the ribbon at the unveiling ceremony was Keith Slater of Community Boost who was key in helping to secure funding for the project. “Ever since I was first introduced to the garden and its volunteers I have said that this is one of the hidden jewels in the city’s crown," he said. "If anyone wants to see what a huge and positive difference an ever-growing number of volunteers can make to improve the quality of life for all involved, then this community garden is their place to visit.”

“The floating office and tool store is an imaginative response to the growing challenge that flooding presents for us," added Chair of trustees at Worcester community garden, Steve Dent. "It has been a great morale booster to see the structure going up so soon after the damage caused by the January and February floods. We are enormously grateful to Keith Slater for helping us achieve this ambitious milestone.”

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

 

Dreadnort Boats' P.O.D.

An intriguing build here (with hat tip to Uncle Wilco from readersheds.co.uk) from Dreadnort Boats in New Zealand. The pod here is actually 'P.O.D.' which stands for Point Of Difference, an irregularly-shaped prototype built from toughened safety glass windows and marine-grade aluminum plating, marketed as a garden/portable office. It comes in at 5.1m x 2.5m x 2.5 m and is mounted on height-adjustable jacks.

Features include solar panels,  space for an optimistically estimated dozen people to sit down, under-seat storage, drop-down tables (which double up as beds). According to the designers: "Our concept came about from a case study in 2011 for a multi-use tsunami survival shelter that would double as a boat and caravan" though they point out that "It should be noted that our POD, in its current form will not stand up to the forces of a tsunami due to our door design and large windows."

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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.

 

Shedworkers save £880m a week by cutting out the commute

Financial services experts Aldermore have released reseach indicating that people in Britain who work from home have saved an extra £59 every week, or £3,068 a year, by making the transition to working from home at least some of the time since the pandemic.

More than four out of 10 (44%) people are now working from home, either full-time or part-time following the pandemic. Those who are working from home pocket an extra £18 on average every week by saving on travel expenses specifically, which is helping, in part, to ease the financial burden of rising living costs.

Homeworkers are also saving money on food by being able to raid their kitchen fridge rather than buying breakfast and lunches outside the home, setting aside an extra £13 a week, and a further £7.50 just on teas and coffees.

Homeworkers also find they are socialising less as a result, saving an average £7.50 a week by not attending work drinks, events or socialising with colleagues – and £13 is saved by not going out as much after work during the week.  

In total, these cost-cutting measures are saving people who are working from home in the UK an average of £880m a week – if this continued at the same rate throughout the year, this would amount to over £455bn a year.

Despite the cost benefits of working from home, research also demonstrates the upsides of a hybrid approach. Some of the benefits include driving a greater sense of culture and purpose, encouraging more natural collaboration, and according to one study, the opportunity to make more lasting friendships.

Younger people are saving a greater amount by cutting back on costs associated with office work, with home workers in their 20s saving even more than average (£85 compared to £59 saved by all home workers overall).

Taking a closer look at where home workers in their 20s are making the biggest savings, this group is saving nearly double the amount of other home workers overall by skipping on buying beverages (£13 vs £7.50). Home workers in their 20s are also savings twice the amount by not attending work drinks, events or socialising after work (£18 vs £7.50).

Ewan Edwards, Director of Savings at Aldermore, comments: “With financial pressures tightening our purse strings, people who are able to work from home are making some significant savings. Those benefiting should think about how they can set aside some of those savings for their future.

“The numbers show that getting into the habit of making small changes when it comes to spending can have a noticeable impact on your finances. Whether it’s making a packed lunch when you’re in the office or cutting back on socialising after work – all these changes can help and play their part in reducing financial pressures."

Image courtesy Booths Garden Studios 

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SMART designs and manufactures industry leading garden rooms from our very own Suffolk factory and installed all over mainland UK

 

Tiger Sheds television advertisement

I'm obliged to Uncle Wilco for pointing out this Tiger Sheds advert. Enjoy!

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

RHS Bothy from Plankbridge

Here's something to look out for in the Grand Pavilion at this year's Chelsea Flower Show next month, the new RHS Bothy designed and built for the Royal Horticultural Society by shepherd's hut specialists Plankbridge.

Various design features have been inspired by visits to RHS Garden Wisley by Richard Lee and co-owner Jane Dennison including the desk brackets (based on the boot scraper outside the Wisley Arts & Crafts Old Laboratory) and Gertude Jekyll sketches from the RHS Lindley Collections which are engraved in the desk back. Curtains and Roman blinds have been made using RHS-endorsed fabrics.  

After Chelsea, the showpiece bothy will move to the Orchard at RHS Garden Wisley as part of a project to reimagine edible growing.

The RHS Bothies will be on sale online and through in-person orders via the Plankbridge workshop from May 2023. They will all be made to order. 

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Monday posts are sponsored by Garden Spaces, contemporary living spaces offering premium quality, bespoke buildings without the hefty price tag