Shed saunas

 

 

We've covered shed saunas before on Shedworking but I thought readers might be interested in one of my shed columns that appear in every issue of the Idler magazine (the latest edition features a nice piece on ice shanties). Here it is, from the back end of last year:  

 

Shedlife is as subject to trends and fashion as any other part of society. 2008 was the year of the green roof. In 2009 it was micro pods (and then again a couple of years ago) and in 2018 ‘round’ was the shape to be seen in. Over the last 20 years we’ve seen the welcome rebirth of the shepherd’s hut, the greenhouse as a mixed-use space, and even an unexpected uptick in roofless garden offices in 2021. Now, the sauna shed is having its moment in the sun. 

 

There’s certainly growing interest in saunas in general and back garden “wellness sanctuaries” in the UK. In May this year, the British Sauna Society organised its first Sauna Summit, bringing 250 delegates from all over the country and as far afield as the US, Norway and Finland. And at the start of the year English Heritage gave Grade II listed status to a purpose-built wooden sauna in Aylesford, Kent dating back to the 1948 London Olympics and donated by the Finnish Olympic team. Catherine Croft, Director of the Twentieth Century Society, commented: “More spartan than today’s pampering-led spa-based saunas, this modest prefabricated structure is evocative of Finnish national identity and hard sporting graft, a kind of performance enhancing shed!” 

 

It’s easy to see why. On the most basic level, they’re simply a lot of fun, but there are numerous health benefits too, from claims to helping with relaxation and improved sleep, lowering stress and helping with depression, to a reduced risk of developing Alzheimer's, skin condition management and lower blood pressure and pain relief pluses (though do remember that there are some risks involved, especially if you have pre-existing health conditions). 

 

Shepherd's hut specialists Plankbridge which is based near Dorchester has seen a major surge in customers interested in outdoor saunas, so earlier this year came with a 14ft design aimed at people with private gardens, as well as glamping and hospitality businesses. Features for the four person-sauna include a sustainable Scandinavian aspen lining sourced from Sweden, separate changing area, under-bench storage, and either wood-fired or electric, all with a hard-wearing corrugated-steel exterior cladding.

 

"The growth in the wellness-at-home market has definitely been reflected in the number of enquiries we’ve received at Plankbridge over the past year or so for saunas, hot tubs and treatment rooms," said Plankbridge founder Richard Lee. "And while we’ve designed various bespoke sauna huts for customers before, including one for a ski lodge in the French Alps and another which is now sitting beside a swimming pond in Herefordshire, this is the first time we have taken an existing Plankbridge hut model, the Snug, which is based on the proportions of the Victorian originals and the most traditional of all our shepherd’s huts, and used it for this very specific purpose."

 

Wildhut is one of the new sauna suppliers on the block. It was set up by British female entrepreneurs Thaisa Box and Lisa Deller in 2021, offering outdoor saunas handmade in West Sussex to order. Exterior cladding is natural FSC certified wood, with 100% sheep’s wool insulation, long letter box or large picture window, and options such as a mobile app for remote controlling the sauna. There are various models, the smallest coming in at just 2.2m wide x 2.5m high x 1.94m, rising to one sufficiently capacious for eight people. 

 

The family-run Arctic Cabins (one of its sauna models is pictured top) has a much longer history, operating since 2001 when owner Gareth and his Finnish wife Virpi took the plunge and brought the traditional BBQ huts of her homeland to Blighty. In the same way that these huts provide a sanctuary from the winter elements, so do their Arctic Sauna Cabins models. Initially imported from Scandinavia, they’re now all built in Derbyshire. Their leading cabin seats five with a 3.7m x 3.9m spec, a genuine Finnish-made 6KW electric sauna heater, external porch area with cool-down seating, and the all-important integrated two-tier bench seating.

 

Arctic keep up a hectic schedule of appearing at dozens of regional and national home and garden shows throughout the year so you can easily have a chat with them, and they also have a show site in Nottingham. 

***********************************************

Monday posts are sponsored by Cosy Garden Rooms, the UK's No. 1 bespoke garden room designer and builder.

 

Friday Finery: Bonni Small

The delightful Bonni Small model from Oxfordshire-based outbuildings specialist Bonni (who have a very attractive website). It's their smallest offering and perfect for one person shedworking as a garden office, although you may prefer one of their larger offerings. They describe it as a "perfect office space, pool house, garden room, yoga studio – whatever your heart desires". Options include a shower room and kitchenette.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

 

Ecofriendly Hully Garden Pods

Although they do have larger models, Shedworking is particularly taken by Southampton-based Hully's smallest garden pod, The Dory, pictured above. Inspired by the hull of a boat (but upside down, of course), they have all the must-haves (electrics, insulation, etc) and are delivered fully assembled. The Dory has a very compact 1.2m depth under its fibreglass shell and perhaps best of all is made from more than 300 500ml recycled plastic bottles (the bigger models reuse even more, obviously). The official office pod version of it also comes with a built-in desk.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Wednesday posts are sponsored by Booths Garden Studios, the UK's No.1 supplier of zero maintenance and portable garden studios

Eleanor Dark’s garden studio

Pictured above is the garden studio of the Australian novelist Eleanor Dark, one of the country's leading 20th century novelists (The Timeless Land, Storm of Time, No Barrier). It's in the gardens of their home Varuna, in Katoomba, in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales, and was her home - with husband Eric - from 1923 until her death in 1985. It was turned into what has become a very successful retreat for writers in 1989 by their son Mick on the death of Eric.

Of particular interest is Eleanor's garden office which is allocated as a writing space to whoever is booked into the smallest downstairs bedroom. The studio has a lovely view across the garden and writers who work there are encouraged to leave a few pages of their work-in-progress in the very same manuscript drawers that Eleanor used to store her own manuscripts in. Features include Eleanor's original desk which retains its cigarette burns and the custom built cabinet with a separate drawer for working on individual chapters.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

 

What is the world's smallest garden office?

Only a couple of weeks ago we were musing here on Shedworking about what was the world's smallest garden office. And now we've found one that's going to be very hard to beat. Bath-based Aldesko has various options (rear wall wallpaper design, oak desk, skylight, etc) but it's the size that truly marks it out, coming in at a truly compact external (excluding overhang) 1.3m x 1.3m x 1.95. Here's the rationale from Tom from Fully Earthed that makes the Aldesko:

During his time as an electrician serving customers in the City of Bath, he came across a number of people who had squeezed a desk under the stairs. You’d assume these areas would be dark and oppressive, but many people really enjoyed their little space, despite being only 80cm wide. He thought, why not move that space outside?

The Aldesko is due to launch in December.

Is this the smallest garden office on the market?

 

 

We've seen some small garden offices over the last 15 years that we've been running, but we can't think of a smaller one than this. It's a Jay model from Bakers Garden Buildings and comes in at a really quite titchy 2.3m x 1.3m. It's a great fit for the space and ideal for single person shedworking, though at a push you might be able to shoehorn a co-shedworker in there too.

-------------------------------------------------------

 Thursday posts are sponsored by Cabin Master: garden offices and   

 studios to fit any size garden. Top quality contemporary or traditional

 buildings.

Roomy

One of the most interesting items on display this past week at Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven was 'Roomy' from Rotterdam-based FIX. Not many details available at the moment but it's wooden modular prefab which they describe as 'plug & play', the smallest design in their housing system catalogue.

------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

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

Spaceship Micro Garden Office

 

While there will always be a demand for a large garden office, there seems to be a gentle but noticeable trend towards smaller models over the last couple of years. This is one of the smallest we've seen, the Spaceship Micro Garden Office from Dunster House which comes in at 1.4m wide by 2m deep by a smidgeon over 2m high. It's built from what Dunster callas "a maintenance-free exterior wall surface" made using WPC (wood-plastic composite) with a uPVC door and MDF walls. It's a DIY job with an " easy-to-assemble panel system design". It may not be the most luxurious garden office on the market but it does retail at a wallet-friendly £2,464.99.

---------------------------------

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.

 

Shed Heaven

One for the shed section of your bookshelf, Shed Heaven by Anna Groves is published by National Trust/Pavilion. What makes this stand out for those working in garden offices, is that in addition to the various sheds owned by the NT on their properties, there is a significant focus on the ones in which people worked. There'll be no surprises for readers of Shedworking in terms of the properties, but it's nicely done. Here's the bumph:

"The National Trust looks after many of Britain’s most important and beloved buildings – its sheds. They lurk in the shadow of grand country houses; they brave the elements on the tops of cliffs; they have inspired famous writers and housed everything from beehives to birdwatchers.

"These beautiful and sometimes eccentric structures are as individual as their owners. A Victorian coastal shed in Cornwall is where the Reverend Hawker went to write verse, and smoke opium. It’s also the smallest building cared for by the National Trust. George Bernard Shaw’s shed could be rotated throughout the day to make the most of the sun, while sculptor Barbara Hepworth used hers for napping in. Rather than a place in which to create, many of these sheds are the creation.  

"Alongside the literary writing dens and horticultural hideaways there are also floating sheds, coastguards’ sheds, artists’ studios, summer houses, beach huts, camping pods, bothies, teahouses, follies and much more."

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

 

New shedworkers and homeworkers advised to watch their calorie consumption

New research suggests that working from home has changed workers' eating patterns. The study from the Institute of Fiscal Studies looked examined millions of food and non-alcoholic drink purchases from shops, takeaways and restaurants, and the calories consumed. It shows that:

* By May 2020, total calories were 15% above normal levels. During the second half of 2020, they were still, on average, 10% higher than usual. 

* There was a large increase in calories from takeaways, which peaked at more than double usual levels in the UK’s second national lockdown in November 2020. 

* 90% of households increased their total calories, relative to normal, with the largest increases for the wealthiest households and the smallest for retired ones. 

Kate Smith, Associate Director at IFS and an author of the research, said: "The huge changes in where people work, eat and socialise over the past year have led to a significant rise in calorie intake. Increases in food consumed at home more than offset drops in calories from eating out. 90% of households increased their calorie intake, with the largest rises for the wealthiest households."

Martin O’Connell, Deputy Research Director at IFS and an author of the research, added: "An important question for policymakers is whether higher calorie consumption persists as we emerge from the pandemic. Our findings point towards increased homeworking as a factor in driving higher calorie consumption. This could exacerbate the challenge of improving population diet and reducing obesity levels."

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

 

 

 

Garden office with outside planters

The My Home Office comes from designer Cosmas Bronsgeest in the Netherlands. The smallest model of the interestingly-shaped garden office measures 2.5m x 3.2m, has an FSC-certified larch wood exterior, floor to roof glazing on two sides, and a number of options including fold-down bed, lavatory, and shower. There is also an option to rent it on a monthly basis.

--------------------------------------

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

YrPod Shelter garden office

Founded by Dan Pleszko, Bishops Stortford-based YrPod has a range of attractive models with curved roofs to fit any shedworking needs. Our favourite is The Shelter - there are four sizes available but this is the smallest we're showcasing here as we get so many requests for garden offices to fit into smaller gardens. It comes either ready-assembled or can be assembled on site in two days if there are access issues - standard features include LED lighting, plug sockets, full insulation, wooden framed windows and doors with double glazed/toughened glass. Optional extras include shower room, kitchenette, solar power system, and rainwater harvesting system.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

Small garden office

Continuing our look at small garden offices, here's Garden2office's smallest ever Kapsel model, newly installed but still with decent leaf coverage! It's a drum practice room fitted with a double layer of acoustic plasterboard, sound matt and resilient bars, plus an inner solid door and Octagon acoustic glass.  -------------------------------------------------
Monday posts are sponsored by garden2office, the Swedish garden office specialists. Click here for more details.

Hawker's Hut

The Rev. Robert Stephen Hawker (1803-1875) was  a poet, ballad writer and vicar of Morwenstow in Cornwall from 1834 until his death in 1875. In addition to establishing the Harvest Festival that we celebrate today, he was one of the best minor poets of the Victorian age, particularly as a ballad writer. And he was also an early shedworker, writing many of his poems in the hut above known as Hawker's Hut.

He built it in 1844 on the clifftop, indeed on the cliff face, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean using driftwood (timber from local shipwrecks) and is is now the smallest property owned by the National Trust. It has a slate floor, wooden benches, and a turf roof, and visitors included Tennyson and Charles Kingsley. In his day, there was a path down to the beach but sadly this has now gone.

More photos and lots more detail about the hut here.
 Image courtesy Humphrey Bolton ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thursday posts are sponsored by Cabin Master: garden offices and studios to fit any size garden. Top quality contemporary or traditional buildings.

The Harry Pierce Micro-Museum opens today

We've talked about Kurt Schwitters' Merz Barn on the Cylinders estate at Langdale in the Lake District before on Shedworking (and you can find lots more about it on their site here) so it's great news to hear that work on the site near Ambleside continues apace. This time the focus is on the landscape gardens there created by Harry Pierce in the 1940s and 1950s which are in the process of being restored.

The Harry Pierce Micro-Museum and Reading Room will be officially opened by the garden designer's grandson William at 2pm today. The reconstruction of Pierce's original drawing office on the site of the derelict original measures 4.3m by 3.2m so is among the smallest museums in the country containing a desk, drawings, books and plans he made to convert the former gunpowder works estate into experimental gardens, as well as writings about his experiences and contemporary photos.

The work has been made possible thanks to a grant from the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development, supported by the Cumbria Fells & Dales Local Action Group.
   
The original office was built by Pierce (who owned Cylinders in the early 1940s) as a garden office in which to create his plans for Mawson’s of Windermere where he was the chief designer. It was here where he met the German-born artist Schwitters and they began a lifelong friendship. It will be open daily from 10am to 5pm with no admission free. The painting below is a portrait of Harry by Schwitters.

There's an excellent article about the work by Mike Glover in Lancashire Life here. ---------------------------------------

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

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. ------------------------------------------

Wednesday posts are sponsored by Eurodita, the leader in serving smart dealers

Garden shed DJ gets BBC Christmas radio special

Here's a lovely story about Stevenage shedworker Deke Duncan. He's been broadcasting his own radio station, Radio 77 (essentially only to his wife Teresa because of licensing issues) for decades from his garden shed, pictured above.

#OnThisDay 1974: "The station's entire audience has decided to go down the shops" Radio 77 held the dubious distinction of broadcasting to the smallest audience in the country. pic.twitter.com/xkUZnfAPpR

— BBC Archive (@BBCArchive) October 9, 2018

Watch the short video above for more details about what happened 40 years ago, then the one below for the latest update...

Back in 1974, Deke Duncan ran a radio studio in his garden shed which broadcast to just one person - his wife. His lifelong ambition was to broadcast to the whole of Stevenage 📻

This morning he co-presented a show with @justindealey and there was a very special surprise... pic.twitter.com/PGVWLhuN2k

— BBC Three Counties (@BBC3CR) November 18, 2018

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday posts are sponsored by Garden Spaces, suppliers of contemporary garden buildings, offices, gyms and studios, many of which do not require planning

Koto cabins

North Devon-based Koto (which means cosy in Finnish) is run by Johnathon and Zoë Little who design modern Scandinavian-inspired cabins ideal for use as garden offices or tiny homes (the actual build is by Kudos based in Northern Ireland).

The cabins are a timber and steel composite structure with interesting pitched roof and Siberian larch cladding. They come in a range of sizes, the one above at 15 sq m is the smallest, but they range from one to four bedroom builds. Features include a fold-down bed, underfloor heating, aluminium windows and doors, and a covered entrance porch and deck. Option extras include the ever-popular sedum roof, sauna, and outdoor shower. The concept behind the cabin is very much that it fits in with the natural world and a healthy lifestyle, or as they put it: "Open floor spaces, high ceilings and large facade openings allow for free flowing space with connection to the outside world."

------------------------------------------

Wednesday posts are sponsored by Eurodita, the leader in serving smart dealers

Compost toilet company merger is good news for garden office workers

West Midlands compost toilet manufacturer The Little House Co has joined Skipton-based Kildwick to create what is claimed to be the largest compost toilet company in the UK. It brings together The Little House Co’s specialism for land-based customers and Kildwick’s canal/boating users into one, combining the manufacturing, development and marketing skills of both businesses.

With the widest range of waterless, off-grid compost toilets that can be installed virtually anywhere in houses, including garden offices, sheds, summerhouses, shepherds huts, and boats, either temporarily or permanently. The combined business will benefit from the design, technical and manufacturing expertise that Kildwick Ltd has created, with the marketing and promotion skills and different customer base of The Little House Co.

“The first time I met Colin and Maria (Kildwick Ltd) was back in 2014," said Martin Doyle of the Little House Co, "and we instantly became friends. Joining Kildwick seemed a natural thing to do and enables me to utilise their manufacturing and development skills so I can concentrate on the marketing and promotion aspects to bring all our products to the widest audience.”

Colin and Maria added that the two companies had been working “in cooperative competition" for the last three years. “Each of us tended to specialise in a different market segment, but with common values of quality, customer service and value for money. Bringing the businesses together will help us combine our strengths and eliminate our weaknesses”.

The Little House Co was formed in 2012 by Martin Doyle and manufactures the Eco-Loo range of compost toilets, as well as reselling toilets from Swedish manufacturer, Separett. Kildwick was formed in 2014 by Colin Ives and Maria Matthews and using innovative production methods including fibre glass and 3D printed components, combined with traditional woodwork and metal crafts, they have created a unique range of products including the Kildwick Koodle, the smallest compost toilet on the market. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday posts are sponsored by Garden Spaces, suppliers of contemporary garden buildings, offices, gyms and studios, many of which do not require planning