Enterprise Nation - Great ladies and their homes

People of all ages and backgrounds are starting and growing businesses from home. In this week's column from Emma Jones of Enterprise Nation she thinks about a few great ladies who have chosen this way of working. For them, home represents the heart of family life and a busy commercial hub.

The Lady Laura
It all started when I read an article about the great and late Laura Ashley. The story was how her house, Rhydoldog, is to be given to the National Trust and opened to the public. In the piece, Ashley’s daughter Jane was quoted: “The fact that the business was built in this house over decades is what makes it special”

The piece went on: “Although Ashley’s designs seemed to have deep rural roots, the business was actually started in her kitchen in Pimlico, London, where she created printed Victorian-style headscarves and napkins while working as a secretary. The family home served as an office and studio, as well as a canvas for her designs.” This smart lady started her business from home by ‘working 5 to 9’ and went on to build an empire that spanned continents.

Catwalk Confidential
In a second feature (Sunday Times, 21st June 2009) entitled ‘Catwalk Confidential’ we hear about Sarah Doukas, founder of Storm Modelling Agency, with a story that goes like this: “Her house, nestling in a row of Victorian terraces in Battersea, is a slice of fashion history. It was here, two decades ago, that Doukas founded Storm, the agency that has gone on to represent names such as Elle Macpherson, Carla Bruni, Sophie Dahl and, of course, Kate Moss. Doukas ran the agency with two friends from the house, driving round in her car all day, scouting for fresh talent. She often brought her ‘finds’ back there. “We didn’t even have a proper phone system, and would have to run up and down the stairs shouting to each other to come on the line. It was quite mad, but so exciting to start something new.”

There are many following in the footsteps of Ashley and Doukas. Heather Gorringe has turned the family farm in Herefordshire in to HQ for the highly successful Wiggly Wigglers (www.wigglywigglers.co.uk) business. The podcast recorded from her ‘wiggly sofa’ beats Chris Evans in the podcast charts and she sells to thousands of customers worldwide. From country to city, Simone Brummelhuis is the Founder of TheNextWomen.com, a site and resource dedicated to women in technology and once a month the kitchen table in Simone’s Notting Hill home becomes a dining place for tech luminaries.

These stories are a collection and but a reflection of what can be achieved with vision and from your own home. May there be more great ladies to come!

Emma Jones is Founder of Enterprise Nation and author of ‘Spare Room Start Up – how to start a business from home’
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Thursday posts are sponsored by Vivid Green, the low energy garden building specialists. Click here for more details

Is this the most important wooden structure in the world?

In Kate Muir's nice piece in The Times for National Shed Week, she spoke to Simon Greenish, directof of the Bletchley Park Trust, since Hut 6 at Bletchley won the 'hut' category in Shed of the Year. This of course is the hut in which the Enigma code was broken, one of the turning points in the Second World War. Greenish was obviously, and quite rightly, bullish about the hut's history, saying: "Hut 6 is perhaps the most important wooden structure in the world.” It's a bold claim and I wondered what other readers thought?
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Thursday posts are sponsored by Vivid Green, the low energy garden building specialists. Click here for more details

The Shedworker's Bookshelf - The BLDGBLOG Book

While this is not strictly a book about sheds, garden offices or indeed microarchitectural gems, I think this is a volume that every shedworker should buy (or at least own). Based on Geoff Manaugh's BLDGBLOG, this is architectural philosophy and speculation at its most lively and accessible - not least because there are lots of cracking pictures. It's hard to pin down exactly what the book is about (there are chapters on redesigning the sky as well as audio architecture) because it's about anything and everything to do with construction and the future of architecture, all chopped up into tasty bite-sized reading nibbles: throw away all those little jokey books you have in your toilet for visitors to read and put this in their place. Pleasant, intelligent and thoughtprovoking, it's all about considering the built atmosphere which we inhabit and which we can choose to inhabit, something that is dear to all shedworkers. This is Shedworking's book of the year 2009.
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Wednesday's posts are sponsored by The Garden Room Company®, the UK's premier supplier of garden offices and garden rooms. Click here.

Shed envy

Not sure if this is a t-shirt one would wear oneself or buy for one's neighbour. From howies. Thanks to Laura Stephens for the spot.
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Wednesday's posts are sponsored by The Garden Room Company®, the UK's premier supplier of garden offices and garden rooms. Click here.

Henley unveil new range - the 'Stanza'

Henley Offices has added a new range to its portfolio. The ‘Stanza’ is available in a selection of configurations and sizes. As Nick Hopewell-Smith from Henley says: "In common with the other Henley designs, the exterior height tops out at 2.5m, ensuring all models fall within the Government’s planning-free guidelines for garden buildings."

Designed for 1-2 occupants, the company’s core model - the Stanza ‘Milton’ – offers an MDF-lined interior of 6sqm: there is also a single occupancy version, the 4sqm ‘Milton Mini’. The Stanza features a combination of FSC-certified and eco-friendly timbers throughout. Fully-treated exterior cladding is available in Scandinavian Pine or Cedar, while the household-standard hardwood doors and windows incorporate double-glazing with insulation characteristics similar to that of a typical cavity wall. Insulation in the retaining wall and floor is bolstered by 50mm Celotex. All buildings come ready-fitted with dimmable downlights, electric sockets and a consumer unit for simple connection to the customer’s mains power supply.

Interestingly, Henley has received more enquiries in the first six months of 2009 than at any time in its eight year history. "We put this down to a ‘sticky’ housing market, a rising birth-rate and judicious marketing," says Nick. "The arrival of noisy children in the house for the summer holidays helps too…"

One Grand Designs & Humble Designs: updates

Do nip along and check out the continuing work on these two excellent self-build garden office design projects, at different stages of construction. Dom's OGD is nearly up now (he's at the falling in love with Kingspan stage) and Graham HD is sketching out plans (he's at the not sure Freecycle is going to work stage). Well worth a browse

Children need sheds too - qb playhouse

It's not just adults who like the idea of hobbit-like shedlike atmospheres: qb playhouses have a definite Bagginsish feel to them and are available in sustainable wood in a wide range of patterns and colours.
Via Springwise