Shed Style

Shed Style (architecture, interiors and ornamentation in the garden) is the work of Debra Prinzing whose goal is "to capture the spirit of our separate places" at the bottom of the garden and provide "a central repository of ideas, notes, drafts, blurbs, journaling, interviews and observations about architecture, interiors, and ornamentation in the garden. The designed and inhabited backyard space, as it were". Her focus is, as the title suggests, more on the elements of style involved in the interior and exterior decoration of sheds and garden offices. Debra is also writing a book 'Stylish Sheds and Elegant Hideaways' (with photos by William Wright) due to come out in the US in April with Random House, exploring the delights of more than 30 nice shedworking and shedrelaxing atmospheres. Here's a bit more background from Debra:

"The idea for a book about the architecture, design and interiors of Garden Sheds began in 2002 when Bill Wright and I produced and wrote an article about Sheds (called “Garden Getaways” for Seattle Homes & Lifestyles magazine. We started with a simple premise: that garden owners were dusting out the cobwebs and sprucing up the interiors of their humble potting sheds for a greater purpose.

"We interviewed and photographed the diva of backyard fantasy, Sunni Rudd [pictured above by Bill Wright]. Sunni is the kind of person who still dots her “I’s” with a little star or flower (kind of like the ones I used in 7th grade when I was called Debbi). She created a fantasy escape in a South Seattle urban lot. Built from recycled barn wood, the structure featured cottage windows (with lace curtains), a porch with seating for 2, where Sunni and her neighbor shared lemonade or cocktails after gardening all weekend, and inside, a daybed with side table and lamp – lots of quiet space to escape, read seed catalogues and nap in the cool shelter away from the sun."

One to look out for.

1,000th post - Shedworking book cover unveiled

Hard on the heels of the first birthday of the site and the second birthday of The Shed magazine is another reason to be happy: this is the 1,000th post on Shedworking and to celebrate here is a sneak preview of the cover of 'Shedworking: the alternative workplace revolution' which is due to come out next July with The Friday Project. It's not yet fixed in stone, but this is pretty much the way it will look. Personally I like it - what do you think?

Shepherd's Hut Tuesday - Harry the Hut

The Thurgarton Iron Works hut team have been hard at work moving their latest find, Harry the Hut. Pictured above are Ian McDonald and Scott Bunting (not pictured is Thurgarton's Richard King) who helped to move the shepherd's hut, and below is Harry mounting his Ifor-Williams wheels.Lots more pictures of the move are at the site where Richard says:

"I may be biased but Harry the Hut is quite remarkable. There is no way you would build such a Hut and expect it to be so strong after all these years. With so much wood missing or nibbled by cows and sheep, plus unattached wood, you would expect him to collapse – especially after the attentions of all those beefy bovines using him as an itching post and occasional bovine toilet! But even with a fully strained ratchet strap at each end he did not give a 1/4 inch. He does flex a bit but he’s holding his shape ...more than I will at his age."

Martin Amis - shedworker

The Guardian's excellent weekly series Writers' Rooms has recently featured novelist and critic Martin Amis who works from a garden office. Here's how he describes it:

"My writing room is a detached building at the end of a small concrete garden. The glass ceiling is covered with leaves and squirrels. I used to have the attic in the house and Isabel, my wife, was meant to have this office, but I didn't think she used it enough so I reclaimed it. It's ideal - you can't hear the children and you can smoke."

I also like the explanation for the bottles of water - apparently when his daughter Cleo was small she brought them out to the shed and told him that now he never needed to come back into the house again.

Greg Wise - celebrity shedowner

Interviewed in the Observer over the weekend by Geraldine Bedell, actor Greg Wise (currently starring in Cranford on the BBC) discussed the pleasures of his shed.

"I share my house with two very full-on women. There's a lot of female energy around here, what with my wife [actress Emma Thompson] and daughter, and my mother-in-law across the road and Em's assistant when she's here. Sometimes I find it helps to hide. I've got a shed at the bottom of the garden and a room at the top of the house."

Air filter for your garden office

If your shedworking atmosphere is getting a bit, well, musty, then take a look at these rather nice air filters which use plants as their motor by Mathieu Lehanneur. Warning, these titchy greenhouse-type pods are rather bigger than they seem on this picture.
Via Bldgblog

Windpowered parkie's shed

Garden News has a nice piece about how electricity/gas company E.ON has kitted out Leicster park keeper Mick Eaton's shed with a bespoke wind turbine to generate enough power to provide lighting and boil an energy-efficient kettle. Jim Macdonald, director of the consumer business at E.ON, said: “We want to change the way people think about energy. We’re showing that green energy is real and very accessible.”

Thanks to Garden Monkey for the alert. Pic from 4ecotips.com