Shedworking Awards 2010

It's that time of the year again when we present the annual Shedworking Awards (actually, this is the first time we've done it but it'll be annual from now on). There have been so many intriguing posts and builds and blogs and photos and tweets and comments over the last year that it's really hard to narrow them all down. Thanks too to everybody who got in touch via Twitter to 'vote' for the Readers' Award. And so without further ado, onto the opening of the envelopes...

Best design - In a year when we saw a lot of intriguing round/egg-shaped designs, the award goes to a shedlike atmosphere with lots of pointy bits, the Hickshaw by Derek Diedricksen. There's a lot to like about the Hickshaw: it's made from recycled building materials, it's very mobile and it's a genuine labour of love.

Best blog/web site Again, fierce competition in this category. Honourable mentions to Workalicious and A Place Imagined and to the always intelligent Lloyd Alter at Treehugger but the one blog that has impressed us in particular is Kent Griswold's Tiny House Blog which has consistently brought interesting builds to a wider audience as well as championing the importance of living and working in small spaces.

Best use of Facebook – Shedworkers and garden office builders are becoming much more savvy about the use of social media sites, though many could do much, much more. We thought Atelier and Irish Wood Style both did a good job on FB this year but the award goes to Historic Shed who as well as using it as a showcase for their own work also pointed fans of the page to other relevant sites of interest on the interwebs


Best Tweeter – Not many people tweet regularly about their garden office. Fiona Gilsenan is an exception, using the #shedworking hash tag more than anybody (including Shedworking itself!) and also charting the ups and downs of life as a shedworker. A very worthy winner.

Best popularisation of shedworking – The V&A's 1:1 Architects Build Small Spaces exhibition brought home to thousands of visitors that small is good and they also put together a cracking website to accompany it. A thoughtful and cleverly curated show

Readers' Award - We asked Shedworking's followers on Twitter and Facebook what they most enjoyed reading/seeing this year and the winner by some margin was our research revealing the £6.1bn which shedworkers contribute to the UK economy

Lifetime achievement award – It's impossible to overestimate how much Uncle Wilco has done to popularise back garden microarchitecture, in particular in the UK but increasingly across the entire planet. Shed of the Year is now a major event covered by the world's media and readersheds.co.uk continues to move onwards and upwards, not forgetting the Flickr site too. And he's a decent chap. Take a bow.

And for you stat fanatics, the three most popular posts of 2010 (by pageviews) were:
1) Phone book shed - 3,626
2) Neil Gaiman: shedworker - 3,469
3) Launch of Irish Men's Sheds Forum - 1,002
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Writer's hut

A lovely painting by Tim Millen.
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Hut 2.1

Ryo Chijiiwa left his job as a software engineer at Google last year and went travelling before buying 60 acres of vacant undeveloped land in Northern California which he has named Serenity Valley. He's now living there entirely off grid and has been building huts...


You can read all about his Walden-like experience at his intriguing blog (all the hut stuff is here but do look at the rest too). Most recently he has been writing about insulation. There's also a good Facebook page about his projects.

Via Irish Wood Style
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How Shedworking looked in 2010

Via Wordle
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Denise Ward: shedworking toastmaster

St Albans-based Toastmaster Denise Ward is a very happy shedworker as she explains in this guest post:

"I like the fact that my shed feels like home away from home, especially on the Saturday mornings when my daughter and I go down there and watch BBC iplayer while we wait for dearest hubby to bring us eggs with soldiers and orange juice. It’s the nearest we get to a hotel with room service.

"I love shedworking because it allows me the space to think and be creative and it’s my space that people only enter when invited. I can keep it as tidy or untidy as I wish and leave confidential papers in it. It is also good to separate my work from home so when I go there I switch off from home and when I leave I can get on with home life. It makes me more focused. I found that with studying and also having to keep a lot of paperwork as a Toastmaster I needed more room. My husband and daughter are very good at conversation and this can sometimes interrupt my flow.

"We employed Karl and his team to make the room. The features that make this special are that it has a bed so I can sleep there or put up guests there. It is good quality timber framed with plasterboard wall and double glazing.

"I had toyed with idea of having a shepherd's hut or buying a home office from a garden centre. But the more I looked into it I realised that I would still need to factor in transport, electricity, insulation and the hard standing to put it on. One of the largest issues for us was that any site would be needed to be built in situ and that access was a bit of an issue as large trucks would not be able to get into our drive. The job cost £7,000 and was completed very neatly. We had the foresight to have lighting that is movement sensitive. We had to alter these because they kept getting triggered by the deer and foxes in the garden.

"My only regret is that we did not have the garden path altered to take this new room into account. In summer it is not a problem but when I go to the room in the snow and in the rain, I have problems with the grass parts I have walk on. I am waiting for a garden designer to plan my garden at present. I think with all these things one should make a considered plan so that the job is not a rush. I changed my mind so many times and then came up with ideal plan for me."

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Heather Bestel - shedworking tip of the month

This month, Shedworking's Calm Editor Heather Bestel says keep warm and carry on...

Shedworkers up and down the country will be celebrating more than Christmas this week!

If you were ever regretting leaving the conventional office environment for a more isolated one at home, then you will be so glad you did this month as the onslaught of snow and ice brought the rest of the country to a standstill.

A 60 second morning commute instead of hours on an icy, miserable train. Working happily away, safe in the knowledge that the journey home will be a pleasant stride across a crisp white garden, rather than the worry of being trapped for hours on an impassable motorway.

So, take time this month to appreciate the lifestyle you have created and give a little thought to those ex colleagues who weren’t so fortunate.

Keep warm & Merry Christmas x

More stressbusting advice from Heather at her site here.
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Shedworking on your mobile

Our mobile site has had a mini-makeover so you can enjoy your daily dose of shedworking from your mobile device that little bit more. Simply go to www.shedworking.co.uk as usual and Robert's your avuncular relation.
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