Thatched shed to rent

This little beauty in Arkley, Hertfordshire, will set you back £6,000 a month but it does come with a five bedroom detached house which has a heated outdoor swimming room and cinema room. The thatched shed also has bar facilities... --------------------------------------------------------

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

Get your beach hut ready checklist

Specialist beach hut insurers Love Your Hut (they also insure garden offices and shepherds' huts) have put this checklist together for hutters getting ready for the new season.


1) Be prepared for rain – make sure roof coverings are secure and complete
2) Avoid fire risk – remove debris from under the hut which may have accumulated over the winter
3) Prevent damp and mildew – wipe interior walls, empty or replace any desiccant water traps. Try to ventilate your hut without compromising its security
4) Prevent intruders and vandals – make sure  windows and doors haven’t swollen or warped out of shape and that they fit properly in their frames. Make sure locks and padlocks haven’t corroded
and are fit for purpose
5) Avoid liability risks – check to make sure the hut and area around it is safe and secure especially fascia boards, steps, bases, verandas and tethered boats

Image courtesy Lynette Amelie ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Homestead Timber Buildings - Manufacturers of Quality Timber Buildings

Pilgrims Coffee House: Holy Island shedworking

Two brothers have stepped up the homemade feel at their cafe on Holy Island – by roasting their own coffee in a shed in the back garden. Andrew Mundy, 29, has been running Pilgrims Coffee House for ten years and recently asked his younger brother Tom, 24, if he wanted to get involved and start roasting coffee The pair bought their machine from online auction site eBay, only for the motor to break down and have to be replaced. “We started in January and it’s been a bit of an adventure, but it’s been good,” said Tom. “Now it’s fully installed in the shed and going well.”

Berwick Advertiser -------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

Stratford Garden Centre's Big Build

The Stratford Garden Centre has contracted Warwick Buildings to create a bespoke New England style retail village for use by small local independent retailers. We hope to follow the project from build to business, showing how shedworking buildings are fast becoming the smart choice for start-ups and small businesses. 
 
The ground work has been ongoing since February and the first phase of the build is already underway with the first two of eight units ready for internal fitting and exterior painting. The buildings have low roof lines and the roof pitch is kept fairly low.
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Monday posts are sponsored by garden2office, the Swedish garden office specialists. Click here for more details.

Driveable shed in European rally charity dash

These wacky funsters from York are taking part in the 3000 mile Scumrun rally through Europe to raise money for children's charities in a Renault Scenic converted into a shed called '50 Sheds of Grey'. Team member Thomas Belt, told The Press in York: “The idea for the shed came shortly after we decided to take part. We were sat in the pub where we do all our best thinking, trying to think of something that hadn't been done before. At first we thought of just cladding the car in wood, then we thought why stop there? Why not add a pitched roof and turn it into a shed?"You can sponsor them at www.virginmoneygiving.com/team/fiftyshedsofgrey. ---------------------------------------------------------

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

An allotment on a garden office

Joel Phelan's shed made largely out of recycled materials is one of my favourite entries for this year's Shed of the Year competition (Joel also makes sheds - more details here). So there are vegetables up on the roof and inside is his shedworking space which he uses for painting and as a music practise room.

"It is great to work knowing it provides me with a really high level of sustainability," he says on the readersheds.co.uk site. "The lights are powered by a solar panel, I use a wood burner to heat it, and then there is the allotment roof. It's easy to access with a little staircase and I have a little tin bath up there for a summer soak. It's a little mini countryside which keeps me sane in a city."



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Homestead Timber Buildings - Manufacturers of Quality Timber Buildings

Writer's shed

A lovely shedworking setup from WSD Architecturein Hackney, London, for a writer who wanted something to work in which also reflected his interest in children’s literature and mythologies.  

Photos by Wai Ming Ng. Via archdaily (where there are lots more photos). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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