Gingerbread sheds

It's that time of the year when people make buildings out of gingerbread. Usually these are houses (though my neighbour did Southwold pier last year) but there's no reason why they can't be sheds or garden offices. Here's one to inspire you, a gingerbread cow barn by Jude's Ice Cream which you can recreate via the recipe from their delicious book, Jude's Ice Cream and Desserts. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

Silo writing shed

Selfbuild garden office projects come in all shapes and sizes. This is a tremendous one - a repurposed silo - being built for novelist SG Boudreaux which she is recording on her blog as it takes shape. Here's what she says about it:

The size of the silo is eighteen feet in diameter and eighteen feet tall. We plan on building a loft on the inside for more room. It will have a half bath on the bottom floor, and a couch made with pallets and twin mattresses (that's the plan so far anyway), a small refrigerator and coffee pot to avoid running to the house for refreshments (a place full of distractions), a desk and other small furniture pieces. The second story will possibly have a small dresser and a futon perhaps for extra sleeping for company. My husband owns his own construction company where they construct metal buildings, metal homes, metal awnings, and gutters. We plan on finishing the inside with metal panels to keep the silo look.

You can read the first post about the build here, the second here, and the latest here.
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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.

Garden office with mezzanine level

Garden offices over multiple levels tend to look a bit vast, but this marvellously compact one from mG Architecture in Canada's North Vancouver called the Accessory Studio is wonderful. Here's what they say about it:

The structure is nestled into the corner of the residential property on a steep site. As a result, the building is modest from the street but generous inside. The public entry is onto a mezzanine level of cedar and glass. Large glass doors slide open to a garden and fountain that act as an extension to the workspace three seasons of the year. The studio itself is designed with tall ceilings, natural light throughout the day, carefully framed views, and durable materials like black concrete floors that meet the demands of a busy design studio.

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

Garden office landscaping ideas

This excellent little series from Norwegian Log continues with garden designers Jay Larch and Darran Jaques who run Jaques Larch Designs discussing how to incorporate a log cabin into the garden seamlessly. Here's a snippet:

To provide form, interest, and balance during the winter months, loosely lay out structural plants, such as low-growing Pittosporum tobira 'nana' in the garden. To soften the cabin year-round plant a small tree or large shrub, such as Hammemalis 'Arnolds Promise', closer to the building. It is important to include a few well-placed roses too. Choose a variety that is repeat flowering, with a good scent. Dot them around where you can - and appreciate their heady scent (but nothing too formal, please!)

Well worth a read. The whole post is here.

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Monday posts are sponsored by garden2office, the Swedish garden office specialists. Click here for more details.

Christmas double-use garden office

It's probably a bit late to go down this route for this Christmas, but various garden office and garden building suppliers have been in touch over the last few weeks pointing out that not only are their products ideal for working in and relaxing in, but can also be useful additional space for housing visiting festive relatives in too.

For example, above is the 10x8 Helios Summerhouse from Waltons made from interlocking 12mm tongue & groove timber over a  2”x 1” frame. It has a sloping pent roof to facilitate rainwater run-off, and heavy duty roofing felt. It comes supplied unpainted with a 10 year anti-rot guarantee.

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

The rise of the composting toilet

One of the trends we've noticed picking up trend speed in the last few months is the installation of composting toilets in garden offices. Pictured above is the Separett Villa 9000 waterless compost toilet from WooWoo (they have a whole section about the issue on their site here) but there's also a great article in the Guardian on the subject by Emine Saner and here's a snippet quote from it by Martin Doyle from WooWoo:

“For the first time, building regulations [from 2010] specified that compost toilets could be used in place of flushing toilets. So there are no legal hurdles in not having a flushing toilet,” he says. By not mixing liquid and solid waste together, “the poo is relatively dry and therefore smells a lot less than people imagine. And the volume is less than people would imagine, too. I totally appreciate that some people are not going to be comfortable [emptying their own buckets], but it’s as simple as you can make it. The contents of the toilet can then be composted at home. In 12 months’ time you have a nutritious compost that you can use in any way that you like.”

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Saturday posts are sponsored by iHUS Projects, specialists in the design and build of granny annexes for elderly and disabled care.

Rabbit-themed garden office

Something to lighten the mood on what is a grim day for many people in the UK, a fabulous rabbit-themed garden room in Hove from A Room in the Garden featuring a bespoke stained glass window, and stainless steel facia boards with a laser cut rabbit shape. It's also carefully tucked into the back garden, very, very close to both boundaries, so a good example of the saying that you don't need a big garden to have a garden office.

 

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