How to run a beauty business from a garden office

A useful post by Garden Affairs offers some top tips about how to run a beauty business from home in a garden office. It looks at various cost and design issues and here's a snippet about what they say about client privacy:

"When you’re designing your garden room, it’s also worth bearing in mind privacy. You don’t want your neighbours sneaking a peek of your clients through the windows. Think about where you position your building – ideally south-facing, and not overlooked. You can install higher-level, rather than full-length windows. Or windows with frosted glass or positioned away from treatment areas. Browse around for blinds - a wide range is available that create privacy, without blocking out all the natural light."

You can read the whole thing on their site here.
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Poet Laureate Simon Armitage to present new arts podcast from his garden office

The Poet Laureate Simon Armitage is launching a 12-episode series of podcasts for Radio 4, all recorded in his garden office shed. Called 'The Poet Laureate Has Gone To His Shed', guests will include Kate Tempest, Jackie Kay, Antony Gormley, Lily Cole, Sam Lee, Maxine Peake, Guy Garvey, all talking about their writing and creative lives.

"It's been a great pleasure and great fun to throw open the doors (ok, door) of the shed to so many creative and inspiring visitors," says Armitage. "I think most of them thought the shed was just a metaphor for something more comfortable or literary. But it's an actual shed, with spiders and a lawnmower."

Rhian Roberts, Radio 4 Commissioning Editor for Digital and Podcasts, said: "Great minds meet in the shed in this new Radio 4 podcast and we get to understand a little bit more about how those creative minds really work. It’s a lovely setting. The shed brings out something different, it’s a disarming and comforting space with a welcoming vibe all of its own."

The Poet Laureate Has Gone To His Shed will be available on BBC Sounds from 11 March. There's a short taster already up on the site here. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Ten Poems about Sheds

One for all shedworkers' bookshelves, this is part of Candlestick Press's excellent longrunning series of short anthologies which are half poetry pamphlet, half greetings card. This one includes work from the likes of Kathleen Jamie, Fleur Adcock, and Derek Mahon. Here's what they say about it:

Sheds have come a long way since the man-cave cliché. These days, a shed is a far more democratic place – somewhere that symbolises the privacy and space that we all need. John Greening’s wonderfully varied selection of poems explores sheds from every imaginable angle. The poems take us to a child’s hiding place, a treasury of exotic implements and rich aromas and a retreat in which to remember the past. Derek Mahon’s fêted poem ‘A Disused Shed in Co. Wexford’ creates a mysterious inner world which seems to exist outside time. A shed may just be a place to keep the lawnmower, or it may be somewhere to escape to in order to write or paint. Sometimes it’s a haven in which to daydream when the house is full of noise and bustle. This enchanting selection leads the reader quietly into private worlds and makes the perfect gift for every shed-lover.

 Available from the usual places and also direct from Candlestick Press.
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Choosing a paint colour for your garden office

An interesting section on the site of paint specialists Thorndown looks at choosing the right colour for your garden office in collaboration with Garden Affairs. Top is an example of Sedge Green and here's what Thorndown say about it:

"Painting a timber shed shed green helps it nestle into the natural landscape and become part of the garden. Although its use is a functional workshop the exterior doesn’t have to be dull. Painting the timber in this fresh, natural green tone helps the building become one with the boundary and provides a beautiful back drop to soft country-cottage planting."

Above, is a garage and workshop in Thorndown Ash in Wiltshire and below, an example of Bishop Blue in action. It's a short but interesting read, including a look at translucent wood paints, and well worth a look.

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Businesses run from garden offices contribute £17bn to UK economy

Shedworkers contribute arond £17 billion to the UK economy, according to new research from Starling Bank, and are four times less likely to be stressed than workers in 'traditional' offices. Back in 2010, Shedworking commissioned a similar report that estimated garden office-based businesses contributed around £6 billion to UK GDP.

The Starling report indicates more than 100,000 people run businesses from their garden offices, amounting to an annual revenue of £16.64 billion.

“We have a tradition of entrepreneurialism in the UK," said Anne Boden, chief executive and founder of Starling Bank, "and this, combined with the growing emphasis on a healthy work-life balance, has led to an explosion in people working from their homes. More people are opting for the freedom of being their own boss.”

The bank's research reveals that the average shedworker saved an average of £8,738 a year on rent, commuting costs, food expenses and other overheads. Other advantages mentioned by shedworkers questioned for the survey include avoiding the anxiety of commuting and being able to be with their pets. 

Although they named the main advantage of shedworking is the peace and quiet of the working atmosphere, almost one in five host client or customer meetings in their garden office, for staff catch-ups or as a venue for new business pitches.

Image courtesy Modern Garden Rooms

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George Bernard Shaw hard at work in his writing shed

No apologies for heading into the Shedworking archive to bring you a historic garden office classic, George Bernard Shaw using his writing shed as a branding implement courtesy of British Pathé which has kindly put its entire collection onto YouTube. He doesn't get into the shed for about 90 seconds but after that there is plenty of shed action. ---------------------------------------

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Crooked Creations by Barntiques Custom

A small gallery of some of the marvellous designs by Dan Hanes of Minnesota who runs Barntiques Custom. ------------------------------------------------------

Saturday posts are sponsored by woowoo waterless toilets, the best toilet for your garden office