Tesco sheds

Peas, bananas, and, well, yes, I'll have a shed too please. First John Lewis, now Tesco. The supermarket giant has branched out into the garden sheds market as the image above shows. There's a wide selection of wooden and metal sheds as well as cabins and summerhouses, featuring wellknown names such as Finnforest and Lifespace, starting from around £400 and going up to just below £10,000. Many come with installation as part of the package. Do let us know if you've bought yours from them.

Cartoon by that clever Colin Shelbourn


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Dunster House, the leading UK company for Log Cabins and Garden Offices sponsors Fridays posts

Wonderland: the difference a garden room can make

A fascinating documentary on BBC2 this week in the Wonderland strand ('Granny's Moving In') looked at how Sue and Phil Carroll decided to opt for looking after Sue's 83-year-old mother Peggy in a garden room at their home rather than opt for a retirement home. The build was by The Stable Company and there are plenty of shots of the build and Peggy inside the final construction throughout the programme. You can watch it again on the iPlayer thingy here. Well worth a look.
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Dunster House, the leading UK company for Log Cabins and Garden Offices sponsors Fridays posts

Enter your garden office for Shed of the Year 2012

The Olympics is not the biggest international competitive event this year. Not by a long chalk. Yes, it's time to start preparing for the annual Shed of the Year competition, now bigger and better than ever before. Whether you've already entered your shed or need to enter this year for the first time, do nip along and take a look at the entry instructions at readersheds.co.uk. Essentially, you need at least two photos of your shed to enter, closing date is May 20, and public voting will start on May 21. Then once the contenders have been whittled down to a shortlist, the starry lineup of judges - Television's Sarah Beeny, bestselling author Neil Gaiman, Shed of the year 2011 Winner Jon Earl, Uncle Wilco from readersheds.co.uk and me - will enter the fray... Shed Week itself starts on July 2 and You can see previous winners at Shed Blog
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Thursday posts are sponsored by Atelier garden studios which are sustainable, stylish, flexible, functional and future proofed

The Architect Map

As some of you know, I also work for The Independent where I have just taken over their property blog. While it's not going to feature shedworking on a daily basis, I might squeeze in the occasional reference and for those of you interested in the built environment, architecture and of course property, I hope you'll pop across every so often.

My first post was today and it's all about the Architect Map, pictured above. Here's an enticing snippet:

Finding an architect can be a bewildering process. But a new free tool using social media creatively could be just the thing to help you. The Architect Map is using popular platforms such as Google Maps and Twitter to plot architects in the UK (and around the world) – it provides them with a means of meeting other professionals in the building industry but also enables those searching for an architect to find one close to home.

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Wednesday posts are sponsored by The Stable Company®, the UK's premier supplier of garden offices and garden rooms. Click here.

eco-PERCH

Sussex-based Blue Forest are best known for their treehouses but while their lovely new eco-PERCH design can be tree-centred (see bottom photo), it can also be used as a standalone garden office with rather luxurious interior. It measures around 6m by 8m and features a kitchen/dining/living area plus bedroom and comes with various off-grid/renewable energy possibilities e.g. photovoltaic solar energy, composting lavatory, rainwater harvesting system.

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Tuesday posts are sponsored by 3rdSpace modular garden rooms.
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When neighbours object to shedworking...

Although we always advise people deciding to become shedworkers to check with their local council before starting up, it is also possible to get retrospective permission later. That's exactly what Mark Poole  who runs Hoodoo Ink Tattoo Studio in Fenton has done, as This is Staffordshire reports. They say that despite objections from neighbours who complained that clients visiting the garden office studio would take up parking spaces in their busy street, Stoke-on-Trent City Council said the business was a "discreet operation" and people attended by appointment only during normal working hours.
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Tuesday posts are sponsored by 3rdSpace modular garden rooms.
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Gustave Baumann's shed is declared historic

The shed belonging to printmaker and woodcut expert Gustave Baumann has been granted protected historic status, reports The Santa Fe New Mexican. Pictured above is Baumann’s own woodcut of his home, studio and backyard shed which was made in 1927 as a greeting card. Here's what the SFNM say:

The small, mud-plastered, dirt-floor shed was built in 1927 "in a vernacular manner" with Baumann's "artistic touches in the details of the door, trim, paint colors in the exterior character," according the city Historic Preservation Office. "A non-historic ProPanel roof covers the original roof." Elaine Bergman, executive director of the Historic Santa Fe Foundation, which owns the property, said Baumann used the shed to store window screens and storm windows, as well as other materials and tools.

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