Pascale Cumberbatch: shedworker

Oxfordshire-based food photographer, stylist and writer Pascale Cumberbatch is based in her garden office workshop, a Finnish log cabin, from where she also writes the mouthwatering Extra Relish blog where you can find lots more marvellous photographs.

"We gave it a Caribbean inspired splash of paint on the trim and a moat of tiny sea pebbles to lend a little mood of seaside," she says. "There are shelves and cupboards to keep all my bits of equipment and props, and lots of space to rest and think!"

One of her current projects is planting fragrant, flowering herbs around her garden office. As she says:  "These herbs come in handy for a delightful mid morning snack of cheese and crusty bread."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

Cappuccino Commerce

Shedlike atmospheres come in all shapes and sizes and sometimes shedworkers need to work away from their garden offices. So we're strong advocates of pubworking and also coffeeshopworking or as a new study by Brother UK suggests we call it 'cappuccino commerce'.

According to a new report from the printer specialists, new UK start ups are increasingly using the wifi in coffee shops (and indeed hotels, restaurants, etc) to run their businesses. They talked to 750 small businesses and the results showed that:
 * 22% of those who have started up in the last three years base themselves in local coffee shops to reduce overheads
* 69% of companies which started in the last six months had no office space
* 76% of over-55s said technology had given them greater workplace flexibility

Interestingly, it's also Independent Booksellers Week and the Booksellers Association has released figures implying that bookshops with cafes are likely to sell more books than those without. Figures based on a survey of 40 BA members show that bookshops with cafes enjoyed a 3% growth in overall turnover in 2011, while those without saw  a decline in sales of 5.2%. Those bookshops with cafes also had  a 2% rise in their book sales last year, those without cafes had a decrease of 4%.

In the Brother study just over two thirds of companies under a year old say they plan to stay office free and only 14% are concerned that clients will take a dim view of their business for not having an "office".

“In recent years there’s certainly been a cultural shift in working habits across the UK with new technology allowing companies to work in a way that suits them and their business, whatever their size," said Joanna Williams, Head of Brother UK Marketing and Communications. "Tablet technology, mobile printing and scanning solutions, the widespread availability of Wi-Fi connectivity and cloud technology means there are no longer barriers when it comes to working remotely, and almost any location can now be treated as an extension of - or even replacement for - your office.” ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tuesday posts are sponsored by 3rdSpace modular garden rooms.
Customise | Configure | Extend | Relocate

Woodhenge pub shed wins Shed of the Year 2012

From more than 2,000 creative garden dens, the winner of the highest shed accolade has been announced. John Plumridge from Shrewsbury will be raising a glass in his pub shed as it is crowned the winner of the 2012 Shed of the Year competition sponsored by Cuprinol.

The humble garden shed has offered Brits a sanctuary from the stresses of family life for decades, but now this Shropshire sheddie has taken the concept to new heights with his Woodhenge Pub Shed. Spending over four years converting his beloved shed, John completed it with a beer bottle collection of over 500 real ales and 110 ciders, all on display for local sheddies who often pop by for a swift pint.

 John Plumridge, said: “When I was told I’d won the competition, I was absolutely thrilled. Normally I’m a very chatty and jovial person but I did find myself lost for words and I must confess to having “shed” a tear. I’ve been working on “Woodhenge” for around four years now and have enjoyed every minute of it. I can’t even hazard a guess at the cost involved but it’s a great venue for our family and friends to party in and the good thing is we haven’t got too far to get home.”

The Shed of the year judges - ‘Head Sheddie’ and creator of the competition Uncle Wilco, property guru and shed fan Sarah Beeny, world famous author Neil Gaiman, self-proclaimed sheddie and author of Shedworking Alex Johnson, and 2011 winner Jon Earl – picked from the most creative, innovative and barmy entries. Sarah Beeny, comments: “Shed of the Year is a great inspiration and clearly encourages people to get creative with their sheds. I am really happy that a pub shed has won after I created my own Kings Head pub shed for Cuprinol, which is currently on display in Rufford Park in Nottingham. Hopefully others will be inspired to create their own sheddy haven too."

With over 15 million shed owners in the UK it’s no surprise that Cuprinol has seen shed loads of entries from up and down the country. Those in London submitted the most shed entries (63) followed by 42 sheddies in Kent then those in Lancashire and Essex with 35 shed entries each. And it was the Garden Office category which proved the most popular this year seeing more than 125 entries.

So if you think your garden retreat has what it takes to be crowned Shed of the Year, why not submit your entry from August for the 2013 competition at readershed.co.uk.

Category winners include:
Normal Shed Mark's Folly: Mark Mason, Warwickshire
Eco Shed The Solar Shed: Kevin Holland, Norfolk
Garden Office Bostin Betty: Paula,Landlocked, Birmingham
Cabin/Summerhouse Colne Valley Postal History Museum: Steve Knight, Essex,
Workshop/Studio The Stencil Shed: "Syd", Wiltshire
Unique The Water Shed: Geoff Hill, Gwynedd
Pub Shed Woodhenge: John Henry, Shrewsbury
Tardis BlueBox Type 40: John Williams, Newport -------------------------------------------------------------------------
Monday posts are sponsored by garden2office, the Swedish garden office specialists. Click here for more details.

Kent Griswold on the Tiny House movement (video)

Kent Griswold runs the excellent Tiny House Blog and talks here about why he started it and the rise of the Tiny House movement, very much a first cousin of shedworking. Well worth a watch. ----------------------------------------------------------------------

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

the joy of sheds by Frank Hopkinson

2012 is shaping up to be a good year for shed books. The latest to arrive at Shedworking Towers is Frank Hopkinson's - strangely lowercased - the joy of sheds, subtitled 'Because a man's place isn't in the home' (hmmm... how about a woman's place Frank?). It's a jolly little book, full of bits and bobs about sheds and shedlife. Not much will be new to regular readers of Shedworking but as a jolly little volume for reading in the toilet, it's just the thing. Published by Portico at £9.99.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

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

Bletchley Park hits hut funding target

Large congratulations to all at the Bletchley Park Trust which has just announced that it has successfully reached the £7.4 million funding mark that now enables them to start urgent restoration of the historic, and sadly currently derelict, Codebreaking Huts 3 and 6, as well as the development of a world-class visitor centre and exhibition space in WW2 Card Index building, Block C.

Last September, the Trust announced that it needed to raise £2.4 million in match funding in order to unlock a Heritage Lottery Fund grant of £5 million. Now that the Trust has raised these funds, the Heritage Lottery Fund has granted it “Permission to Start” on the restoration project.

 Iain Standen, CEO of the Bletchley Park Trust, said: “This is an exciting and unparalleled milestone in the 20-year history of the work of the Bletchley Park Trust, allowing us to start the work of preserving this site for future generations and in permanent tribute to the extraordinary men and women who worked here during WW2.

“Raising these funds has not only been a race against time to save the Huts from dereliction, but also has been imperative in order to create essential capacity and an improved experience for our ever-rising numbers of visitors. We are enormously grateful for the generosity of the Heritage Lottery Fund and other donors for enabling us to start making this vision a reality."

However, while work on this project is expected to commence in the autumn, the Bletchley Park Trust will immediately embark on a fundraising campaign, expected to be in the order of £15 million, for the next phase of its masterplan to transform Bletchley Park into a world-class heritage and education centre to adequately reflect the profound importance of its impact on WW2 and the 20th century. This will include plans to expand the museum into Block D and restore other buildings of highly significant historic value.
 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

TJ Tomlin's writing shed

A nice interview with shedworker and assistant professor of history at the University of Northern Colorado, T.J. Tomlin at The Way Of Improvement Leads Home . Here's a snippet:

"I first encountered (and was an instant convert to) the concept of “shedworking” about five years ago. The cost kept me from going for it until this past spring, when I found my shed on craigslist. I prefer to work in a quiet, private space rather than in public or with any kind of background noise. I also have three-year old twins. They make my life far richer and my house far noisier. Although I have a comfortable office at my university, it is 40 minutes away. Many of my days, nights, and weekends are spent writing, grading, and preparing courses from home. Working from a shed offers a clear, physical separation of work from the rest of my life that has been very refreshing."

More details, interview and photos at the link above.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

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