No space to write your book or entertain friends? Create a garden room. You could spruce up a conservatory or summerhouse, ensuring electrics and lighting are safe (avoid fan-heaters near wood). Site new sheds to face north or east, to avoid too much heat in the afternoon. Hug at Home makes recycled rubber mats to absorb muddy paw prints.
Work from Shed is a book for the remote worker. Of all places to create a home workspace, the garden offers a unique opportunity, for architects to innovate. From visually arresting structures to plant-covered studios built in harmony with nature. This book with lovely photos and informative text, shows just what can be built in a backyard. Why commute to office – when you can work from shed?
See make your garden safe for pets to know toxic plants and other items to avoid. Avoid toxic indoor plants (that cats could knock over). Don’t place foliage facing gardens, to help stop birds flying into windows. If removing old sheds, check for nesting baby hedgehogs (they don’t leave for up to 8 weeks after birth).
If you have DIY skills, learn how to build a shed. This detailed book offers a better option than cheap, badly-made and freezing cold sheds, but not the cost of a luxury ready-made version. Clear instructions and illustrations show how to source materials, choose the right tools, and build your dream shed on a budget, even if you’ve never used a hammer. Stain with non-toxic Lifetime Wood Treatment or natural house paint.
The National Trust Book of Sheds looks at our most beloved buildings, which lurk in the shadow of grand country houses, brave the elements on cliff tops, and have inspired writers to birdwatchers. These beautiful and sometimes eccentric structures are as individual as their owners. A Victorian coastal shed in Cornwall is where one Reverend went to write verse and is also the smallest building cared for by the National Trust.
George Bernard Shaw’s shed could be rotated throughout the day to make the most of the sun, while sculptor Barbara Hepworth, used hers for napping. Also of floating sheds, coastguards’ sheds, artists’ studios, summer houses, beach huts, camping pods and tea-houses.
A Woman’s Shed interviews over 80 women and photographs their she-sheds inside and out, for a unique insight for writers, sculptures, farmers and furniture-makers. These are sheds that are lived in, full to the rafters or simply sheds with the usual collection of gardening tools, lawnmowers and seed packets.
