How a garden SHE-SHED can help your marriage bloom
By a writer who longed for a space of her own — so built herself an outdoor haven
Each morning — once my three daughters have been fed and packed off to school and my husband to work — I make myself a cup of tea and set off for my hidden retreat. It’s n not a long journey, just a stroll from our sprawling sprawl Georgian farmhouse to the shed I designed design and built, 18 months ago, at the bottom of the garden. But it’s a total escape from the demands of daily life — and some days, it feels like my last bastion of sanity.
sound tempting? Well, I believe every woman deserves a space of her own, and with a little planning and a few key tools, she is perfectly capable of building it for herself.
Of course, not everyone is lucky enough to have room for a shed. But if you can find just a few square feet, building a shed on it could transform your life, boost your career and even save your marriage.
My shed is my space, and it’s not something I want to share. The kids aren’t allowed to use it, and neither is my husband, James, who owns a landscape design company. There’s one key, and I lock up when I leave.
You may think I sound selfish, and I admit I sometimes feel guilty because my girls — emma, six, Isabella, eight, and Madeleine, 13 — would love to use it for sleepovers.
Like many women, I find it difficult to say no when it comes to my family: I share my space and constantly make compromises.
But we’re used to the idea our husbands need a shed or a ‘man cave’, so why not us, too? Ultimately, we all crave a space of our own, whether it’s to read and relax, as a studio for creative projects or for a workplace.
having a shed is a recipe for marital harmony, too. Who doesn’t need a place where they can be alone sometimes? When I feel myself getting annoyed, I can nip off to my shed and lock myself away for a bit.
Then,
when I go back to the house, my family know they have my full attention. For a long time, I tried to do my work as a writer from the kitchen table — I never thought to stake out a room for myself.
Of course, the kitchen is often considered a woman’s domain. Well, I love to cook for my family, but I need more than just the kitchen with its constant chaos of kids rushing in and out, the telephone ringing and technology blaring.
When I’m in the house, I’m constantly thinking about putting a wash on, or wondering what I’m going to make for supper. In the shed, another side of me — professional, creative — can emerge.
That’s what Georgia Wilkinson found when she launched her small business. Unable to spread out her projects in the house, she decided to work from a shed in the garden.
‘Without the shed I don’t think I could have done it,’ she says. ‘I wouldn’t have had the space I need to be creative.
‘even though I was just 50 metres from the house, at the end of the day I could close the door and stop thinking about work.’
Illustrator susi Bramall built an oak-framed shed in her garden to use as a studio, so she could work in peace without going too far from home. This sense of getting away, without going away, makes a shed the perfect solution for mums like me, juggling children with a career.
SO
LasT June, over two weeks, I built a shed just 30 yards from our back door, with help from my friend, scott, a joiner, for the heavy lifting. since then, I’ve spent all four seasons in it, stomping through the snow in winter, throwing the doors open wide this summer.
a hedgehog has taken up residence underneath it, while our chickens and even a local peacock come to visit me. Jake, our Labrador who sadly died a few months ago, loved to lie in front of the woodburner or guard the doorway as I worked.
Why do I recommend building your shed yourself? Well, you’ll save money — made-to-order sheds can cost £30,000 or more and you can spend as little as £2,500, as I did on my DIY version — but more importantly, it’s a real confidence boost.
If you’ve never done DIY, it can seem like a bit of a dark art. But it’s just a logical process, not that different from building with Lego bricks.
Most sheds are simple — just a set of frames, a pair of doors, and a window. Understand how they fit together before you start, and you won’t get ripped off by dodgy builders or intimidated by the task.
First, you’ll need the right tools. Trying to do DIY without the right kit is a bit like trying to bake a cake with a hand whisk and an open fire.
But the only power tools you need to build a shed are a mitre saw and stand, for cutting timber, and a combi drill. You can hire these if you don’t want to buy them.
Then you need to pick an area of firm ground that’s not too sloping for your shed’s location. consider how close it is to your house, and to any neighbours! so, how do you
actually build a shed? The basic building blocks of my design are simple timber frames that fit together to form the floor, walls and roof. Each frame has two rails — long pieces along the top and bottom — with crosspieces running between them. In a wall, the crosspieces are called ‘studs’, in the floor they’re ‘joists’, and in the ceiling they’re ‘rafters’.
I built the base first, to provide a level footing for the finished building. Starting with a wooden floor frame, I attached piles — metal spikes — which I screwed to the frame, and then hammered into the ground to anchor the shed.
I added insulation and plywood sheets to complete my floor, then started on the walls and roof, constructed from more wooden frames, before screwing down plywood sheets on the roof. I left a big gap in the front wall for a door — you could choose to leave your shed open to the elements, but I opted for glazed French doors. These can be tricky, so I recommend buying them ‘pre-hung’, with the hinges already fitted. A set of good quality, glazed hardwood French doors costs around £500 to £800. I chose timber cladding for the exterior walls, which I nailed on. Mine was fairly cheap softwood, at about £15 per square metre. Woods such as oak and cedar can cost more than £50 a square metre, so do watch your costs here.
To make the plywood roof waterproof, I glued on a rubber roofing sheet. These cost about £300 to £400, including all the adhesive and trims you need, but you could try a metal or shingle roof.
Finally, the outside of my shed was complete — it was time to add light and warmth. I had an electrical supply fitted by a professional, since building regulations require this in the UK (although if you are competent you can do the work yourself and get it signed off by Building Regs), then added insulation and a plasterboard covering to the interior walls.
I called in the pros again to fit a woodburning stove. It’s very important to have adequate ventilation if you’re burning fuel in an enclosed space, so it’s always best to get someone to do this for you.
NOW,
as well as a smart shed, I have a real sense of pride at having built something from scratch. It’s a good feeling.
I learned about the joy of DIY from my dad, a real craftsman who’s always working on some project, whether that’s doing up a house with my mum or making fine furniture.
It never occurred to him that a girl might not be interested, so he included me. And I always loved to watch him at work, bent over at his workbench.
These days, I try to get my own daughters involved, letting them play with hammers and other tools. Madeleine, my eldest, is very creative but not too interested in building stuff. Isabella, on the other hand, will knock things together with screws and bits of wood. At six, Emma is still a bit young for power tools — but who knows where her talents will lie?
I’m so excited to see other women use my plans to build sheds of their own, and turn them into wonderful, personal spaces.
One who has done so is interior designer Abby Owens, mum to three boys under six, who uses hers as a place to escape.
She says: ‘Many occasions drive me into my shed, and I am a much nicer person when I come out! I’ll sneak off with a glass of wine and pretend I’m doing something.
‘I’ve got a house full of boys, and I’d been moaning that I had no space of my own.
‘At first I thought the idea of building a shed myself was insane, but it’s been one of the most satisfying things I’ve ever done — and it’s really changed my life.’