Shed heaven
Once the domain of a household’s alpha male, the garden shed is attracting new followers and finding a new purpose, as Jennifer Morgan discovers
Find out why the garden shed is attracting a whole new and rather lovely purpose
FINDa way past the outdoor cushions, the lawnmower, footballs, buckets, spades and the endless jars of screws/nails/bits-andbobs lurking in your garden shed and you might just find that extra living space your home so desperately craves. And you wouldn’t be alone in this discovery; #sheshed has over 111,000 hits on Instagram, while Cuprinol Shed of the Year, now in its 14th year, saw more than 3,000 entries in 2019. And, more excitingly, the rise in female entrants was up 79 per cent since 2015.
Stylist and author Selina Lake’s latest book is all about sheds. Called Shed Style (Ryland Peters & Small, £19.99), Selina reveals how even the smallest garden can be home to an outdoor retreat. ‘Our sheds can be our own little palaces at the end of the garden,’ she explains, ‘a space where you can participate in a number of activities, and decorate with the interior of your dreams.’ If you can just get past the disused bikes… It’s worth the effort though, as Selina adds: ‘Garden buildings have a certain charm that’s difficult to replicate with indoor rooms. They bridge the gap between inside and out and offer a quick and easy hideaway to escape to. If you use yours for a hobby, then it can be set up ready for whenever you have time to spare, without the need to pack things away each time.’
But it doesn’t have to be a traditional shed. ‘We’re seeing an increasing number of people looking at garden rooms and log cabins to expand their living spaces,’ says Lynsey Grinnell, head of marketing at Forest Garden (forestgarden.co.uk). ‘We all need quiet time, with the average Brit spending 142 hours per week indoors – it’s no wonder we need a space to call our own, away from family life.’
Take ‘sheddie’ Mary Price, winner of best in show for the workshop/studio category for Cuprinol’s Shed of the Year 2019. Her amazingly creative shed adds a magnificent pop of colour to her garden and reflects the paintings she creates inside. ‘My shed is so important to me,’ she explains. ‘For years I had to paint at the dining room table, then, about seven years ago, I bought my shed and it’s completely transformed my life. I’ve tried to recreate a meadow in my own garden. It’s an extension of my own artwork and makes me smile whenever I look out of my window.’
Marie Nichols (@marienichols), a stylist, escapes to her garden hideaway for both work and play. She bought a shepherd’s hut for the garden of her Kent home in 2018. ‘The house is listed and in a Conservation Area, so extending wasn’t really a possibility, but I needed a dedicated space to work, having given over my office to a mound of toys. I wanted somewhere I could leave my mood boards and swatches spread out at the end of each day.’ The shepherd’s hut has not only provided Marie with a new office space, it’s also become a family camping spot for Marie, husband Simon and their two boys. ‘In the summer, the boys love it,’ says Marie, ‘we cook on the barbecue, toast marshmallows, then sleep out!’
Of course, then there’s the decorating potential of your shed. ‘Our hut was all pine when it arrived,’ says Marie. ‘I primed and knotted the wood and then painted it using leftover paint from decorating the house. I’d been itching to use a blue palette but had run out of rooms to decorate, so decided on white, blue and grey for the hut interior, with black for a contemporary touch.’ Marie added a daybed made up of a mattress from Ikea and plenty of cushions. ‘It’s my girl cave,’ she laughs, ‘so the boys can’t complain about the number of cushions!’ A vintage cupboard houses her work files.
As Marianne Shillingford, creative director at Cuprinol, and fellow sheshed owner, says: ‘We have always celebrated creativity in the UK, especially in the spaces that we can truly put our stamp on – like our garden sheds. In recent years, they’ve become one of the most important rooms in our homes, allowing us to reinvent their purpose far beyond a place we store garden furniture into spaces we can reconnect with nature and nurture our own wellbeing.’
A quick trawl of #shesheds reveals that the personalisation and styling of your shed is a huge part of being a she shed owner. In the States, she sheds – or even ‘bitch barns’ as some are called – are commonly dressed for Christmas (@simplecozycharm), filled with vintage treasures (@bluelinencottage) or sometimes even used as a wine shack (@theporcheplace). ‘I think a shed enhances any garden,’ says Selina, ‘and we’re seeing lots of women utilising the shed for their businesses, from acupuncture to crafting workshops. Secretly, I’d love to be invited to a dinner party in a shed that’s decorated with seasonal flowers, candles and comfy chairs.’
‘I wouldn’t be without my summerhouse,’ says stylist Jo Rigg (@jo_rigg.at54). In fact, Jo’s even has its own hashtag – #summerhouseat54. Jo moved into her south London home three years ago with her two grown-up children and was faced with a neglected garage at the end of her garden. She asked a builder to rebuild three of its walls and keep two large openings for doors, adding a black Onduline roof. ‘Eventually I found second-hand French doors on Ebay, with old handles from a junk shop. It cost about £2,500 to do,’ says Jo. But it was money well spent.
‘It has totally transformed the garden. It’s a valuable extra room that we use all-year-round and it’s nice to look at from the house.’ Jo’s actually turned her summerhouse into a money-making venture, hiring it out as a photographic location for shoots. ‘We’ve also had several parties in there,’ says Jo. ‘It’s cosy with the doors shut and heaters on in winter, yet in summer, with the doors open, you feel part of the garden.’ Lots of Jo’s friends now want similarly versatile sheds; ‘I can see more and more summerhouse drinks parties,’ she laughs.
It seems that often the shed needs a little TLC to bring it up to ‘she shed’ standing. ‘We inherited our shed when my husband and I bought our house six years ago,’ says Selina. ‘It had seen better days, with a roof that was caving in and a missing door. Luckily Dave is a DIY dab-hand, so he fixed it up and I stained the exterior black to give it a Scandi look. Inside, I’ve styled it with a botanical feel, arranging my collection of gardenalia on an old dresser base, which doubles as a workbench.’
Don’t forget the exterior either. ‘Arrange pots and lanterns around the door,’ says Selina. ‘Get creative with the route from your house to your shed, with stepping stones, a path of reclaimed bricks or mowing a route through meadow-length grass.’ There are also some practicalities too; your shed needs to be watertight and if you plan to use it all-year-round, then you will need electricity and heating. ‘I use our shed from March through to November,’ says Selina, ‘wearing lots of layers towards the end of the year.’
So, isn’t it time you showed your shed some love? Of course, you don’t need to go all-out she shed, although you’ll probably love a new styling opportunity. ‘You can’t go wrong with a typical British shed that fits well into a pretty cottage garden, surrounded by blooms, with foldaway chairs stored at the ready for those sunny days while offering a cosy place to shelter if it rains,’ says Selina. Sounds pretty perfect to us...