Shedworking: Commuting Down the Garden Path
If you don’t have enough space in your home for an office, how about building one in your garden? You’ll also get some privacy, separation of home and work life, and the freedom to configure your office exactly as you like. That’s what “shedworking” is all about. Over the past year, we’ve featured a couple of posts looking at innovative shedworking solutions, while Alex Johnson has a daily blog, Shedworking, devoted to the topic. It seems that the movement is growing in popularity — at least here in the UK — as Johnson has written a book about it, which should be out in June.
There are solutions to suit almost any garden size and budget. They don’t have to look very, well, “sheddy,” either, and can incorporate conveniences like underfloor heating and air conditioning. The photo above is of an Atelier garden building, while the one on the right is a Garden Room Company-designed office. Unfortunately, the nicer offices like these don’t come cheap — even a smaller (10 sq. meter) Garden Room Company office will cost more than £10,000 ($15,000).
I’m wondering if shedworking is primarily a British or European thing — we tend have smaller houses with less room to devote to home offices than our American cousins, and it’s not something I’ve heard mentioned by friends in the States. Is it something that could spread across the pond as more people work from home, though? Even though I have my own comfortable office set up in my house, the thought of a separate distraction-free “work zone,” away from my living space, but with a (very!) short commute, is appealing.
If you’re a shedworker, please share links to photos of your workspace in the comments.
This is a fantastic concept, and if I had the yard space, I’d build one!
It’s started to spread across the pond, too, albeit slowly. There’s a green building company here in the Pacific Northwest (based out of Vancouver, WA) that offers what they call “Back Yard Buildings” for about $10k — their website is http://www.structuresnw.com.
FYI, shedworking is not a new concept in the least. G.B. Shaw had a pretty fantastic DIY writing hut in his garden, and I doubt it cost £10,000!
This gave me an idea. Working at home with 4 young children can be very hard. So many interruptions. Wait til I get my own shed!
In answer to your question “Is it something that could spread across the pond as more people work from home, though?”, no, I don’t think it would catch on over here.
I would love the idea, but the climates are so different. This is why so many American and Canadian homes have attached garages. Going outside may mean facing -30C in winter, and +40C in summer. Imagine having to put on heavy boots and coat just to dash across your garden without serious frostbite injury. And the expense of heating and cooling an separate space, not to mention the energy use. It would be lovely, but not practical here.
It’s true that shedworking has taken off in the UK faster than the US (though it’s also very popular in Sweden) but there are growing numbers of shedworkers and garden office suppliers in the US too – it’s certainly not a trend limited to the UK (as awful plug for the book coming up the Shedworking book details).
Yes, GBS had a marvellous working shed just down the road from where I live. It’s probably my favourite historical shedworking space, not least because it is on a turntable so can be rotated towards the sun (or away from it).
Very cool! My guess is that these would be more popular in Europe for two main reasons:
1) Most US properties large enough to have a garden+shed probably already have a home large enough to have sufficient office space
2) US zoning restrictions are too tight in many places to allow for detached office space (I’m hoping our European cousins are much more progressive!!)
Otherwise a great idea – I’d love to have one myself!
I had a professor in college who set up his home office in a detached shed – right next to his vegetable garden. This was in Savannah, GA (the house was in Thunderbolt).
It was pretty impressive and something that I’ve always kept in mind for later on in life. I know of a couple others here in Birmingham, AL as well.