If like me you spend a lot of time working from home it can be incredibly frustrating not to have your own dedicated workspace. I spent about 3 or 4 years working on the bed before finding a solution to my workspace worries which didn’t involve renting an office for a monthly fee.
My summer-house-girl-cave-office is built at the bottom of our garden in one corner. It’s a Waltons 7ft by 7ft premier summer house (currently £579) and I also purchased the corner portabase (£129.99). I think you can pay for assembly but I decided to do it myself as I’m reasonably good at this sort of thing – with help from my 15 year old daughter who is really good at this sort of thing.
The wood is painted in two shades of Cuprinol : fresh rosemary and white daisy (click on the links to see the products).
The lights are a pack of two Pathson Industrial Retro Metal Cage Loft Bar Hanging Ceiling Pendant Lights (currently £35.99 – click here). The lights are hung close to my desks but I’ve screwed up two hooks so they can be looped up for more overhead lighting.
The white board measures 1m x 80cm and I put it up lengthways. It’s currently £23.90 (click here).
The flooring was leftover from our hall floor – we got this from UK flooring direct and it is 10mm American Black Walnut V Groove Laminate Flooring (currently £13 a square metre). The internal measurements are 190cm x 190cm.
We got an electrician friend to wire power to the shed so I have light and heat – but perhaps the best thing is that I have high speed internet. We purchased a TP Link kit for £99.95 from Amazon (click here) – one end plugs into the wall and your router, while the other plugs in to the summer house. My internet speed is around 70/mbs download and 5/mbs upload – better than in the house!
All the furniture is from Ikea. It’s mostly from the Micke range as that allowed me to have two desks – one for my laptop and one for books. I’ve also got a little Billy bookcase although I haven’t figured out how to attach the door just yet.
I spent quite a bit of time with expander foam, finishing plaster and silicone sealant to make sure there were literally no gaps anywhere inside except small gaps around the door. I also bought a wooden strip for the outside top and bottom of each door to further cover the small gap. This is to keep the heat in although I’ve got both a heater and fan to regulate the temperature.
One final thing to bear in mind if you decide to try this, is that this is a corner summer house. If you build it in the corner, you won’t be able to get around the back to peg on the roof. We therefore decided to build it on the base but a foot and a half off the edge, and then slide it on. Our neighbour who is a landscape gardener (and helped us get the shed where it should be) told me that when he builds these, he builds them in position and climbs on the roof to tack on the roofing. In retrospect, I wish we had done this.
I hope this inspires you to build your own office in the garden!