British Cedar clad garden room with store
First Published: 27 October 2021 | Refreshed: 31 December 2022
This 5.5m x 3m garden room with a secret storeroom by Hargreaves Garden Spaces is a bit different. It has been clad externally with British Cedar rather than the more commonly used Canadian Cedar.
Canadian Western Red Cedar is an expensive design choice for the exterior cladding of a garden room.
Garden room designers like Hargreaves Garden Spaces offer their clients a range of different cladding options allowing them to choose an exterior finish that fits their desired aesthetic and budget.
Over the years, we have featured Hargreaves Garden Spaces projects that have been clad externally with composite wood cladding, Scandinavian Redwood cladding, render and the ever-popular Canadian Western Red Cedar cladding.
With this recent commission, the Hargreaves Garden Spaces team sourced British Cedar for their clients.
British Cedar
While the same species of tree, Canadian and British Cedar look different in appearance. Where Canadian Cedar is known and loved for its rich reddish-brown shades, British Cedar has a paler honey colour.
British Cedar is much more consistent in colour than its Canadian relative. When looking at Canadian Cedar clad garden rooms, you may have noticed that the boards can vary significantly in colour across a wall.
Where Canadian Cedar has very few knots, British Cedar has a prominent grain and lots of knots. As we can see from these images, the knots and grain offer a lot of character.
British Cedar is a durable cladding choice with an estimated life span of 10-15 years. It can be left untreated and will weather to a mellow silver-grey as it ages.
British Western Red Cedar is typically cheaper than its Canadian counterpart - we have seen estimates of 50% more affordable, making it an attractive option if you want to stretch your garden room budget to include other design features.
Because British Cedar is grown here in the UK, it is an eco-friendly choice too. Compared with Canadian Cedar, eliminating the shipping and other transport costs reduce the carbon footprint of Britsih Cedar.
Plastered and decorated main room with practical storage alongside
This 5.5m x 3m building has been divided to create two rooms. The main room has a high spec plastered and decorated finish mixed with a durable laminate floor. These finishes make a room like in a new build house.
The second room has been lined with OSB boards that offer a highly durable finish and are strong enough for hooks and storage shelves to be fitted, maximising the storage capacity.
Anthracite Grey uPVC French doors lead into the main room, but the door into the storage room is harder to see. The Hargreaves Garden Spaces team have fitted a 'secret door' whereby the door is clad in the same timber as the surrounding wall. As we can see, the boards on the wall and door have been carefully matched, making it hard to see.
Learn more
To learn more about this project and the various exterior cladding options you can choose from, call the Hargreaves Garden Spaces team on 07584 626 911 or send them an email: info@hgspaces.co.uk. Explore the Hargreaves Garden Spaces website to learn more about their work.
