In a new series we are going to shine the spotlight on different design elements that when done well really make the finish and overall feel of the garden room. In this first part we are going to look at exterior cladding detailing.
The cladding is a big part of a garden rooms design
In many cases the cladding used on a garden room is the most widely used material and in many cases the most visible, so its important that it looks great!
Generally all the garden rooms we review on The Garden Room Guide have well fitted cladding, but some times we are aware that the supplier has paid a lot of attention to getting the finish just right. This might be by choosing the right piece of cedar so that you get a gentle colour variation between boards, or making sure that the boards used on the soffits of the roof are perfectly in line with the cladding on the wall. You’d be amazed at the difference that these small details make to the final look of the building. Lets look at some key design details:
Straight lines
Sometimes you can find that the grooves of the cladding don’t run around the building at the same height, even a few millimetres difference on each wall can disturb the eye line. The cladding on this 3rd Space garden room just shows how crisp cladding can look when attention is paid to how the cladding is matched at the corners. A good tip for checking your suppliers handiwork is to stand at the corner of the building and close one eye to see if it all matches up.
Photo: www.3rdspace.co.uk
Corner detailing
Not all types of cladding are able to be finished at the corners like the example above, but there are ways to create equally crisp detailing. Smart Modular Buildings offer a weatherboard style cladding option, a style of cladding which can be difficult to detail in the wrong hands, but Smart Modular Buildings have used vertical corner boards to create a sharp line for the weatherboard to butt into. They have used similar detailing around the door and window which creates a pukka finish.
Photo: www.smartgardenoffices.co.uk
Concealed doors
Its a growing trend to create garden rooms which have a separate storage area, but the aim is to make the store area discreet as possible. To achieve this garden room designers like eDEN Garden Rooms clad the door of the store room with the same cladding as the wall. As you can see from the image below eDEN have matched the grooves and colour of the boards of the door with the wall, making the door almost invisible.
Photo: www.edengardenrooms.com
So, when you are choosing your garden room pay particular attention to the cladding detailing, and ask your supplier to show you examples of how they detail the corners of the building and the wall / roof intersection. These small design details are worth the effort when it comes to the look of your building.
