Many more of us are working from home these days, and building a dedicated room in the garden to do so, is proving an effective solution for many people. The short commute down the garden path maintains the discipline of going out of the house to work each day while maintaining all the benefits of working from home.
Hargreaves Garden Spaces designed this 5m wide by 2.5m deep garden office for a London couple who will be working from home in the longterm. As a result of the pandemic, their company has restructured with employees now working remotely.
Looking at the space in their garden, they could see that a purpose-built building would be the ideal work from home solution for them. Hargreaves Garden Spaces can tailor their designs around your specific needs, so were also able to incorporate some valuable storage into the building too.
Shallow garden office design
At 5m x 2.5m, this building is obviously wider than it is deep. This is a clever use of space. The garden looks to be wider than it is deep. So, the design of this building ensures that it doesn't dominate the garden.
The building is divided into two, to create the office and a storage room alongside. The office features 3-meter wide aluminium doors, which will fold to one side opening up the office space into the garden. This will make for lovely working on a summers day.
The storage room has its own external entrance, but you could be forgiven for wondering where. Look closely, and you will see a secret door to the right of the bi-fold doors. The Hargreaves Garden Spaces team have carefully matched the cladding used on the door to that used on the surrounding wall, so it blends in.
Secret doors like this are popular, as they don't make it obvious that the building contains a storage area. This adds an extra layer of security when storing bikes, lawnmowers and tools.
Scandinavian Redwood cladding
The exterior of this garden office and storage room is clad with Scandinavian Redwood. This is a popular choice for garden buildings. It is treated to protect it against rot and fungal attack, which results in a board that is a durable alternative to Western Red Cedar, Thermowood or Larch.
Scandinavian Redwood costs less per square meter than Cedar, so it is a good choice if you are looking for a durable finish but want to keep money in your budget for other big-ticket features, such as the aluminium bi-folds doors these customers chose.
As we can see, Scandinavian Redwood has a honey colouring that will weather to a mellow silver as it ages. It looks great mixed with the dark grey bi-fold doors.
One company for the whole project
If you choose to work with Hargreaves Garden Spaces, you will be working with a company that will handle the whole project for you from start to finish.
In this case, this service included connecting the office's electrics to the mains supply in the house. Many other companies will ask you to arrange this connection with a local electrician once they have finished work. This can be a hidden cost and a bit of a hassle!
Hargreaves Garden Spaces also offer landscaping services. These images were taken prior to the team returning to the site to install a patio and new fencing. There is a lot to be said for working with one company that can offer a 360-degree service like this.
