Shedworking

Inside the Eco-Shed

noreply@blogger.com (Alex) — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 15:58:00 +0000

James Glave's Eco-Shed was one of the finalists in this year's International Shed of the Year. It's also now available as a holiday let. More details here and a nice look around the place above.

Media Pie: Airstream shedworking

noreply@blogger.com (Alex) — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 09:20:00 +0000

In August 2003 my first little girl Gracie arrived on the scene, writes Chris Haddon of Media Pie. After two weeks of paternity leave it was time to go back to work and during the journey home in the small hours amid the Central line chaos my decision was made. If I wanted to see my children grow up I needed to start up on my own. Trying to convince my partner Emma who was on maternity leave at the time was the next step. Granted: going from two good salaries to none with a new baby now in the equation was maybe a tad risky...... but we took the risk and luckily it turned out to be the right decision.

My business Mediapie officially started in January 2004 from the mezzanine floor in the lounge of our Victorian one bedroom flat - not the ideal office environment but we somehow managed and the work started coming in. Imogen our second child arrived in February 2006 so it was time to move.Due to the ever rising noise levels an office in the garden seemed the ideal solution. I had looked at elaborate sheds to convert into an office but I really wanted something a bit different from the norm. Ever since I can remember I have loved American trailers so I started looking around at the possibility of buying an Airstream and converting it into my work space. I found one on ebay in Connecticut USA, a 1963 Globetrotter. It was perfect and after a lot of effort trying to convince the owners that I wasn't a crazy English guy and I was totally serious and I really did want to ship it over to the UK, it finally arrived at Southampton and after a couple of months of hard work I had converted it into my design studio.

Now my journey to work consists of opening the back door and walking the few yards to my office – this giant glistening design icon standing pride of place in my garden. Clients are impressed when they come round for meetings and it's a good marketing accessory. During the summer I have air-con to keep cool and for the winter months a large chocolate lab can be found sprawled in front of the cast iron wood burner relishing in the heat... it really is my perfect space.

What's your favourite gardening and shed blog?

noreply@blogger.com (Alex) — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 07:34:00 +0000

The fine folk at Waltons Garden Buildings have set up a fun poll for National Shed Week. Here's what they say:

"We've been trawling through a selection of blogs and websites to find our own top 10 list of the best ones. It took some time to narrow the list down but we've got there now so all we need is for you guys to vote for your favourite blog or website. We've written a little bit about each one as well in case you haven't seen them before. We'll leave the voting open for a few weeks then when we close it we will announce the winner. Happy voting!

It's a great list and we're very pleased to have made the top 10. You can vote by clicking here.

Shedworking book: the cover

noreply@blogger.com (Alex) — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 12:31:00 +0000

Here's what it's probably going to look like, give or take some tweaks. Just to remind you, it's out in June 2010 with Frances Lincoln at £16.99 (there will be a special offer on this price for all you loyal subscribers to Shedworking and The Shed magazine).
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Simon Draper, Citysol & Shedworking book preview...

noreply@blogger.com (Alex) — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 12:13:00 +0000

You can get a sneak preview of the Shedworking book (Shedworking: The Alternative Workplace Revolution, out next June) over the weekend in New York at Citysol thanks to Simon Draper from Habitat for Artists (it's not the one above, that's a previous work from Simon to give you the idea). Here's what he says: "

"The Habitat for Artists project is placing one of their six by six habitat studios close to the banks of the East River at 23rd Street for this event. The small studios are made from largely recycled and reclaimed material and artists also reuse their own work to clad the exteriors, art as material for shed building. In recognition of the repurposing of space as a creative outlet and also being a cost effective method of finding "new " space for numerous activities I thought it only fitting to celebrate National Shed Week and the Shed in all it's guises.

"As art becomes exterior cladding for the habitat studios I thought so too could the images of sheds. Having created grids of 'tiles' for artists to collaborate on and covering the sides of many of the studios I thought it would be wonderful to pay homage to the larger activity that is shedworking, creating a 12 by 12 inch grid a side of a studio with 48 images of other sheds.

"Alex has gladly provided a stock of images for us from his forthcoming book. But how to pick just 48? Alex had told me there were around 200 images to choose from but having funds and time only for one side I chose a systems approach which was also prone to the individual at the computer who randomly decided if there was one she preferred. The selection was done choosing every fourth one. No judges, no long discussions, no committees. The effect is stunning and the mix is a real statement of individual needs and character, a shed aesthetic. There are modern and minimal, rustic and true utilitarian follies all extolling the shed virtue."

The studios will begin to be used by a variety of artists over the next few weeks and there will be a small footprint garden close by. Citysol is a celebration of urban sustainability and creativity in a mini music and arts festival which opens tomorrow and runs until Sunday. We'll put up photos on Shedworking of the finished product tomorrow...
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International Shed of the Year 2009 winner

noreply@blogger.com (Alex) — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 11:54:00 +0000

Congratulations to Chuck Witmer of Silver Spring, MD, USA, whose The Shed is the winner of the 2009 International Shed of the Year (which by happy coincidence we featured earlier in the year). Here's what he says about it:

"The need for a woodshop/painting studio was unavoidable once we bought our own house and our family began to grow. I was building furniture out of our finished basement until we decided that the saw dust in the ducts was not the best for our lungs. My wife was painting out of the 3rd bedroom until we had our first born Eli which required the need for her space to become a guest room. I designed this accessory building to achieve the space necessary for the continued success of my wifes painting career and the passion to design/build and make furniture."

More photos of the build at Chuck's Flickr site and more details about the judging (I was part of the panel) at Shedblog.

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What's the best way to move a shed?

noreply@blogger.com (Alex) — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 11:48:00 +0000

Moving a shed or garden office is an issue which often arises. Sue Greenwood from Sweeble writes:

"Not sure whether any of your Shedworking readers can help with this – but any advice for us in trying to move our shed/office (basically spin it around and shift it to the opposite side of the garden)? So far we’ve had friends advising on a ‘Stonehenge’ approach (wooden rollers laid across the garden, strong ropes and slaves); the ‘Ikea’ approach (take it apart and pray it’ll go back together again) and the ‘Big Boys’ approach (hire a rugby team, pay them in beer)! Any other suggestions?"

There's also this possibility...

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And the winner of Shed of the Year 2009 is...

noreply@blogger.com (Alex) — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 11:50:00 +0000

The Kite Cabin, owned by Steven Harwood from Llandysul near Carmarthen, West Wales. "I entered Shed of the Year because I feel I have a very special shed in a very special place," said Steven. "The location is unbeatable in my opinion with amazing panoramic views. It is surrounded by nature including kites, badgers and various birds. It is such a useable space and is not pre-ordered like so many sheds these days. It is a realisation of my idea and I love it. I hope that my cabin will be an inspiration for others and what can be done in an otherwise dead space."

Steven's prizes include a year’s supply of cheese from the Cheeseshed.com, a £50 voucher from Wyevale Garden Centres, a unique shed cushion and a wind-up Trevor Bayliss radio.

Uncle Wilco, organiser of Shed of the Year said: “This is the third year we have run the competition and each time I am astounded by the quality of the sheds that our sheddies create, they put everything into it. From off-the-shelf sheds that the sheddie have decorated and turned into their own escapes, to hand-built ecosheds and workshops, the range of talents of the British public is unbelievable.”

The judges of Shed of the Year commented:

Sarah Beeny, TV property developer."The shed quality gets better and better each year - it seems more and more people are embracing the joy of sheds! Though I was tempted by Grumpy’s Palace as it looks just like my office, The Kite Cabin was perfect! Well done!!"

Chris Evans, TV personality and Radio 2 DJ: "Grumpy's shed was a great shed but nothing that nice and welcoming should be called grumpy - I'm saying next year change the name and you’re in with a shout, son. The disco shed so nearly got my vote for obvious reasons - DJ love etc - but let's face it, it's not a shed, it is in fact a vehicle born out of the most extreme capitalist culture and although, whilst spreading music, lights and fun where ere it may come to rest, pitch up and plug in, it is nevertheless, at its very core, a money-making wooden machine on wheels. In my opinion my favourite is the delightful, delectable, cool yet not pretentious - Dingly Dell. A shed indeed fit for a princess."

Alex Johnson, Editor of Shedworking.co.uk: "National Shed Week once again showcases the many ways in which the shed concept is central to the lives of millions of people, not just in the UK, but around the planet. The finalists have again shown that there is really no limit to the ways in which we can use the smallest room not in the house. Surely it's time that television property programmes stopped concentrating on 'grand designs' and started focusing on 'small wonders'?"

Rico Daniels, TV’s Salvager: "Of all the sheds featured the Kite Cabin is the one I would most like to own and spend time in. The construction is both unusual and visually appealing, making novel use of a difficult plot. It creates the sort of hideaway that would lift your spirits as you approached it and again as you enjoyed the interior and the views it offers . It is well-appointed and low-impact making good use of alternative technology and the ease with which it sits in the landscape makes it a real contender in my view."

Tim McNeil, Shed of the Year 2008 winner: "What a difficult job with so many beautiful sheds. You have to admire the eco shed for the amount of work that went into it as carefully recounted by the owner and the substantial building he created and the ecological case. However, the one that really took my breath away was Kite Cabin. I would love to have designed it and built it - and to own it must be just fantastic."

Tony Rogers, Shed of the Year 2007 winner: “The Kite Cabin -It's all his own design and build too. The view out down the garden is fantastic. With a TV, satellite, stove, carpets, video, telescope, toilet and beds. What more could you need. Maybe a phone to order the take-aways! Do they deliver take-aways to the top of the garden in West Wales?

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Shedman at Ledbury Poetry Festival

noreply@blogger.com (Alex) — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 08:43:00 +0000

John 'Shedman' Davies is at the Ledbury Poetry Festival this week. His beautiful 8' x 6' shed, provided by NFP Ledbury, will be outside Ledbury's ancient Burgage Hall until Sunday. The shed, worth £400, will be raffled to raise money for charity. Do go along and say hi - John's a smashing chap and he'd love to see you.
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Wednesday's posts are sponsored by The Garden Room Company®, the UK's premier supplier of garden offices and garden rooms. Click here.

Louis Renault: shedworker

noreply@blogger.com (Alex) — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 11:41:00 +0000

Car titan Louis Renault started his empire from his parents' garden shed at their home in Billancourt, France, after they gave him permission to bespoke it into a mini workshop, pictured above.

252° Living Area: Mobile Mini House

noreply@blogger.com (Alex) — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 09:51:00 +0000

Designed by Stephanie Bellanger, Amaury Watine, François Gustin and David Dethoor, the 252° Living Area: Mobile Mini House is a trailer which unfolds into a mobile shedworking atmosphere not to mention a kitchen, bedroom, living room and bathroom, each bit rotating 252° when required.Via Yanko Design

Mary Wallace: allotment shed art

noreply@blogger.com (Alex) — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 09:37:00 +0000

I've often thought that an artist who specialised in producing portraits of garden offices and sheds would be on to a good thing. Graham at Humble Designs highlights a good example of this, Mary Wallace's sketches of sheds at Westcliff Land Cultivation Society’s allotment site which she produced for charity. Well worth a browse.

Beach huts for sale

noreply@blogger.com (Alex) — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 09:23:00 +0000

In a general piece about the state of the beach hut market in The Observer (in which Barry Sprules from Beachhutworld.com rather strangely says a beach hut is much more than a shed), there is a nice gallery of beach huts for sale. Above is Shruff End in Wells-next-the-Sea in Norfolk which comes in at £60,000 plus £149 a year. If you're interested, give Sowerbys a call on 01328 711711.

Which photo best sums up National Shed Week?

noreply@blogger.com (Alex) — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 08:40:00 +0000

Over at Shedblog, Uncle Wilco is asking you to cast your vote for your favourite photo from the Just Sheds Flickr group. He has narrowed it down from the 5,000+ up there to just five and now it's up to you to do the rest... I don't want to affect the voting in any way so here's one of my favourites above by grafficartistg4

Weaver's Nest

noreply@blogger.com (Alex) — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 13:31:00 +0000

More treetop shedworking possibilities here from Animal Farm. According to Rachel Blunstone at Dezeen it is made from branches and based on a weaver bird’s nest (but on a steel frame). This model can hold two adults and a small child so would be fine for some light shedworking.
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National Shed Week: Design Shedworking's HQ winner

noreply@blogger.com (Alex) — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 08:18:00 +0000

The announcement of Shed of the Year 2009 (including International Shed of the Year) will take place on Wednesday but in the meantime, here are the winners of the competition to design the new Shedworking HQ. I was delighted with the quality of the entries and how much thought people had put into them - pat on the back time to all of you for your hard work. But in the end I've picked two. My favourite design was the floating office above from Paul at Roomworks - the idea of working on water has always appealed to me and as I now have a river at the bottom of my garden, it's at least technically possible. And on a topical note, I've given a special prize for Best Design in the Spirit of National Shed Week to the crowdsourced design by John Coupe, below - I liked John's original ideas, but I thought it was brave of him to open it up for comment to readers of his secrets-of-shed-building blog and then act on the many considered comments he received. So well done too to John and the many people who offered their advice.Perhaps this should be an annual competition?
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Monday's posts are sponsored by garden2office, the Swedish garden office specialists.Click here for more details.

Enterprise Nation - Make way for e-business

noreply@blogger.com (Alex) — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 08:03:00 +0000

Online spending is growing rapidly in the UK. For this week's Enterprise Nation column, Emma JOnes points out that e-commerce in 2009 will be worth over £20bn and, experts say, by 2013, online spending will make up for 10% of total retail sales. If you have a product to sell, you’re in a good position, but how to attract customers to buy? She offers five recommendations.

1. Make offers
Offer to write content and guest posts for blogs and sites where you know your customers are hanging out. Offer discounts to member groups and communities and offer links to other important sites, in exchange for them linking back to you. The more inbound and outbound links, the higher you’ll appear in the search results.

2. Make some noise
Why not carry out a poll on your site using www.surveymonkey.com and use the results as the basis for a press release. Another tactic that will have you mentioned in the media is celebrity endorsement. This is what Lyndsey Young has done with her product, Count On It, www.count-on-it.co.uk which has received glowing testimonials from the likes of Amanda Holden and Janey Lee Grace, to profitable effect.

3. Make the most of social media
Have as many sites driving traffic to yours as possible. And this is possible by making the most of social media and creating communities on Facebook and Twitter. These applications can now be integrated so you only need to update once and your news/product offers can be communicated to your entire network, with links back to your site. A number of online businesses we profile have their own site as well as a presence on a trading platform such as eBay, BT Tradespace or, for the arts and crafts sector sites such at Etsy, Folksy and MyEhive .

4. Make friends with your customers so they keep coming back
Have your existing customers return by keeping in touch with them and connecting customers to each other. Again, this is where cost-effective technology tools play their part; why not introduce an e-newsletter to your site using a service such as www.mailchimp.com or add a community feature such as that available from www.webjam.com - you can go as far as inviting customers to meet each other ‘virtually’ face-to-face by adopting www.tinychat.com

5. Make yourself known to this site
Contact the site you are reading this on and ask if they’ll profile your story! It’s great to have your company featured in the printed press but if your site is promoted online (with a link) then potential customers are only one click away.

Emma Jones is Founder of Enterprise Nation and author of ‘Spare Room Start Up – how to start a business from home’
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MetroShip

noreply@blogger.com (Alex) — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 20:30:00 +0000

David Ballinger from Metroshed was kind enough to send details of his new venture, MetroShip. It's actually a houseboat rather than a floating garden office, yet as the image below shows, it would be perfect for on-water shedworking. David says: "We’re actually going to be producing an ‘on land’ shed version for use as a guest house, office, outdoor room as we are producing this in a very pre-fab way – walls slot into place, roof is a single piece – we’ll just swap out the hull for a foundation. I thought readers of Shedworking might like to see how the evolution of the MetroShed production has resulted in a modern houseboat."

Michael Morpurgo: shedworker

noreply@blogger.com (Alex) — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 21:31:00 +0000

Writer and former Children's Laureate Michael Morpurgo is a shedworker, as he reveals in the latest column of The Guardian's excellent series, Writers' Rooms. It's a particularly revealing piece and the description of his shedlike atmosphere is intriguing.

For many years, I wrote on our bed in the house. But there were complaints about ink on the sheets, dirty feet on the bed, and we felt we should try to create somewhere else, a storyteller's house. Clare, my wife designed it - it's based on the Anglo-Saxon chapel of St Peter-Ad-Murum at Bradwell-juxta-Mare in Essex, where I grew up, but it has a Devon thatched roof, a Japanese garden and an uninterrupted view of the countryside, looking towards Dartmoor.

The photo above by Eamonn McCabe is of the interior but I can't find one of the exterior, so here is the model for it below.

One Grand Designs' shedcam now up and running

noreply@blogger.com (Alex) — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 08:46:00 +0000

Go here to see it...

Name That Shed

noreply@blogger.com (Alex) — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 08:19:00 +0000

Technically this is more of a garageworking Name That Shed this week but it was a shedworking atmosphere where a very famous person started their working life...

TreeLife by The Cool Hunter

noreply@blogger.com (Alex) — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 18:43:00 +0000

TreeLife by The Cool Hunter launches in Sydney - Summer 2010. It will be unveiled in Sydney's iconic Hyde Park and other landmark satellite venues including Martin Place and the Sydney Opera House. "Treelife is a brand new free event, launched here in Sydney before going to London and New York," says Sydney Lord Mayor, Clover Moore MP. "This event will showcase innovative and creative sustainable architecture, and illustrate that green can co-exist with urban city life."

The world's first major public exhibition of 'green design' treehouses, TreeLife will bring the biggest names in international architecture, design and art into the one public place for the first time. The Sydney launch of the event will showcase cutting edge green and sustainable design set in beautiful Hyde Park, one of Australia's most iconic and highly trafficked public spaces located in the heart of the city.

Treehouses have become creative eco-statements in the design world. They allow people to literally be "in" nature and peace above the stressful street level of life. The Cool Hunter will invite top local and international architects, artists and designers to design for the event a modern treehouse, created from sustainable and recycled materials. To celebrate the incredible temporary environment created by TreeLife, the exhibition will host a program of events that will vary from city to city.

More details at The Cool Hunter

ShedCam: One Grand Designs

noreply@blogger.com (Alex) — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 18:29:00 +0000

The build for One Grand Designs starts in earnest next week and we'll all be able to watch it as it unfolds since Dominic has set up a webcam to record the action. It goes live tomorrow (Saturday) at 10am. Or if he gets up a bit earlier or later, then it goes live then. Watch it all unfurl here... There are other shedcams, notably The ShedCam and Dean Urbano's.

Lift: shedworkers

noreply@blogger.com (Alex) — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:14:00 +0000

Lift is a creative communication and design business set up by Matt Carey and run from a garden office in Caversham. "We are a small (4 person) design studio," says Matt, "and we run our business from the building. Our office rent was going up and I wanted to bring the business back home. So it suited perfectly. Its pretty big so we can fit 4 people in!" You can see a smashing set of photos of the build from start to finish at Matt's Flickr site.

Carré d'étoiles

noreply@blogger.com (Alex) — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 19:51:00 +0000

Carré d'étoiles is a lovely shedlike tourist accommodation which would also be great for shedworking (and indeed shedliving).As well as mini-hotel rooms with all the latest high-tech modcons, they are also mini observatories and each model comes with a sky observation kit including telescope. It's all the idea of Louis and Nathalie Blanco who have experience of this kind of alternative tourist hideaways via their Les Roulottes de Campagne business which offers shepherds' hut-like accommodation in rural areas of France (see below). The truly lovely site (complete with gentle birdsong and philosophical musings) is in both French and English.Via materialicious
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