Me, Myself and My Shed

January 20, 2023

Me, Myself and my shed

I have to confess I'm becoming a bit of a ‘Sheddie’ meaning I’m getting a tiny bit obsessed with the little wooden building I installed at the bottom of the garden a couple of years ago.

It's been much admired both by my neighbours and my friends from Woolly Green. At first it's purpose was really just to house my rather ugly rotary washing line, and keep my gardening kit safe while I converted the barn in the garden into a little house for my mum to live in.

Meanwhile mum lives with me, so the shed has now become a little bit of a sanctuary where I can go and spend time without having to explain it to anyone ;-)

Actually, that's not too unusual - I saw a survey a little while ago that said that more than half of the men that retire to their shed do so just to enjoy some ‘man time’ away from their partner or family actually nearly half of shed owners claim to head straight out to the shed after getting home from work.

So the shed is a much-loved place, but how much time can you spend tinkering in it? What on earth could possibly be going on in there? Quite a lot actually, just get creative and stop thinking of the shed as a dusty home of rusty tools and cobwebs.

Here are just a few different ideas of what you could do with a shed:

An Office: This is a much superior alternative to being stuffed in the linen cupboard or the box room don’t you think? A garden shed makes the perfect place where you can focus your ideas on 'worky' stuff rather than family 'lifeyish' stuff. If you have a window think of the anti-stress effect of looking out across the tranquility of the garden.

The Zoo: A garden shed would be a perfect home for pets that you are either allergic to, or can’t stand the smell of! Or take out the window and put in some strong aviary netting to have an aviary – an idea used to much effect by Helen Dillon in her wonderful Dublin garden Birdsong melodies all the time to drown out the neighbours shouting at their kids.

Have a (not so) Summer House: Let’s face it the British summer can be a little inconsistent (!) so dress it up and make your own little vintage summer house to sip tea or maybe a Pimms when surveying to glory of your garden in one sense a long way from home, but in another close enough to be around when that delivery just won’t fit through the letterbox…

A Play Room: If your little hut isn't quite big enough to house a pool table or table tennis it still could be a perfect place to set the boys up to play those irritating noisy X-Box games. Or how out getting granny out for her bridge nights? Or roulette or poker – what goes on in the hut stays in the hut.

The Sleepover Den: Hate the mis-named “sleepover”? Turn the idea upside down – instead of getting away from them, put them up in the shed! I can't tell you how much my kids love this idea – a kind of upscale glamping trip without actually having to go anywhere. And they've gone mad with the décor. I thought the Wendy house had been left behind when they were 10.

And last but not least is the winner of shed of the year 2014 Joel Bird “rather than put a shed on an allotment, I put an allotment on my shed!” Completely inspired.Nothing better than a spot of multi-tasking.

Look out for this year's #shedoftheyear2015 which is soon to be featured on Channel 4. In the meantime, you can spend the whole summer working on creative ideas for yours.

If you are planning on turning your shed into your next project then make sure that you share your journey with us on Facebook, Google+, Pinterest and Instagram.

Me, Myself and My Shed by Wooly Green and Waltons Web Ltd is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.