As a staple part of the great British garden, the humble shed has stood the test of time and remains a crucial fixture to this day. However, it doesn’t just have to be the place where you store your gardening equipment, furniture and assorted ‘odds and sods’ (like that treadmill you promised you’d start using this year). Your shed can be anything you want it to be; a play room for the kids, a music studio for the husband, a hideaway for the teenagers or a general building in which to design, create and relax, the options are endless.
Flowers and Plants
Depending on your needs, there are sheds available fit for any purpose. One of the most popular uses for a modern shed is to use it as a space in which to grow and display plants or flowers. It might seem unconventional but given the comparative strength and resilience of the wood used these days (considering it should have been extensively treated to resist all forms of weather) it’s a genuinely bold alternative to the conventional glass greenhouse. Many sheds are also able to be fitted with specifically designed sun-traps to facilitate perfect plant growth. These are slanted windows that direct sunlight towards purposefully built shelves to increase the amount of light that reaches your plants. This will be a building which is not only functional but also can look absolutely striking with the right flower design on display.
The Perfect Sanctuary
If you’re looking to use your shed as an area in which you’ll be spending a lot of time all year round (if it’s big enough, it might make a perfect man-cave or sanctuary for example) then you’ll want to look into building from a duty apex shed design. These sheds are built with pointed roofs, which are supported by roof trusses and green mineral felt to prevent damp and general moisture. They will also be built from a stronger framework than conventional wooden sheds and will be treated on the inside and the outside to prevent wood rot with the added option of a full 3 level key lock on the door.
A Shed Can be Just a Shed
Just because sheds can be used for more unconventional purposes of course doesn’t mean that they have to be. Indeed, old-school flat roof sheds (known in the industry as ‘pent’ sheds) are still an ideal storage solution that can be configured in a variety of ways and can even include key locks if you plan on storing equipment that you’d rather not see in the hands of your children. They can also be styled to look surprisingly attractive and are incredibly easy to build so unlike larger, more complex wooden sheds that could require builders to help with construction, they are largely DIY friendly.
So your garden shed can be whatever you want it to be, whether that be a building to design your life around or a storage space for everything that won’t fit in your attic (if you indeed have an attic). Whatever it means to you though, no British garden would be complete without one.
If you are thinking of installing your own shed, it is vital that you get its building design right to ensure that your shed’s size and shape suits its purpose exactly.