When we were house hunting back in August, I had an idea in my head of the perfect little house with a lovely little room to make into an office. Then we found our current house, which has a garden office built on the side of the garage. What could be more freelance friendly?
The great thing about an office garden is that you get an area that’s specifically for work, so you can adopt a better work/life balance. Once you’re done for the day, you can walk away from it. Much harder to do that if you work in the kitchen or lounge (especially if you have kids). It’s not exactly a cheap option, but if you’re looking to freelance long-term it could be a great investment.
If you’re looking at building/buying your own garden office, there are several options. A lot of them don’t need planning permission either. Ours was extended from our garage by the previous occupants, but there are a lot of standalone options too.
Where to buy a Garden Office, Garden Room or Shed Office
- Extravagant options for those with plenty of garden space: RoomWorks
- Still quite pricey (starting around £5k) but lovely buildings. Also have duo/trio options which might be handy if you want to let the space out: Smart Garden Offices.
- Log cabins starting at around £740: Dunster House
- DIY Garden Offices at…you guessed it…B&Q
- Lots of budget-friendy offices (starting from £379) on Homebase.
- Both Argos and Amazon have some great buys too.
- Great resource for finding out about shed offices: Shedworking
Basics you need to think about
Electricity
Having a garden office or room isn’t quite as simple as just building a pretty shed. You’ll probably need electricity to plug in your laptop, printer and other gadgets. If possible, get several plug points around the building in case you want to change your room around.
Phone line/broadband
You’ll also want to consider whether you need a separate phone line and broadband access. Your wi-fi might not reach your garden office, or you might prefer to keep your broadband and phone line separate for expenses purposes.
Heating
Garden offices can get chilly without a bit of heating. Even with the radiator in mine, I did spend a couple of days during winter typing in fingerless gloves. Check out my guide for how to stay warm during the cooler months when working from home.
Things to buy for your garden office
A decent chair
You’re going to be sitting down most of the day. Treat your bum and back to something that will actually support you. Of all the things to buy, this is the area to splurge on.
That said, I spent £40 on this chair from Tesco. It’s comfortable, supportive and the high back keeps me sitting up straight.
I was going to go through your desk options, but really as long as it’s high enough for you to work comfortably and big enough for all your stuff, it’s fine.
A wireless printer
The benefit of a wireless printer, is that you don’t have to faff about with wires each time you want to take your laptop in and out of the office. There are some great ones that also scan and copy, which can be handy for expenses and paperwork.
Wireless doorbell
Bit of an odd one, but our wireless doorbell is a godsend. I’m often in the office when the postman comes, and can’t hear the doorbell from in the house. The wireless doorbell means I can take the little doorbell sound box with me and hear it wherever I go in the house. There are plenty of budget-friendly wireless doorbells on Amazon.
Wall art/Flowers/General decoration
Not essential. not even a little bit. But some decent wall art will give you something interesting to look at when you’re struggling for ideas. I’ve got a couple of posters up, and try to get flowers occasionally to add colours. I’ve also popped a bird feeder on the tree outside my office, so I get a snapshot of nature when I look up.
Lamp
For those late night deadlines when you’re out of sunlight.
Radio/iPad
I tend to take my iPad in with me for music or the radio (or maybe a cheeky catch up from last night’s TV).
What do you think about the concept of having a mini office in your garden? If you work from home, where do you work? Pop on over to my Facebook page and share a photo of your working space!
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Great post! I’m literally just building a garden office right now. My shed/log cabin is arriving next Thursday, and I’ve just got the base. I found that there is a huge lack of decent info out there for people converting a log cabin to a garden office so have been blogging about it. It’s not a blog with adverts or anything at all like that, not even a link to my own site on it, just a simple blogspot blog where I’m sharing what I’m doing – please feel free to take a look: http://buildgardenoffice.blogspot.co.uk
(Note to admin: if you dont wish to have my link displayed then I completely understand, however please could you just edit the link and this note out as the info below may be of use to people).
Here’s a few things that may help anyone looking to do this:
1- The base: Concrete is your best option, however a product called hawklok which is basically an interlocking, plastic base is what I went for, it was cheaper and I can put it together myself. Another similar one exists called ‘ecobase’ but its not as strong, so will only work for small sheds.
2- I went for a ‘Shire Dean’ log cabin at 12×8 foot, it has double glazing and 44mm thick wood. Dont go for one of the cheap 28mm thick log cabins, they are flimsy and you’ll regret it big time! 44mm should be what you’re aiming for, if you can afford to go for a thicker log, then do go for it, it does help a lot!
3- Insulation: Once you’ve got your log cabin up, use a breathable damp-proof membrane and staple it to the walls and ceiling. Next, use celotex or kingspan PIR (foil backed) insulation (go for at least 50mm thickness on the walls), followed by clear plastic stapled to the wooden wall joists, mainly to hold the celotex in place and act as a second moisture barrier. Finally add your plasterboard. This will create a very well insulated room. Do the same for the floor and ceiling but with 100mm kingspan/celotex.
Hope this helps 🙂
Thanks for sharing your advice Rick!
Garden rooms are definitely great add-ons for almost any type of home. Thanks for such an insightful post.
Hi, you mention “mini offices” people might want to check out our really popular mini garden office, which was designed to avoid planning permission at http://www.gardenaffairs.co.uk/our-ranges/garden-offices-studios/mini-office-1#.UG8Hq03A-So
Garden Offices can make a great addition to a property. We just had a granny annexe built that doubles as an office. Its been a very good way to add extra space to our house and provide for my elderly mother. http://www.grannyannex.com