Friday Fun: Pod or Shed?

If you don’t have enough rooms in your house, then these sheds (or, currently all the rage, ‘pods’ which you can just drop in your back garden) offer a real alternative for a home office or writing retreat.

Armadilla garden pod has all the mod cons, from Ideal Home.

A bit exposed: they might catch you napping instead of working… from Building Projects.

This Rolls Roycel of sheds is bigger than many a house… or garden. From Roomsoutdoor.co.uk

Inside a Fatpod from Archipod.com

Saw these simple pods at the University of Lancaster – study spaces for students to book. Great idea!

These floating pods at the University of York are intended more for meetings than individual study, but I could work in there for hours!

More like a conservatory extension than a shed, but I’ll take it. From cotemaison.fr

Friday Fun: Shedworking

One day, when I forget just how cold it gets in the conservatory in winter and how boiling in the summer, and if I will still have a garden, I will also have the perfect little garden shed for my creative endeavours.

This one can apparently be assembled easily, from Leroy Merlin in France.

This one is more atmospheric – I like that semicircular window. From jellysundae.tumblr

Not a shed as such, more of a passageway between two houses or a picturesque way to bridge a gap.

This is very similar to an old tumbledown tools shed that my mother-in-law had adjacent to her house in Athens – except this is the cleaned up version.

Another more romantic treatment of the lowly shed, from purewow.com

Futuristic shed treatment, complete with a patio for lounging or dining. From seloger.fr

Who needs a shed if you have a pergola – especially if it has hanging vines and grapes? My relatives had the right idea all along, although it wasn’t always as gorgeously decadent. From postris.com

 

Friday Fun: Sheds of Famous Writers

It seems that you don’t have to have an all-singing, all-dancing, all-mod-cons shepherd’s hut to write a book. Who’d have thunk that? Here are some garden sheds where magic happens.

Roald Dahl’s well-known writing shed in Buckinghamshire.

Philip Pullman seems to be working in your average garden shed from B&Q.

Cressida Cowell’s writing shed seems a little more romantic and airy. From Booktrust.

The interior of Neil Gaiman’s treetop shed, complete with dog.

Unnamed writer’s retreat from bobvila.com

Charles Dickens started the trend, with his Swiss chalet themed shed. (In spite of having an enormous library/study in the house as well).

Mark Twain’s octogonal shed was designed to resemble the pilot house of a Mississippi steam boat.

Joanne Harris often mentions her shed on Twitter, although it’s the imaginative rather than the physical one. Here it is on the Shedworking site.

 

Friday Fun: Garden Sheds Forever Young

Keeping it a politics-free zone today, although Schadenfreude and ‘The future belongs to young people’ does come to mind…

There is a very ugly term for these scrumplicious creations: ‘she-sheds’ – insulting to both women (as if only men have the right to own sheds) and to men (as if only women have the right to have pretty things). I keep measuring my garden to check if I do have space after all for a shed or two, especially if they look anything like these…

At one with nature, if you can bear the bugs, from gardenista.com

The nostalgic cottage shed, with climbing roses, from Materialicious.com

The secret garden shed, from de.pinterest

The shed to move into for the whole summer. Those unbearably perfect Norwegians once more, from Living Norway Architects.

The Russian shed in Newcastle built by Russian John, from hiveminer.com

The conservatory option if you don’t have shedloads of space, from Garden and Landscape Directory.

The fully transparent option, if you don’t mind the sun and have nothing to hide. Very romantic though. From mumsgrapevine.com.au

 

Friday Fun: To Shed or Not to Shed?

When we return to the UK, I have a perfectly adequate study in the guest room (although I can foresee that my younger son will want me to give it up for him). Yet, although our garden is quite small, I have a niggling desire for a writing shed… can you see why?

The ambitious shed for long-term stays, with a garden as overgrown as my own, from gardenista.com

For when you are feeling sociable, this triangular shed by Leo Qvarsebo, from Domainehome.com

For the humble Alpine lover, from lushnaslovenia.com

For dunes and other isolated landscapes with a view, this New Zealand hut from Remodelista.com

For your inner Frida Kahlo or Paul Klee, the Seashell House in Mexico, from hiconsumption.com

For recycling fans, the shipping container shed, from digitaltrends.com

 

Friday Fun: Garden Sheds

The cold may have descended over our part of France. But with all the beautiful autumnal colours to inspire you, what better place to spend your day than in your very own garden shed, far away from the hubble-bubble of life in the main house? (No, I don’t have one. Yes, I would like one. With heating, preferably.)

The Rolls Royce of garden sheds, from Gardenista.com

The achingly cool. Serge Schoemaker Architects.

The Hyggelig (Danish for ‘cosy’), from boligmagasinet.dk

The Ecological Pod. From TinyHouseTalk.com

The unbearably cute, from tinyhousedesign.com

The spiritual retreat. From Salvagejetsongreen.com

The Californian extravaganza, from Architectural Digest.