“Why don’t I just have an outdoor office in my shed?”

Since March 2020 the concept of working from home has taken off significantly, with over 40% of working adults working from home at least part of the week.

This has meant a rearranging of households with individuals seeking flexible and comfortable spaces to set up their home office (the trend of working from the kitchen table has long gone for many!). This is one reason why our garden rooms have emerged as an excellent alternative, adding extra dedicated space without disrupting current home interior layouts.

We commonly hear the suggestion ‘why don’t I just have an outdoor office in my shed?’, but don’t worry, we can quickly explain the difference between a shed and our more permanent and specialist garden room for your home office.

Aesthetics

Firstly, one of the key advantages of a garden room is its aesthetic appeal. Unlike the often utilitarian appearance of sheds, our garden rooms are designed to be sympathetic with the natural surroundings of your garden. Beautiful natural wood cladding, large windows, an optional sedum blanket roof and stylish finishing touches transform our rooms into a beautiful add-on to your property. The connection with nature that a garden room offers, combined with an abundance of natural light can contribute to increased productivity and a positive working environment. 

Insulation

Our rooms come as standard with fully insulated walls, floor and ceiling. The costs to replicate effectively in a shed structure can be prohibitive as they were never designed with this in mind. Extensive insulation in a suitably constructed and ventilated building has two key advantages. Firstly, with climate control in mind, it provides a comfortable working environment that can be used all year round. Keeping heating costs to a minimum. And secondly, the combination of insulation and our UPVc glazing and doors means noise reduction is exceptional, creating a quiet working environment. Or depending on your career choice (we are thinking of you musicians), it can have the opposite effect and reduce noise for your neighbours!

Security 

A working home office will no doubt be filled with expensive and sensitive items, including laptops, PCs, monitors and paperwork (plus your favourite pictures of the kids!). And historically, sheds and other off-the-shelf outbuildings have half hearted security, mostly to deter the theft of your ten year old lawnmower. The combination of our UPVc glazing and doors which have ANSI Grade 2 locks means our rooms are as secure as your home.

Resale value (adding property value)

Have you ever viewed a property and thought ‘I’m so happy the house has a shed, that’s an excellent reason for us to consider putting in an offer’. Nope. A shed or similar type of temporary outbuilding is an afterthought. However, we can assure you that our rooms add the ‘wow’ factor to your garden and Rettie Estate Agents confirmed that for us. Our rooms are an extension of your house and will not only add value to your property but also appeal to prospective purchasers in the future if you come to sell as our garden rooms don’t just have to be a home office…

Jamie from Rettie talks Garden Rooms

Multi-use

An Outside In garden room provides a versatile and customisable space that can be individually tailored to your preferences and work requirements. Our products are not off-the-shelf boxes that are designed for a singular purpose. Rooms can be designed to have built-in storage and multiple rooms all optimised for productivity and comfort. And, as mentioned above, you might want to use our garden room as an office space, but in the future, you or a potential new house owner could have another use such as a home gym, kids hang out or art studio (with perfect lighting!).

One final point on why our garden rooms are superior to an office shed is the fact that our rooms can include a hidden storage shed, but a shed can’t include a hidden garden room.

If you would like to find out more about our garden rooms please get in touch, or view our case studies.