Last Updated on September 13, 2024
With the rise of telecommuting (working from home) prompted in part by the global financial meltdown and the redundancies that occurred as a result, there has been an increase in the popularity of the concept of “shedworking,” or working out of a converted garden shed.
Others have decided to abandon the office environment in favor of spending more time at home, being able to pick up kids from school, having the luxury of starting and finishing work when it suits them and of course, eliminating all that time spent travelling to and from work.
Whether you have been forced out of your office, or have consciously chosen to leave it behind, working from home can be made a far more pleasurable experience and your productivity greatly increased by moving your office to the shed.
Office Potential
A garden shed has enormous potential to function as an office because it is a self contained space not vying for attention with other parts of your house. A study in the main body of your house is only a few rooms away from your kitchen, your living room and all the distractions that these rooms contain.
Added to that, creating a garden office gives you the all too rare opportunity to design, customize and personalize your working environment from scratch. Choosing to work in a spare room or a study in your house is more restrictive, because you have to work around the room’s existing size and shape.
Creating your ideal Workspace
- Hook up your shed to your house’s electrical supply, phone line and internet connection by using a subterranean cable running from your house to your shed.
- Warm up your shed by using insulation, double glazing and a portable heater.
- Secure your shed. This is very important as you will no doubt have all of your personal files as well as expensive hardware in your garden office.
Once you’ve taken care of these basics, you can start having some real fun creating your office. Uninteresting though the above steps may be, they are absolutely essential to making the most of the garden office experience. You can start making your garden shed into your ideal working environment by:
- Decorating it – Paint the walls, lay a carpet, hang up your favourite pictures, hang up an inspirational quote… however you do this, this is vital to making your shed personal to you
- Choosing furniture – Having the right furniture is very important. This will depend largely on the nature of your work, you might not need lots of desk space for example, but you might require a sofa and a bookshelf.
Working from a garden office is practical and enjoyable in every sense. It fuses the benefits of working from home with the convenience of working in your garden. There is also the added benefit of having the great outdoors on your office doorstep, giving you the possibility of taking your work into the garden on a nice day.
If you’re new to telecommuting, or have been doing it for a while, a garden office could have a huge impact on your ability to concentrate and produce good quality work. You don’t have to build your own shed from scratch either. Many sheds today are sold prefabricated, so that all you have to do is to order a shed, pick a location in your garden and start planning your new home office.
