Garden lodges make a lot of sense to a lot of people. As a way of creating more usable indoor space on your property, they are hard to beat when it comes to value for money. Costing from as little as £17,322 a garden lodge can make a big impact on your home, without breaking the bank. But what if instead of costing you money, your lodge could actually make you money?

With the dramatic rise of shared economy websites such as Airbnb, more and more people are thinking whether they could also generate extra income by utilizing an extra room. However, we are not all so lucky to have spare rooms in our house that can be used for renting out. One option might be to utilize a garden lodge as rentable accommodation on Airbnb (we recommend checking with local planning authorities that you have the right to do so).

Garden lodges can be built with optional shower rooms and toilets, which means that your garden room can be more self-contained, anyone renting out your space would not need to traipse through your house and use your facilities, instead, they can be happily accommodated in the garden with all modern conveniences.

Creating a studio space for workshops and workout sessions

A lot of people dream of the idea of combining their hobby with a source of extra income. This can be made possible through a great variety of interests these days that can be conducted in a garden building. Often there simply is not enough space in people’s main house to be able to conduct these sort of classes or workshops. Also, they can be rather noisy and disruptive to others in your household.

An ideal solution to having a lot more space, with minimum disruption would be to build a garden lodge. We have built many buildings that are perfect for conducting these sort of activities. We have built garden rooms that are currently being used for educational classrooms, yoga studios, art workshops, and gyms. We have also designed larger scale buildings that are used as community halls for churches and the local community.

If creating a garden room for a dance studio, gym or other activity that exert an extra weight load on the floor then we might recommend building a lodge with a reinforced floor. This is something we can discuss as part of a bespoke build and design, assessing your requirements and designing a building that will perform perfectly for its usage.

Another thing to consider might be noise restrictions on buildings that are to be used for dance classes, or activities that involve a lot of music. We can help with noise pollution through the use of extra sound insulation that can heavily reduce the amount of sound emitted from your building. All of our buildings are constructed using SIPs, (structurally insulated panels). These are engineered with high-performance thermal insulation, built into the fabric of the panels. Being one of the most thermally efficient timber based building techniques, our garden lodges are as standard, highly insulated and provide good sound insulation, but extra insulation might be preferred for some uses, especially if the building is close to neighbouring buildings.

Working from home – the cost-saving alternative to commuting

Working from home is more popular than ever, with many employees actively encouraging employees to do so. Working from home can have a number of benefits, including reducing traffic congestion and pollution, reducing stress, allowing more time to be spent with family and saving money on petrol or public transport.

Working from home on average just 2 days a week, could save the typical commuter over £200 a month, or £2400 each year! This could afford you extra money for a great holiday, or pay for further home improvements. A garden lodge makes a perfect home office. Built to a very high specification our garden lodges are very well insulated, this makes them cheap to heat in winter and provides a quiet, cosy retreat from which to focus on your work. Another benefit of working from an annexe building it the differentiation it provides between home and work. Being located away from your main house means that at the end of the day you can lock up and forget about work. One of the main complaints of those working from home is that it is difficult to switch off at the end of the day and feel to have the separation between work and home. With a garden lodge you can feel the benefit of a separate building, that is also conveniently close to your main house.

While it’s fresh in your mind why not book a free site survey today. CLICK HERE

Build your Garden Lodge with us and enjoy £750 to spend on anything you like at the world renowned department store Selfridges & Co.

Perhaps you could use it to furnish your Garden Lodge or even treat yourself to something special . . .

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We were delighted to hear that our customers are enjoying their garden room on a sunny day! They even shared a photograph with us on Twitter.

Our Garden offices with bi-fold glazing offer a light and airy working environment throughout the summer.

Rather lovely working environment we have, especially on a sunny day! @GardenLodges #GreenRoof #GardenOffice pic.twitter.com/uRKYB9TBlJ

— 2B Landscape (@2B_Landscape) June 11, 2015

‘She Shed’ was coined in April 2015 to describe a wooden structure used as a retreat for its female owner. The term was first used in the fun article on “The Lighter Side of Real Estate” called “Introducing “She Sheds”: Women’s Answer To The Man Cave”.

The term ‘Man Cave’ has come to be known as a place where the male owner can go to enjoy his favourite activities away from day to day life. ‘She Shed’ has come to be the term used for the equivalent for women, and ladies looking for somewhere special we have been busy sharing lovely examples of ‘She Sheds’ online.

‘She Shed’ isn’t one of our favourite names, garden rooms are so much more than sheds. Whilst reading through some of the commentary on the latest ‘She Shed’ trend we have come across some great names, which could be considered instead of ‘She Shed’.

‘Shedquearters’ – for a garden office, we love this! Also someone suggested ‘Snuggery’, commenting on the Houzz article on ‘She Sheds’. The Houzz user explains why they like this gender neutral suggestion, conveying a warm and cosy place for relaxation. Another reader comments “I might call mine an ‘Imaginarium’” we loved this too!

For our customers, ‘garden buildings’ is popular name, ‘garden studios’ and ‘garden office’ are also frequently used. Many of our customers call their building an ‘annexe’, other names reflect the usage of the space, gym, dance studio, yoga studio, play room, etc.

Whatever your preferred name for your garden room, we thought this was a great opportunity to scan our archives to find some of our favourite buildings a.k.a. ‘She Sheds’ constructed for female clients. We have designed some wonderful rooms for female owners, the majority have been designed to enable the owner of the ‘She Shed’ to work from home. Another popular choice for our female clients has been for a studio for practical work, such as painting, sculpture, upcycling and much more.

We have a range of standard garden buildings, and we can also design a bespoke “She Shed” to meet your requirements. Or how about this month’s special offer, a perfect contemporary summer house! If you would like a site survey, please contact us and we would be happy to help.