Ruth Walker: No longer simply A store for spades and watering cans, the humble garden hut can be a hive of creativity

By Ruth Walker
Published on 15/07/2012 14:08

PETER Gabriel is one. Snoop Dogg is another. And don’t forget Kirstie Allsopp and Chocolat author Joanne Harris. Designers, musicians and authors; entrepreneurs, accountants, psychotherapists, lawyers and software specialists – all are part of the growing army of people who make a shedload of cash working from the bottom of their garden

There’s even a competition to find Britain’s Shed of the Year, won this month by one John Plumridge from Shrewsbury, who has created a small but perfectly formed pub from his. “Normally I’m a very chatty and jovial person,” he quipped, “but I did find myself lost for words and I must confess to having ‘shed’ a tear.”

So it really does seem that these days, if you want to get ahead, you could do worse than getting a hut.

Home-based businesses contributed £8bn to the British economy this year, an increase from £6bn in 2010 according to research by www.shedworking.co.uk and that’s a figure that seems to be rising faster than you can say: “small business start-up”. Asda has seen a 386 per cent increase in sales of sheds in the past year – and they can’t all be for storing lawnmowers and rusty old bikes 
with punctures.

“More and more people are setting up their own business and huge numbers are doing it from home rather than renting premises,” says Alex Johnson, editor of the Shedworking blog and author of Shedworking: The Alternative Workplace Revolution. “A garden office fits the bill perfectly as an ideal base, saving money on renting premises but offering somewhere that’s conducive to work.”

The appeal, he adds, is even simpler to define: “Physically, it’s easier to stop your family and pets invading your work space if you’re based in a garden office. There is no need to double up on spaces so you leave your bedrooms and kitchen tables free. Financially, it adds value to your property, roughly up to five per cent, and installing a garden office is certainly far cheaper than buying a house with an extra room, adding an extension or going up into the loft.

“Psychologically, shedworking marks a clear difference between where you live and where you work so that there’s no taint of work attached to any part of your home. And finally, and to be honest the clincher for many shedworkers, it is just more fun. Moreover, commuting to the end of your garden is an option as popular among women as men.”

• Shedworking: The Alternative Workplace Revolution by Alex Johnson, £8.50 (www.amazon.co.uk)