The Shedworking team has been admiring the look of this garden office from BGR Designs all week. Yes, it's got a rather nice corner bifold and door, but it's the canopy design extending over the decking area that's been impressing us with its copper rain chain detail.
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Another good example of how small spaces are as good for garden offices as enormous ones. This insulated bespoke artist's studio comes from Cosy Garden Rooms, and measures 3.5m x 2.1m. As you can see, inside there is plenty of space for a desk, easel, comfortable chair, an storage for artist supplies. A roof lantern gives the room loads of natural light, and outside a green roof offers an eco-friendly feature.
The exterior has a two-tone colour scheme, Monetary Taupe to the front and left, Anthracite on the back, right, and footer. There's also a 300mm overhang. Inside, there are white grooved walls, and light grey laminate flooring plus a discreet wall-mounted infrared heater.
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Nottingham-based BBQ Cabin manufacturer and installer Arctic Cabins and Cabin Master have become Premiership Partners with British Speedway for the coming season.
Arctic Cabins has a long history of involvement in speedway, from sponsorship of Youth riders through to fully-fledged Premiership stars. In 2022 they sponsored Great Britain in the FIM Speedway of Nations, before starting a full-scale partnership arrangement in the following season. That support will now extend to the British Speedway Premiership.
Managing Director Gareth Parkinson said: “We’re really excited about our new partnership with the Premiership, building on the relationship we have established with the GB Speedway Team. We know how much determination there is to see the sport move forward, and we’re looking forward to being a part of that.”
Like sister company Arctic Cabins, Cabin Master which specialises in bespoke garden offices and garden rooms, has been fully supportive of speedway at all levels over recent years.
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Xavier Herbert was one of Australia's leading 20th century novelists, the author in 1975 of Poor Fellow My Country, weighing
in at 1,463 pages, making it the longest Australian novel (and of course by default the longest Australian novel written in a shed).
He lived for much of his later life in a cottage called Redlynch in Cairns, in the back garden of which was a shed which he built himself, known as "million dollar dog house". Here is how Lynette Warwick, member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly for Barron River, described it in the Australian Hansard in a speech on April 30, 1996:
"Xavier Herbert built a shed in which to write, while not away at writers' camps around Kuranda. It was an unpretentious iron structure, which local residents say was made from two small sheds taken from the Kuranda railway and moved on a rail car to Redlynch. The shed was reputed to contain a tool bench, some spartan luxuries, a camp stretcher, a deck chair and a low table on which he wrote using an ancient Remmington typewriter. There is also an electrical gadget of his own invention supposed to keep him awake... Poor Fellow My Country was typewritten in the shed."
Sadly it was demolished the summer of 1995. The photo above shows Herbert in April, 1938, on the day he found out he had won the Sesqui Centenary Library Prize. It may have been taken inside the shed.
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Monday posts are sponsored by Cosy Garden Rooms, the UK's No. 1 bespoke garden room designer and builder.
The Homely Bee is a small home decor and gift business run by husband and wife team Tony and Sally-ann in Staffordshire. They sell online but also have a bricks and mortar shop in the shape of this lovely shepherd's hut in Eccleshall.
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One of the key claims about green roofs - other than their eco-credentials - is that by adding them to your garden office it then blends into the natural surroundings far better. This Workroom model from Little Garden Offices in Cornwall is additional proof of that fact.
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New figures suggest that five years on from the first Covid-19 lockdown, access to remote and hybrid work has become essential to many people who are disabled or have long-term health conditions, enabling them to stay in work.
The findings are part of a report led by researchers from Lancaster University, the Work Foundation at Lancaster University, Manchester Metropolitan University, and Universal Inclusion, and funded by the Nuffield Foundation.
One in five UK workers (6.64 million) mainly work from home, and analysis shows that nearly a fifth are disabled (1.16 million). Survey findings of more than 1,200 disabled workers with experience of remote and hybrid working reveal that working from home had a positive impact on 80% of those in fully remote roles when it came to managing their health. This proportion reduces to 38% for those who work remotely less than half of the time, suggesting that the benefits decline if people are expected to work onsite very regularly.
The study also reveals that 85% of disabled workers surveyed feel that access to remote and hybrid working is very important or essential when looking for a new job. In addition, nearly one in three disabled workers (30%) who are already working in a hybrid way want to spend more of their work time working at home.
“Remote work is not an ‘optional extra’ for many disabled workers but is vital to enabling them to get into and stay in work,” said Rebecca Florisson, Principal Analyst at the Work Foundation at Lancaster University. “A recent Government study showed that a quarter of those out of work and claiming health and disability benefits state they might be able to work if they could do so remotely. Yet recent calls by employers to return to the office overlook the critical perspectives and experiences of disabled workers who now account for almost one in four working age people in the UK.”
Despite the increase in demand from workers, the study reveals that remote and hybrid roles are difficult to come by – and arbitrary ‘return-to-office’ mandates could make things worse. Researchers examined the roles available to job seekers through the Department for Work and Pension’s Find a Job portal in one month in the UK (8 December 2024 – 7 January 2025) and found 94,827 new jobs were advertised. However, only one in 26 job adverts had the option of hybrid or remote working (3.2% of the roles were hybrid and 0.6% were fully remote).
“This new evidence clearly tells us that if a job isn’t advertised as hybrid or remote, the vast majority of disabled workers who require access to homeworking won’t even apply,” said Florisson. “This may be non-negotiable for them so they can better manage their health and stay in work. If employers are shortsighted and ignore the rising demand for flexibility in roles, they are missing out on a vast pool of talent that could benefit their organisations, while further distancing disabled workers from the UK labour market.”
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