Forget Working From Home, Try Working From Your Garden!

Working From Your Garden

If you are fortunate enough to have a job that allows you to work from the comfort of your humble abode, you may wish to consider formalising the area from which you work. This doesn’t have to mean stealing some of your living space from your home. You can look to your garden for inspiration. If you have an outbuilding of some sort, you can convert it. If you aren’t blessed with acres of land or a barn to renovate, consider building a home office in your garden. We are not talking a wooden shed but a fully insulated building complete with electricity and heating from which you can work, giving you that all important space that allows a clear distinction between your work and your home life. Take a look at these ideas to inspire the creation of your new garden home office.

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Be Creative

Designing a wholly separate building within your garden gives you the opportunity to be creative. You don’t have to build a formulaic bricks and mortar home office. Consider different materials such as stone, wood and steel or a combination to create a mixture of interesting textures and a stylistic design. You may wish to echo the natural environment in which your new home office is situated and opt for an eco-building. You can be as traditional or as contemporary as you wish to ensure you create a building that inspires you to work and be as productive as possible.

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Regulations

The most effective way to ensure that you are not falling foul of building regulations is to find a builder who specialises in creating independent structures. These professionals will have an intricate and in-depth understanding of all relevant legislation and will be able to guide you in determining if your home office plans fall under permitted development rights or whether you need to apply for further planning permission.

If you feel confident enough to manage the build yourself, it’s up to you to schedule a range of professionals to ensure the smooth running of your project. This will include builders, possibly an architect, electricians, decorators and plumbers. If the thought of managing a build induces a mild panic attack, get in a professional project manager to oversee the smooth running of your home office creation.

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Finances

To ensure that you create a fully functioning home office that doesn’t become a money pit, you’ll need to keep a tight reign on your finances. Set out a clear budget from the beginning, detailing how much money you wish to allocate for the design, the build and the furnishings. It is the final stretch when dressing and furnishing your home office that can quickly get out of control with the necessary purchases of lighting, carpets and window dressings, not to mention a desk and a chair.

Flexible working is one of the joys of working for a forward thinking twenty-first-century company, and by immersing your work environment into your garden space, you are utilising a part of your home that has remained relatively untouched.

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