Has anyone built a garden building to use as a study/spare room

[Ladybird37]

Looking at an insulated summerhouse for the garden which we could use as a study of spare room. Has anyone done this? How would you decorate it? What would you do/not do again?

If it's to be a bedroom it possibly will come under building regulations (fire escape etc).

We have a "study that happens to have a sofa bed". Main points: insulate well, run full electrics and data down, as electric heating draws quite a bit. Also depending on your garden make sure there is a lit path way down to it. It's rather functional but painted light grey inside which feels nice and airy.

Yes - even though insulated and has an electric radiator, it's too cold in the winter and too hot in the summer. Gets used about 5 times a year. Also ours is at very bottom of garden and closer to the house would probably make more people use it

Thank, it's going to off to the side near the back of the house. Good point about internet, that hasn't occurred to me but pretty important. Wondering about some sort of smart lighting so that when I go in there first thing, the light and heating are on. Did you paint the outside or leave it natural?

We have one of these. It is used daily both as an office during the day and a tv room by the teens in the evenings. It is well insulated and about 10 steps from the back door!

I was very lucky and a friend gave me a summerhouse she was getting rid of. It’s just basic and no services but I have used it loads this summer and think a big one with insulation etc would be great, as long as it’s situated close to the house for easy access. Mine has a sofa and the WiFi works really well out there.

Mine is painted muted clay and pale jasmine outside . Our garage is converted but no heating so we had lights and a heater set up with smart plugs which did really help when we were using it.

We replaced our crumbling single garage with one about three years ago. It’s been the best decision ever. Our house has an open plan kitchen/living space, one bathroom and no spare bedrooms. It was starting to feel a bit crowded. The garden room has an en-suite shower room. It just gives a lovely chance for a bit of space.
We’ve kept the furniture pretty flexible, so we can rearrange stuff easily depending on whether it’s being a guest room, an office, a play room etc. Ours is very well insulated and comfortable all year round.
If you’re down south I’d happily recommend our builders who were genuinely lovely and incredibly hardworking and efficient and coordinated absolutely everything.

We’ve been contemplating putting one at the back of our garden so following with interest.

One thing that would be a bit of an issue for us is access for building materials and potential machinery needed - it’s a terrace and the only access would be through our back door, with an awkward wall in the way. Manoeuvring long timber etc. would be difficult.

Don’t know if this is relevant in your case but perhaps worth bearing in mind in discussions with potential contractors.

Friends have built a well insulated “shedio” and they love it, it’s warmer than their house in winter!

We have a shepherds hut. Its mainly an office but has a sofabed for very occasional use.
We had to take a fence down for access but otherwise was easy.

My sister has one very much like the one linked above, it has an overhang that means you can have the doors open in summer.

She bought it to use as a home office, it is insulated but also has thick rugs on the floor to help with insulation. It is painted white inside and dark grey outside.

It has electrics but they went for sockets for lamps rather than lights - something to do with the apex ceiling and installing light fittings but I can't remember what. They have a wifi extender so they have internet.

It could easily fit a sofa bed in it but is just an office. She brings her laptop in at night as she uses that inside the house.

She would tell you to go over the top with insulation as although it says insulated it depends if you are on an exposed site etc. She has a plug in heater that is on a timer.

More good ideas, think I need to make sure enough insulation is added. Now I just need virgin media to tell me if I need another box/router as the cable will need to go in the conduit from the house. Liking grey outside/white inside, but everyone telling me they grey has had its day. Think the bluey colours might look drab in the darker corner that it’s going in

We have a Cat 6 data cable that plugs into the back of the main Virgin Media router in the house and connects to a socket in the garden room. We have a cheap WiFi booster thing that plugs into that so the garden room has WiFi coverage. We use an Amazon Firestick plugged into a projector for Netflix/Prime/iPlayer.

Must have taken this on a warm evening evening! Its a style of cabin called "Ines" you can get it from quite a few suppliers.

That's nice !

@Medianoche

I would love the recommendation please!

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