How to blend a new office into your garden.

11 Sept

One of the biggest shifts in gardens in recent years has been the addition of garden buildings - with so many more of us working at home the garden office has become a must for many. But adding a new structure without some planning can mean it looks out of place or like an afterthought. A little design can make them a blend beautifully in your garden.

Select the right building

If you haven’t bought your garden office yet, start by having a think about the style of your house and garden and select a building to suit. If you have a traditional building and cottage garden, lean into that and select a traditional summer house or wood cabin. Match up a modern house with a simple structure, with clean lines and aluminium doors. The two pictures below show how much garden buildings can vary - both could look out of place in the wrong garden.

2. Details

Are there elements in your existing home or garden that you could refer to when customising your new garden office. For example, is there any wood in the architecture of your home - can you select an office made from a matching wood? You may be able to match the material, style and colour of your house window frames with the office windows and door. If your home office will be painted, is there another colour elsewhere in the house and garden (possibly even a key interior colour) that will tie in? Are there any shapes in your architecture you can replicate - if your house has bay windows the shape could be replicated by an hexagonal garden building for example.

3.Where to position it

I would always recommend positioning a garden office at a distance from the house - this avoids having the heaviness of the buildings close together so bringing balance to the garden. Tucked into one corner of the garden often works well or halfway up the garden if your garden is particularly long. If you position the office on the right side of the garden, consider introducing something to balance its mass somewhere on the left hand side of the garden - a multi stem tree can work well.

Depending on your home budget, you may wish to make feature out of the building or you may want to hide it! If you are spending a lot of money on a beautiful cedar clad building, keep it quite visible from the house, with a path to it and some soft planting to frame it. If your budget is tight, you may wish blend it into the background. In this case, position it in a darker area of your garden, paint it black and introduce plenty of planting in front of it - this will help the office recede.

Finally, on a practical note, a garden structure shouldn’t sit right next to the boundary - you’ll need to leave at least 600mm gap in order to access the rear / sides for any maintenance and repairs.

4. Integrate it

The office needs to be connected to the rest of the garden and the house with some form of hard landscaping. At a minimum I would create a small area of hardstanding directly outside the office and then a pathway to the house or to an existing garden patio / terrace. This helps integrate the office visually but practically getting from office to house on a wet day is going to be a muddy pain without a path. A garden office is a great opportunity to create a new little outside nook for your morning coffee - a small terrace or deck directly outside the office could be a lovely private spot when you need a work break. Tie in any hard landscaping you introduce with the rest of the garden - use matching or similar materials or the same colours or tones.