A trend that’s taking off is the home improvement of adding a garden room to create more space for the whole family to work, work out and entertain.
Whether it’s an office, gym, studio, pool house, man cave, games room or home cinema, a garden room is a great way to add a totally bespoke space that sits beautifully in your garden and enhances your daily life.
If you, like many others, are looking for adding space with minimum hassle, then a garden room makes a logical choice.
- In many cases the building can be erected under permitted development rights.
- The cost of materials and build is usually considerably cheaper than extending.
- There’s also less mess and disruption to your home compared to normal building works.
- From start to finish it takes around 3 to 4 weeks to build a garden room.
- In addition, experts say that a well-built garden room can add 1.5 times its building cost to the value of your home.
So, if you’re convinced that a garden room is for you, the next step is to plan out what is going to make it the perfect space for you.
Here are our top 7 things to consider.
1. Size
Everyone’s needs are different, so figuring out the right size space for you is important. The most important thing to consider here is how you plan to use the room. Is it a quaint and cosy studio you’re looking for, or a large family den for games and movies nights, or an office with large desk and storage?
Working with the right landscaper can make this job easier. There is no limit to your imagination, but your dreams can be turned into reality when working with the right team. They will be able to suggest, and help you figure out, how to best optimise the space in your garden.
If need be, they can also help advise on how to create a room with multifunctional uses. Whether this is a shoffice (shed and office), or gym with training equipment and shower facilities.
Once you know how you wish to use the room and have an idea of how big it needs to be, this naturally leads to the next question ‘where do I put it?’.
2. Location
Not only will you need a location that’s big enough for your garden room. It also needs to be easily accessible, and on a level base.
Also, to consider is how far you want your garden room to be from your home. Are you looking for a calm, quiet place where you can drown out the sounds of the real world? In that case you maybe want a garden room that’s hidden away. If you need your room to be close to certain facilities such as electricity, water or drainage, these may also influence your location choice.
If you’re using your room as a home office, you may want it located close to your house so that you can quickly nip in to use the toilet or to top up cups of tea.
A site survey by a professional garden landscaper will help establish possible locations.
3. Insulation
Once you’ve nailed down your size and location it’s time to think about your insulation. This is especially important if you want to get year-round use from your room. Just like any building, garden rooms should be built with the intention to be used all year round. Ensuring you use high quality materials that are suitable, and durable during any weather conditions is vital.
With a bespoke garden room, you can choose the best insulation for your chosen use so that you can rest assured it’ll be warm enough whatever the weather is doing outside.
4. Heating
Keeping your garden room warm also comes down to heating it. However, you plan to use it, having your garden room at the correct temperature makes all the difference. After all it’s nice to be able to turn on the heating on a colds winter’s day isn’t it? So, including heating in your planning is a must. A simple, yet incredibly effective fix is a wall mounted electric heater. Alternatively, underfloor heating is something that’s also possible to fit.
Not all garden room suppliers include a heating source, so make sure heating is accounted for in your plans.
5. Plumbing
Adding a sink, toilet and even a shower can make a huge difference to how you use your garden room. These additional facilities add an extra layer of convenience which can keep activities contained to a certain area without the hassle of having to trek backwards and forwards to the house.
Think about how much easier it will be to fill the kettle in your office, or top up a water bottle in your gym, take a quick shower after a hot tub, or minimise queues for the bathroom when having friends and family over.
Professional installers should be able to offer you a plumbing system that taps into your main plumbing without difficulty.
6. Power
Rather than trailing metres of extension cable across your garden, the perfect garden room should also include fitted sockets to power all your all gadgets and electronics.
Having access to electricity in your garden room is an essential and increases the ways you can use it. For example, in a garden gym you’ll want sockets for your treadmill or cross trainer, as well as for music systems, TVs and fans. You’ll also want to consider bringing in Internet access so that you can stay connected to apps, emails and the web.
When fitting power and electrics don’t forget the lighting so as not to limit use to daylight hours. This could be recessed lights for a sleek finish, or sockets for standalone lamps for a more cosy, intimate feel. Or why not go for a combination of the two.
The correct supplier should also be able to fit exterior lights so that when autumn arrives, and the sun sets earlier, you can safely find your way to and from your garden room. It also means that entertaining guests doesn’t have to end when the sun goes down.
7. Professional Installation
Throughout this whole guide, we’ve mentioned that having access to the skills and experience of a professional is vital to ensuring the best final product.
Not only will you find their vast knowledge and expertise invaluable in drawing up plans, locating the site and sourcing high quality materials that are responsibly sourced. They’ll also be able to draw on their experience to give you inspiration and ideas for what you could achieve. Before then turning your dream into a reality with a stunning finished product that’s been carefully and solidly built.
At Thames Valley Landscapes our team has many years of experience doing just this and are only a call away from helping you create a bespoke garden room that delivers a beautiful and functional space.
