Taking it out to the woodshed
May 18, 2017 5:32 AM Subscribe
No anorak like a British anorak.
posted by Rock Steady at 5:54 AM on May 18, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by Rock Steady at 5:54 AM on May 18, 2017 [5 favorites]
I love these!
So I don't want to jinx anything, but I've had an offer accepted to buy my first house. It's a pretty standard one-story bungalow, about a thousand square feet, with an unfinished basement. I love it and am inordinately excited about it, but it's nothing fancy. But sometime in the past twenty years, the owners put up the most ridiculous garage. I can't even explain this garage. I'm pretty sure it's bigger than the actual house, and it's two stories. There's a ping-pong table and a TV in there. It's basically a detached grown-up playroom, rather than a garage. I am not convinced anyone has ever actually put a car in there.
So anyway, now I'm figuring out what to do with it. I think I'm going to make it into an exercise room, except that I think it would cost a fortune to heat with a space heater in the winter. (Actually, I should ask if it's heated. The guy who currently owns the house is a heating and air-conditioning contractor, and he built the thing, so it could be.) But it's really tempting to turn it into a fake movie theater or police station or something. I am totally keeping this article for inspiration.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 6:15 AM on May 18, 2017 [14 favorites]
So I don't want to jinx anything, but I've had an offer accepted to buy my first house. It's a pretty standard one-story bungalow, about a thousand square feet, with an unfinished basement. I love it and am inordinately excited about it, but it's nothing fancy. But sometime in the past twenty years, the owners put up the most ridiculous garage. I can't even explain this garage. I'm pretty sure it's bigger than the actual house, and it's two stories. There's a ping-pong table and a TV in there. It's basically a detached grown-up playroom, rather than a garage. I am not convinced anyone has ever actually put a car in there.
So anyway, now I'm figuring out what to do with it. I think I'm going to make it into an exercise room, except that I think it would cost a fortune to heat with a space heater in the winter. (Actually, I should ask if it's heated. The guy who currently owns the house is a heating and air-conditioning contractor, and he built the thing, so it could be.) But it's really tempting to turn it into a fake movie theater or police station or something. I am totally keeping this article for inspiration.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 6:15 AM on May 18, 2017 [14 favorites]
Those are amazing, but where do those people get the free time to make something like that? I feel like I've really accomplished something if I mow my grass.
posted by TedW at 6:21 AM on May 18, 2017 [13 favorites]
posted by TedW at 6:21 AM on May 18, 2017 [13 favorites]
This programme had been running for a couple of years now. I think this year is starting to stray from its roots big time - they're stretching the definition of 'shed' to breaking point. Where are the broken flowerpots and rusting spanners? You can see the progression:
2016
2015 (from the wonderfully named Shedblog)
2014
2013
2012
(The top search result for each year was the Telegraph, but they seem to have decided that the ideal format for web galleries is no view all option, no count of how many pictures are in the gallery, no visible navigation controls, just click on the picture and hope for the best.)
posted by kersplunk at 6:23 AM on May 18, 2017 [2 favorites]
2016
2015 (from the wonderfully named Shedblog)
2014
2013
2012
(The top search result for each year was the Telegraph, but they seem to have decided that the ideal format for web galleries is no view all option, no count of how many pictures are in the gallery, no visible navigation controls, just click on the picture and hope for the best.)
posted by kersplunk at 6:23 AM on May 18, 2017 [2 favorites]
A sentence I never expected to write: only the PrickleBum seems practical, here.
The others are cute playrooms, or whatever they are, but garden sheds?
posted by rokusan at 6:32 AM on May 18, 2017 [11 favorites]
The others are cute playrooms, or whatever they are, but garden sheds?
posted by rokusan at 6:32 AM on May 18, 2017 [11 favorites]
These are wonderful! I have a love of tiny solitary studios in yards. I would love one, but currently mine is occupied by 5 pooping chickens. It's called the Coop de Ville. They're pretty happy there so I'll keep them, but if they ever decide to go, I'm turning that coop into a tiny studio.
posted by Sophie1 at 6:34 AM on May 18, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by Sophie1 at 6:34 AM on May 18, 2017 [2 favorites]
The glass hut is beautiful, but I agree that it's not really a garden shed. It's indoors!
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 6:35 AM on May 18, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 6:35 AM on May 18, 2017 [2 favorites]
They are very nice, but I was expecting something more practical that I could derive inspiration from regarding the best way to store my shovels. These are more themed tiny houses then sheds...
posted by jenjenc at 6:39 AM on May 18, 2017 [9 favorites]
posted by jenjenc at 6:39 AM on May 18, 2017 [9 favorites]
Sheds in name only.
posted by blue_beetle at 6:43 AM on May 18, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by blue_beetle at 6:43 AM on May 18, 2017 [5 favorites]
These are more themed tiny houses then sheds...
Very true, and I will use that distinction as a hedge to keep myself from feeling bad about how bad my garage looks.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 6:50 AM on May 18, 2017
Very true, and I will use that distinction as a hedge to keep myself from feeling bad about how bad my garage looks.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 6:50 AM on May 18, 2017
These are not sheds. These are forts. These are people realizing the dream of every child. I bet every single one of these people was surprised at how much a moat filled with alligators cost and decided against it. Much to their disappointment.
Sheds are dirty places where you keep the lawnmower and those three half-filled cans of old gasoline that you have no idea what you're going to do with and maybe if you leave the cap off it will eventually evaporate but maybe that's bad for the environment or dangerous or something so you just leave it because you expect one day someone will invent some sort of magic sponge-like thing that will make it all go away cleanly and safely but until then... three half-filled cans of gas in your shed.
posted by bondcliff at 6:55 AM on May 18, 2017 [22 favorites]
Sheds are dirty places where you keep the lawnmower and those three half-filled cans of old gasoline that you have no idea what you're going to do with and maybe if you leave the cap off it will eventually evaporate but maybe that's bad for the environment or dangerous or something so you just leave it because you expect one day someone will invent some sort of magic sponge-like thing that will make it all go away cleanly and safely but until then... three half-filled cans of gas in your shed.
posted by bondcliff at 6:55 AM on May 18, 2017 [22 favorites]
Yes after hunting for a #11 socket in a bag came here to grarrr over tool neatness and while a couple of those seem a tad compulsive hobby theme-ish some look quite comfortable. I think I'd just want one large enough for a chase lounge with a book table but larger scale model trains are really cool, needs a small (explodable) truss bridge over a (piranha) pond.
posted by sammyo at 7:07 AM on May 18, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by sammyo at 7:07 AM on May 18, 2017 [2 favorites]
* gazes out at messy, cluttered, non-shed-having yard*
*sighs*
posted by Elly Vortex at 7:21 AM on May 18, 2017
*sighs*
posted by Elly Vortex at 7:21 AM on May 18, 2017
I have always wanted to have some little amazing hidden gem thing like this. Like, it looks like a shed from the outside, but it's a whole miniature shopping mall inside.
posted by xingcat at 7:22 AM on May 18, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by xingcat at 7:22 AM on May 18, 2017 [1 favorite]
Host: Have you written any of your recent works in this shed of yours?
posted by ricochet biscuit at 7:27 AM on May 18, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by ricochet biscuit at 7:27 AM on May 18, 2017 [5 favorites]
I adore shed culture. Sheds and beach huts.
posted by Lyn Never at 7:41 AM on May 18, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by Lyn Never at 7:41 AM on May 18, 2017 [2 favorites]
Yeah, most of these people need a second shed for their tools. Of course, then they'd go the rest of their lives with the nickname, "Two-Sheds."
posted by The Underpants Monster at 7:45 AM on May 18, 2017 [11 favorites]
posted by The Underpants Monster at 7:45 AM on May 18, 2017 [11 favorites]
I have always wanted to have some little amazing hidden gem thing like this. Like, it looks like a shed from the outside, but it's a whole miniature shopping mall inside.Kind of like Barbra Streisand's basement? Except that's not miniature?
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 7:50 AM on May 18, 2017 [1 favorite]
This brings back one of my happiest memories of my father. He and Mom had finished work on the “fixer-upper” house we had moved into a few years earlier. (Basically, they ended up having to cut and rebuild most of it.) Dad decided to build us a play house with the leftover materials.
It was exactly big enough to fit in the bed of a pickup truck. It had siding and trim painted to match the big house, a shingled roof, a window and door frame, a horizontal sliding glass window*, a battery-operated light fixture hanging from the ceiling, and a purely decorative lantern-style wall lamp nailed up outside the front door. We kids “helped” by pounding in nails that Dad started for us. When it was done, we moved in our two appliances, hung curtains, and stenciled house numbers by the front door (our street number plus ½).
When we outgrew it, it became a doghouse for King the Chocolate Lab. It was so adorable to see him sitting inside and looking out the window like some kind of nosy neighbor.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 8:01 AM on May 18, 2017 [6 favorites]
It was exactly big enough to fit in the bed of a pickup truck. It had siding and trim painted to match the big house, a shingled roof, a window and door frame, a horizontal sliding glass window*, a battery-operated light fixture hanging from the ceiling, and a purely decorative lantern-style wall lamp nailed up outside the front door. We kids “helped” by pounding in nails that Dad started for us. When it was done, we moved in our two appliances, hung curtains, and stenciled house numbers by the front door (our street number plus ½).
When we outgrew it, it became a doghouse for King the Chocolate Lab. It was so adorable to see him sitting inside and looking out the window like some kind of nosy neighbor.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 8:01 AM on May 18, 2017 [6 favorites]
Generally agree that, when I think of sheds, I think of something like these. (Some posters on the walls marginally SFW)
posted by Halloween Jack at 8:14 AM on May 18, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by Halloween Jack at 8:14 AM on May 18, 2017 [2 favorites]
The Tardis thing is just really overplayed now. If you want to Dr Who fanperson, go on with your fine self but find please find a Tardis alternative.
posted by DarlingBri at 8:19 AM on May 18, 2017
posted by DarlingBri at 8:19 AM on May 18, 2017
These are wonderful! Whimsical and clever.
(And really so much better than almost any "man cave" I've seen from the US.)
posted by rmd1023 at 9:49 AM on May 18, 2017
(And really so much better than almost any "man cave" I've seen from the US.)
posted by rmd1023 at 9:49 AM on May 18, 2017
I'm in the process of carving out a new workshop for myself, so I am really into looking at workspaces lately. These are not what I was thinking of, though. (The gallery Halloween Jack linked is.)
Lots of them seem to be like themed playhouses or dens or something I guess?
They're all a lot nicer than the hoagie dungeon I banished my noisy husband to.
posted by ernielundquist at 10:29 AM on May 18, 2017
Lots of them seem to be like themed playhouses or dens or something I guess?
They're all a lot nicer than the hoagie dungeon I banished my noisy husband to.
posted by ernielundquist at 10:29 AM on May 18, 2017
These look like dollhouses to me. Very very fussy "DON'T TOUCH THAT!!!" dollhouses. What good is something if you can't play with it (no, dusting is not the same as playing).
I suppose it's the label that's really got my ire up here. But I'm a gardener, and my garden shed contains muddy gloves and small shovels and pails and stakes; things my kids are allowed to get out and use and explore the garden and their imaginations with.
posted by vignettist at 10:55 AM on May 18, 2017 [3 favorites]
I suppose it's the label that's really got my ire up here. But I'm a gardener, and my garden shed contains muddy gloves and small shovels and pails and stakes; things my kids are allowed to get out and use and explore the garden and their imaginations with.
posted by vignettist at 10:55 AM on May 18, 2017 [3 favorites]
Anyone else wonder about the microscope in PrickleBum? Is she artificially inseminating the hedgehogs? Perhaps creating fearsome mutant hedgehogs?
posted by exogenous at 1:08 PM on May 18, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by exogenous at 1:08 PM on May 18, 2017 [5 favorites]
Disappointed there are no sheds that are exact models of the homes for which they are sheds. Those sheds would also have sheds. And on it would go until we achieve peak Tiny Shed.
posted by Kafkaesque at 4:56 PM on May 18, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by Kafkaesque at 4:56 PM on May 18, 2017 [3 favorites]
Clicked, half-expecting Fifty Sheds of Grey. But this is so much better.
posted by seawallrunner at 6:51 PM on May 18, 2017
posted by seawallrunner at 6:51 PM on May 18, 2017
Lovely fantasy spaces, thanks pjern. Almost takes the taste of Cameron's mouse's back away. My father's involved in the men's shed movement so I've seen how sheds can revitalise individuals and communities.
Just to let you know, "piker" (from your title) can be offensive in the UK as a pejorative word for Gypsy / Traveller / Irish Traveller people (BBC article mostly about "pikey", mentions "piker" in passing).
posted by paduasoy at 3:07 AM on May 19, 2017 [1 favorite]
Just to let you know, "piker" (from your title) can be offensive in the UK as a pejorative word for Gypsy / Traveller / Irish Traveller people (BBC article mostly about "pikey", mentions "piker" in passing).
posted by paduasoy at 3:07 AM on May 19, 2017 [1 favorite]
Colin Furze built an underground bunker.
Naturally all his other projects are really built in a proper shed. (Which is impressive, since his isn't that big.)
posted by thefool at 6:01 AM on May 19, 2017
Naturally all his other projects are really built in a proper shed. (Which is impressive, since his isn't that big.)
posted by thefool at 6:01 AM on May 19, 2017
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