Garden Hideouts
A
garden room provides people
with two main benefits - the
opportunity to create exactly
the space they want with all
the features they need and
the chance to escape the
interruptions of everyday life.
The line between ‘posh sheds’ and
garden rooms is quite blurred and as
more people are now realising that there
is no reason why an extra room in their
garden cannot be just as beautifully
designed as any room in their house,
the amount they are spending can easily
reach £50k, for example. At Garden
Hideouts we have our own interior design
team and if a client specifies expensive
fittings, furniture and fabrics then the
price for a luxury ‘granny flat’, with a
dressing area and an en suite bathroom
– completely furnished and ready to go
– can be as much as £68k. A ‘man cave’
with a great sound system, TV, a bar and
a bathroom would probably cost in the
region of £45k.
The market for garden rooms – be it a
room beside a swimming pool, a tranquil
place to work or place where teenagers
can hang out without disturbing the rest
of the family grew by 22% last year. It
seems that Britain’s long love affair with
sheds (at around 12 million we have more,
proportionally, than any other country)
has now spilled over into a trend for
something a bit grander. With stamp duty
and all the other expense and hassle of
moving to a bigger house, they can make a
lot of sense.
If necessary, garden rooms can be built
on site, so restricted access need not be
that much of an issue and they can usually
be installed in surprisingly small gardens.
The only real consideration is access to
sewerage – assuming your garden room
has a loo – which can be quite expensive
to sort out. Other than that, the main
consideration is which spot will offer the
best view of the garden or the surrounding
countryside. In general, garden rooms which
are no more than 2.5m tall don’t need
planning permission. However, there are
exceptions including Areas of Outstanding
National Beauty and listed buildings.
Arca, from £39,950
Shepherd Hut, from £29,950
Garden Pod, from £22,950
STOCKIST DETAILS:
www.gardenhideouts.co.uk
56 Landscape & Urban Design