How I created my garden studio

Her garden studio is the largest of Helen Round’s designs!

Helen Round designs contemporary textiles and homewares, which were threatening to take over her kitchen. In this guest post she describes the process of building a unique garden studio to house her business:

My teenage children were starting to get fed up with sharing the kitchen table with my printing inks and rolls of linen fabric, and I soon realised, with more and more orders rolling in for my work, that I needed a dedicated working space away from the house…but not too far away!

With a large garden to the rear of our home, I invited around the local builder, Frodo (yes, he really is called Frodo…only happens in Cornwall!!) to discuss the possibility of creating a garden studio where I could print my fabric and make up my collections.

I looked at Work from Home Wisdom for inspiration on more than one occasion when I was considering the design and build of my studio, so thank you to everyone who has shared their own workspaces on the galleries!

Keen to avoid costly planning, I designed the building to size, making it under 2.5m high and with a footprint of 35sq foot. I had recently returned from a visit to Australia, and was impressed by their clever use of tin so chose an insulated tin roof and corrugated tin panels for lining the back and side of the building that was not particularly visible……a very comforting sound…rain on a tin roof.

With large glass panels facing south and two sets of French windows the studio certainly soaks up the Cornish sun. In winter, my dear little woodburner, Barbara, throws out plenty of heat. Cedar covers the other outside walls of the studio and has greyed, turning more and more beautiful through the seasons. The garden studio took about three months to build.

I have a little kitchen area for those important cups of tea and a very large work table perfect for cutting fabric, laying out new designs and for workshops. Alongside this, we have managed to fit in a sofa and plenty of floor to ceiling shelves for storage. My print table is positioned right in front of the large windows over looking the garden [see the interior in the Garden Offices Gallery] and I wash all my screens and printing equipment with rain water collected in butts from the guttering.

Being perched at the top of a steep incline, the views from the studio across the hills and down to the River Tamar are stunning. Deer from the Mount Edgcumbe Country Park frequent the field opposite and can be seen vying with the local cows for the sunny spots!

Every day, when I climb the garden steps to work I can’t help but think that I must have one of the most beautiful commutes! Working from such an idyllic location feeds my creativity and provides me with a constant source of inspiration.

Visitors are very welcome to my garden studio by appointment – I even have a small shop area where you can treat yourself to something special from my range, and the yearly Open Studios event means that you get to come and watch me working too!

See Helen’s beautiful fabrics and items for the home at helenround.com, where there is also information about the workshops she runs in her garden studio.