The trend for multifunctional spaces

Today’s #GardenOfficeWeek sponsored post comes from SIPS Garden Rooms.

Its founder, Quentin Farrow, has observed the increasing demand from home workers wanting attractive and multifunctional spaces to run their businesses from:

Over the last 10 years the work from home community has truly exploded, as has the requirement for garden offices and multifunctional spaces, something we blogged about in The Importance of Good Garden Rooms. It is now commonplace for people to either run their own small businesses or spend at least one day in the week working from home.

Hand-in-hand with this explosion come higher client expectations. The trend is not just for extra space, but for eye-catching, prominent, sustainable and future-proofed space.

You’d be forgiven for thinking last weekend that we might be welcoming in spring. What a balmy day Saturday was (well, for us down south it was)! Wind forward 24 hours and our fickle weather system brought rain, biting wind and frost. So, isn’t it great that our garden rooms and multifunctional spaces can be used whatever the weather, offering light, excellent insulation and warmth, a true place of solace as well as low maintenance!

One of our most recent installations was for a client who shared an office in the main house with her husband. Even though the room was large enough to accommodate both of them, not having two separate work areas was difficult as much of what they do is via video or phone link.

The solution was to build a self-contained garden office on the edge of agricultural land which was sympathetic to the surrounding area, but also looked good when viewed from the main house. As you can see from the photo, the cladding is a mixture of tongue and groove Western Red cedar (similar to the main house cladding) and black-painted straight edged boarding to blend with the surrounding barns.

As far as the layout was concerned we suggested a desk-height window to take in the view over the neighbouring fields. A full-height corner window allows the morning light to flood through, and sliding patio doors to prevent doors flying open in the strong winds of the exposed site.

Howden’s engineered oak flooring and white painted skirting boards were used throughout the interior, with warm white dimmable LED lighting. Outside we chose stainless steel LED up/down lights and a 500W security light to show the way to and from the office on those darker winter days.

Heating is an oil-filled electric heater with both a thermostat and timer. This allows our client to maintain the temperature they want at all times, in the most cost-effective way. (Under-floor heating can be used, but does have an initial larger outlay. Slimline infrared heaters are another option. These can be coloured glass or bespoke picture(s) in a frame, such as your favourite photo).

Quentin personally oversees and manages the whole process. He has the expertise, attention to detail, vision and passion to support you in the design and build of your own dream space. We work to your specifications, using our team of carefully-selected craftsmen and women, and sustainably sourced, eco-friendly products and materials, wherever possible and suitable. 

With SIPS Garden Rooms Ltd, no two garden rooms are the same, any number of designs, finishes and multifunctional spaces can be achieved. Just ask – there is no better option, in our opinion, to improve both the value of your home and your quality of life.

Enjoyed this? We have a wealth of information about building and working in garden offices.