If you work from home and you decide to move house, it’s inevitable that one of the things that you’ll be looking for is a spare room that you can use as an office. This is all well and good but having an office in your home, or even having no specific office space at all can make it hard to switch off from work mode and enjoy family life. A garden office however, allows you to shut the door at the end of the day and enjoy the evening without your work being everywhere you turn.
A garden office is not necessarily a cheap option, although there are some great deals out there, so if you’re only going to be free lancing or working from home for a few months then it’s probably not a worthwhile investment.
Some people choose to have extensions built on to their homes so that they have a space to use as an office, however, these are extremely costly and require planning permission which also makes them time consuming. There are many standalone options out there that do not require planning permission, they look good and they’re safe and sturdy. You can purchase garden offices from as little as £300 to as much as nearly £20,00 and these range from log cabins, wooden builds and even two storey luxuries – of course, you will need planning permission to build one of these.
Building a garden office isn’t as simple as constructing a DIY shed, you have to think about practicality and what you’re going to need in there. For example, there’s no point having an office with no windows just as there’s no point having one with no power points, as you will be unable to plug in your computer, printer, internet and other gadgets.
If you require the use of the internet then you’ll also need a phone line for it to be connected to as your Wi-Fi might not reach as far as your garden office or you may prefer a separate phone line and broadband connection so that you can work out your expenses at the end of each month.
Another expense that most people won’t account for is heating; garden offices can often get a little bit cold, especially as we head into winter. If you don’t invest in some form of heating then you will not enjoy working and you’ll get nowhere near as much work done as you would on a warmer day.
This article was written by builder John Masters; he runs his business from a garden office building, including all customer meetings and consultations.