Garden Sheds: Your Nature Therapy At Home

For many, nothing brings peace and tranquility like spending time outside. Away from the screaming heads on television, the electric lighting, and even the sounds of kids running through the house, a few minutes outside in the garden, watching the birds and taking in the natural smells, is enough to recharge almost anyone’s batteries. If you have a garden, you already understand how therapeutic spending time with your plants can be. 

The process of caring for the plants while being surrounded by green and vibrant colors is pleasing to the senses. But wouldn’t it be nice if you could spend more time outside with your garden? Maybe you’d like to read a book or even get some work done on your computer, but there simply isn’t a viable method to do that in your current garden setup. One of the best ways to address this is with a garden shed. Garden sheds give you numerous options for improving your time outside in your garden. Here are a few ideas and examples to consider.

What Do You Want Your Garden Sheds To Do?

The first question you need to answer is what is the purpose of your garden sheds? Do you want it to be a shed that simply houses tools, so you don’t have to run to the garage whenever you need something, or do you want it to be a personal sanctuary where you can kick back and relax, no matter the weather, and still be surrounded by natural light and the smell of your garden?

With a storage shed, it’s usually best to go with as much wall space as possible (in other words, not have as many windows). This provides more room for hooks and shelving. However, if you want to open your shed up and be surrounded by plants (and maybe even have plants inside the shed), you’ll have less hook and shelving and more windows. So keep all of this in mind.

Tons of Natural Light

It wouldn’t be a garden shed without natural light. This way, even if you’re inside your shed, you’ll be able to drink in the sun, just like your plants. Having windows throughout the shed is a great way to do this, although a skylight is really what brings in the shed. A skylight will help improve the overall light within the shed, and if the window can be cranked open, it helps with airflow and circulation (all that hot air during the summer won’t stay inside the shed and instead can filter out).

Of course, the placement of your shed will also weigh heavily on the amount of natural light your shed receives. It may not be necessary to have windows on some sides of the shed if you have a tree or large fence on these sides. With proper planning, it is easier to decide where to place the windows for optimal lighting.

Opening Yourself Up To The Garden

If you want a tool shed for your garden, just about any door configuration will work, just as long as it is wide enough to push in your wheelbarrow, mower, or whatever other equipment you have. However, this changes if you want to open the shed up to your garden while you’re inside.

Maybe you would like to have a large opening that makes it easy to come and go between the garden and your shed. In this case, a sliding door is fantastic. It doesn’t swing open, which means your shed can be closer to the garden without disturbing the plants, and it acts like a giant window as well. If you want a traditional door, you can use a glass door, or you can even opt for a farmhouse door, also known as a dutch door. A dutch door, when secured, opens and closes just like a regular door. However, when the top portion is unlocked, you can open just the door’s top part. This way, you still have a closed front door while the upper portion is opened up. This is great if you have pets that roam the outside, and you don’t want them to come into the shed.

Seasonal Shed

If you only want to have the shed usable during the spring, summer, and some of the fall months, you may not need to consider insulation (and even electricity). However, maybe you want to be able to walk outside to your shed in the winter, holding your cup of coffee, and sit in your shed as you plan next year’s arrangements (or simply use the space as a respite away from everything else going on in the house). 

If that sounds like something you’d like, it’s highly recommended to insulate your shed and to run electricity to it. This way, you can turn on lights and install a ceiling fan (which is lovely during the spring as you can lounge in a hammock, look at your garden while the ceiling fan circulates air). You can even have some heating and cooling devices if you like—just some things to keep in mind for your garden sheds.

Begin Planning Your Dream Garden Shed

Whether you’re interested in a shed with plenty of windows, a large, sliding front door that opens up to your garden, perhaps a skylight or you just want something to store your garden tools so you don’t have to walk back and forth to the house constantly, there is a shed design for you. It doesn’t matter if you already have it mapped out in your head or if you want help designing it; the team here at Barnyard Utility Buildings is here for you. Whatever questions you might have, or however elaborate you want your shed, we will walk you through the design process and assist with whatever you might need help with. The first step in crafting your dream garden shed, though, is to give us a call. Our friendly customer service staff is here to begin those garden shed plans, and there’s no time like the present to give them a call.