Long term readers/followers will remember the summerhouse that Ben built at the end of our last garden. I loved that pretty shed which gave a focal point at the end of the garden and I wished we could have picked it up and moved it with us. We always knew that we'd want to recreate it in this garden and after having some trees cleared from the garden last year Ben set on building this new one just before Christmas. It still needs some finishing off, I mean we haven't even put the plastic back in to the windows yet from when it was painted! And I want to add some pretty window boxes and maybe grow a climbing rose or clematis up it. I like the idea that it will age with the garden, evolving over time. Right now it's acting as storage for everything from our BBQ to our dahlias waiting to be planted to our tumble drier! Our storage is all over the place with the kitchen extension and knocking our garage down. But eventually I hope we can pretty up the inside and use it as an actual summerhouse/potting shed. All these things take time, and our main priority is the kitchen and patio but for now I'm really pleased with how this frames the garden, tying it all in. Some before/build photos below;

Ben loves to build with wood and if he'd had the chance would have built another summerhouse from scratch. But with this house project taking up every spare minute, it was a lot quicker {and actually worked out cheaper} to buy a shed online and adapt it than make one from scratch. We couldn't have bought the materials cheaper than the whole kit! We bought this online but really annoyingly they've discontinued it since - see here.

You can see all of our garden makeover posts here , last summer we just had a pile of logs at the end of the garden. Once they were cleared we had enough space to make the base for the shed which took the longest out of the whole job - making sure it was level.

One cold November day the boys set upon building it all. It was just before the extension was about to begin and we needed it up to store as much as we could from our dilapidated garage.

It came in an ugly orange shade of pine but even before it was painted made the garden feel a lot more complete. 

We left it for the winter vowing to pretty it up come the Springtime.

As it warmed up, I decided it was time to paint the shed to stop me moaning about it every time I looked outside at the orange. I wanted more Farrow & Ball chic rather than log cabin.. 

I base coated it with Cuprinol shed paint in Jasmine white. It protects the wood with a weather shield and gives a good undercoat. The wood completely drunk it all in which is what you want but it was a bit of a nightmare to paint with because it was so runny.

I was going to paint the whole thing but after just base coating it I realised how rubbish I am at painting and called in the expert. Cooper is our painter and decorator and he could do it a hundred times better {and quicker} than I ever could. I chose Farrow & Ball Clunch as the cream colour and Vert de Terre for the overhang and window accents. A classic cream and green that compliment the garden. Although in bright lights the cream looks a little too bright/white, I'm hoping it will weather down over time. In the shade and afternoon light it looks beautiful. 

Once painted it needed all the screw holes filling and I also decided that I wanted a bigger rim on the front so Ben put a couple of wider pieces of wood on and we removed the twee little arrow. 

Next up was the deck to go around the shed. I wanted to be able to stand pots or a bench in front of it.

So Ben then cut decking boards to size that wrap around the front and sides of the summerhouse. We've left them natural and untreated to weather down over time. I then started adding the pots around to pretty her up for now until we've got time {and space to clear her out} to finish it off properly.

It's really the garden a central point and I can't wait to get her finished this summer.

I promise to write some more garden updates in a few weeks once everything is in bloom! And I'll keep you updated on our patio progress once the kitchen is finished.

R <3 xx