The garden office, Christleton
Office · 3.0 × 2.4 m · Larch · 2025
Our smallest room. The desk stands in the corner between the window and the door, and the sedum roof is for whoever looks down on it from the bedroom.
Garden offices
Garden offices you can work in all year
Most of the rooms we build are for someone who works from home and has had enough of the spare bedroom. A garden office gives you a door to shut at half past five, and a commute of about twelve steps.
The details
What makes it an office and not a shed
Warm in January, cool in July
The floor, walls and roof are insulated like a house, so a small heater keeps it at working temperature for pennies. If you’ll be in it every day, the heating and cooling unit at £1,650 is worth having. It warms the room in ten minutes on a frosty morning and stops it becoming a greenhouse in August.
A cable, so calls don’t drop
Wi-fi rarely reaches the end of a garden through two walls and a hedge. We lay a data cable in the same trench as the power and put a socket by the desk. It’s in the price.
Quiet enough for calls
Insulated panels and double glazing keep out most of a lawnmower. Beside a road or a school playground, the acoustic upgrade at £1,100 adds denser insulation and a second layer of plasterboard.
Locked like a house
A multi-point lock on the door, a lockable window and laminated glass. Tell your home insurer it’s there; most add it to the contents policy without any fuss.
No planning permission, usually
An office for your own use counts as part of living in the house, so most need no application. We check your address before we quote, either way.
Sizes
How much room does a desk need?
More than you’d think once the chair is pushed back. These are the sizes we’d suggest, with their starting prices.
| What goes in it | Room | Size | Price | Calculator |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| One desk and shelves | The Nook | 3.0 × 2.4 m | from £14,600 | Price it: One desk and shelves, 3.0 × 2.4 m |
| Two desks, or a desk and a sofa | The Study | 4.0 × 3.0 m | from £21,700 | Price it: Two desks, or a desk and a sofa, 4.0 × 3.0 m |
| Two desks and a meeting table | Made to order | 4.6 × 3.4 m | from £27,000 | Price it: Two desks and a meeting table, 4.6 × 3.4 m |
| Three desks and storage | The Studio | 5.4 × 3.6 m | from £32,700 | Price it: Three desks and storage, 5.4 × 3.6 m |
A worked example
What a typical office costs
The Study in larch, with the heating and cooling unit and an extra window over the second desk.
- The Study, 4.0 × 3.0 m
- £21,660
- Heating and cooling unit
- £1,650
- Extra window
- £650
- Total
- £23,960
Guide price
£23,000 to £25,400
From 4% below the total to 6% above it, to the nearest £100. It includes VAT, foundations, electrics and installation, and it’s about 9 working days on site.
Past builds
Offices we’ve built
Each of these started with a design visit and a drawing, and the ones we haven’t photographed are still shown that way. The gallery has all ten, and you can filter it by what the room is used for.
The two-desk office, Handbridge
Office · 4.0 × 3.0 m · Larch · 2024
Every panel went in through the front door of a terraced house and out of the back. It’s in a conservation area, so the council saw the drawings first.
The accountant’s office, Heswall
Office · 3.6 × 2.6 m · Cedar · 2023
Two screens, a wall of files and a view down the garden to the Dee. He says the files are the tidiest they have ever been.
Questions
Things people ask first
- Can I run my business from it?
- Working from home in it is fine. If staff or customers would be coming and going all day, the council may see that as a change of use, so tell us what you do and we’ll say whether it’s worth asking them.
- How soon could I be working in it?
- Ten to twelve weeks from your deposit, of which nine working days are in your garden for a Study. You can work in it the afternoon we hand over.
- Can the company pay for it?
- Some customers buy theirs through their business. Whether that makes sense for you is a question for your accountant, and we’ll make out the invoice whichever way they advise.
- Is there room for a sofa bed?
- In a Study, yes, in place of the second desk. If someone will sleep in the room regularly, though, it needs planning permission and building regulations approval. We can arrange both.
Next step
Price your office
Pick a size, add the heating if you want it, and see a guide price in about two minutes.
- The Nook · 3.0 × 2.4 m
- from £14,600
- The Study · 4.0 × 3.0 m
- from £21,700
- The Studio · 5.4 × 3.6 m
- from £32,700
- All prices include
- VAT, foundations, electrics and installation