When we moved into our house we inherited a play house shed which was filled with spiders and leaked quite badly. It was also sited in the most inconvenient place obscuring the view down the garden when you were in the room at the back of the garage which we had wanted to turn into a gym.
No choice but to dismantle the shed, we were hoping to carefully take it to pieces so we could pass the whole thing on to someone who could make better use of it. Once we started to dismantle it became very clear it would never be a play house again as parts of it were rotten and fell apart as soon as the crowbar went anywhere near it.
We were left with 2 sides and a door side and not much else, not wanting to add anymore to landfil or infact have the effort of disposing it we set about with our thinking caps on to consider how we could re-purpose it. After all the garden was big enough I’m sure we could think of something!
We had a potting shed, (a cheap 5×7 shed to store all the garden tools) and a space alongside it doing nothing at the moment, so a plan was hatched to create a barn tacked onto the side of it. All we would need was the 2 sides and a couple of pence posts with the post spikes to hold them firmly in the ground.
As luck would have it we were midway through having bi-folds fitted in the kitchen and if anyone has you’ll know no one warns you of the fact that they can’t start making the bi-folds until they’ve measured the aperture for the bi-folds to fit in, and they can’t create the aperture until the old doors are out and space modified. So the gap of time in between (about 8 weeks) you have to spend with the space blocked up with, in our case OSB board, but that’s another story completely! For our purpose these sheets of 8×4 OSB board became spare and so became the basis for the roof.
With a few battons of wood and the boards, the roof was constructed and covered in corrugated sheets (pretty much the only thing we bought for the entire project)
Once constructed we set about painting and unifying the whole lot with our favourite Cuprinol in Silver Copse.
It was all a bit to ‘ordinary’ so we set about adding a few touches making it Moroccan inspired after our recent travels to the country.
A few embellishments, found in amongst all the bits in the garage and some bright paints dulled down to look ‘lived in’ the outside was complete.
Inside the barn I wanted a day bed for sitting and lounging! we considered buying a ready made solution but instead had some left over gravel boards so instead joined them together and made a built in platform.
Adding rugs, cushions and decorative bits we were virtually done. The last addition was a string of solar lights from Wilko a snip for £10.
During the summer and autumn we virtually lived in the barn! We have also since added gravel around all the beds and beneath the rugs.
I’m looking forward to the spring arriving and we can get back out there, plans this year is to add more shelves and bar area. Bring on the warmer days………
Happy everyday！