Creative Houzz Users Share Their ‘She Sheds’

“I think having ‘a place of one’s own’ is innate in each of us,” commented Houzz user laurielynne on the recent Houzz story 11 Nominees for the “She Shed” Hall of Fame. From the overwhelming response to the story, I found this to be very true. So many readers shared their photos of their sheds and what they liked to do in them, that we tracked down as many of them as we could to find out more.

What is so interesting about these sheds is the pure ingenuity that went into creating them. Whether the owners repurposed existing dilapidated sheds or learned how to build their own sheds, there were several common threads that ran through a lot of their experiences: (1) Many of them had a lot of help from friends and family, whether they donated materials or skills; (2) many of them reclaimed, repurposed and recycled many of the materials used to build their sheds, and they used these materials in very creative ways; and (3), these are little getaways that inspire creativity and bring a sense of peace.

Many thanks to all who shared their sheds.

Cottage Industry in Maryland

Who uses it: Joan Drews
Location: Northern Baltimore County, Maryland
Size: 240 square feet (22 square meters)
Year built: 2013
What happens in here: Talented artisan Joan Drews makes lampworked beads and jewelry for her business, Sweetpea Cottage.
That’s interesting: Because Drews is on the petite side, her husband custom sized the worktables and benches to be the most comfortable height for her.

“When I enter the studio, I let out a sigh of pleasure and anticipation, wondering, ‘What will I create today?’” Drews says. Her shed was built by a local shed and deck company, but it is full of very special interior elements made by her husband, like solid oak windowsills that hold her plants and tools, detailed trimwork with an ivy pattern on it around the windows, and custom furniture.


“My husband built most of the furniture — I am particularly proud of the wonderful worktable, made of seven different types of wood,” Drews says. There is also a matching workbench (below) with lampworked knobs. “They are so nice, I kind of don’t want to mess them up — then I do anyway,” she says.

On one side of the studio, she makes fused glass pendants lampworked beads from Italian glass. On the other side, she creates metal jewelry components and constructs finished pieces.


The artist keeps her tool and material inventory in constant check so that it doesn’t overwhelm the space. “I have become a master at storage and have collected lots of vintage Lucite containers for all the tiny bits and pieces,” she says.


A Warm and Cozy Getaway Near Lake Superior

Who uses it: Annie Possis
Location: Lutsen, Minnesota
Size: 108 square feet (10 square meters)
Year built: Unknown
What happens here: Creative pursuits
That’s interesting: This little shed was “rotting into the ground,” says Possis, but now it’s like new.

Annie Possis decided to reclaim an existing tool and junk shed on her property and make it something special. At the same time, she preserved the original charm on the exterior.


A talented carpenter jacked up the structure; added windows and, most important in Minnesota, heat; and put in a desk and shelves for books. Possis refers to the refreshed shed as her art and tea-party space.


A Zen Spot in Upstate New York

Who uses it: Nancy Budde
Location: Shushan, New York (close to the Vermont border)
Size: 140 square feet (13 square meters)
Year built: 2013
What happens in here: Writing, napping and spending time with her husband, Al, on the front porch
That’s interesting: The structure features a locally crafted stained glass window.

The couple had this writer’s cottage hauled away from the main part of the property on a flatbed truck two years ago. “She filled it with memories of her mom and dogs and often naps between journaling,” Al reports.

Cottage: Jamaica Cottage Shop


Now the little cottage is nestled at the forest’s edge on their property, and it looks like it’s been there forever. The couple refer to it as “Nancy’s Zen Cottage.”


An Atypical Greenhouse on a Canadian Island

Who uses it: Sherryl Yaciansky
Location: An island off the Upper Sunshine Coast of British Columbia, Canada
Size: 140 square feet (13 square meters)
Year built: 2013
What happens in here: Year-round gardening and plant growing
That’s interesting: All of the windows and the door are reclaimed materials found locally on the island where the couple live.

Back in 2013, Houzz user Sherryl Yaciansky was looking to build a greenhouse that wouldn’t look like a typical greenhouse. Using local materials, most of which were reclaimed, her husband created a wonderful and unique shed for her.

“My she shed is a greenhouse, so year-round gardening is what I do in here,” she says. “It is a great place to start seedlings in the spring and for growing summer veggies like tomatoes and peppers. During the winter I grow cool-weather veggies, such as greens like lettuce and kale, and herbs.”

“The big front window and the door were from old cabins being torn down on other properties on the island,” she says. Then her husband got really creative — he made some windows from an old pallet of glass found intact under one of the old cabins, and others from deconstructing old patio doors that had lost their seals. The lumber is all cedar locally harvested and milled for the project.


“The north wall is made of bottles and stucco, which is both funky and functional,” Yaciansky says. The wall warms up during the day in the sunlight and keeps the greenhouse warm at night. The glass bottles throw filtered colored light from the south side to her potting bench on the north side of the cabin.

Here you can also see two closets for storing items like fertilizer and gardening tools. Because the couple can grow vegetables year-round, a potting bench and extra storage inside the shed come in very handy.


A Sometime Supper Club in Montana

Who uses it: Virgil and Jennifer Sheridan
Location: Belgrade, Montana
Size: 192 square feet (18 square meters)
What happens in here: Gardening and the occasional dinner party
That’s interesting: Virgil collected materials to build this shed for his wife for several years; neighbors and family members joined the effort.

Virgil Sheridan built this light-filled shed for his wife in 2014. “It’s mainly set up as a garden shed–greenhouse, but we have also enjoyed some great meals out there,” he says.

Virgil collected the wood via lumber yard scrap piles and sales. He found the windows in a window company’s bone pile for sale for “pennies on the dollar,” he says. The roof was a tear-off from someone’s house and donated for free. “All the exterior wood is reclaimed from barns and sheds,” he says. His father-in-law and his neighbors all pitched in to help him collect enough.

Virgil knows it never hurts to ask. “The metal on the sides is from some very old barns just north of Belgrade here,” he says. “They were lying in a rubbish pile, and I asked the owner if I could pull them out, and he agreed.”

Now in its second year, the shed continues to evolve. Next on the to-do list are some solar lights for the inside and a rain gutter to provide water to the plants. As things for the shed have tended to come to the couple, “I’m sure I will find them along the road someday,” Virgil says.


A Chapel-Inspired Workshop in New Zealand

Who uses it: Deborah Hinson
Location: Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand
Size: 134½ square feet (12.5 square meters)
Year built: It is a work in progress; Hinson started it in late 2014.
What happens in here: This was to be a garden shed, but it’s turning out to be so lovely, it will become an area for a wide range of creative pursuits.
That’s interesting: Hinson created an ingenious rain chain from inexpensive materials. She will harvest rainwater from the barrel below when she’s done.

Putting together this special shed in New Zealand has turned owner Deborah Hinson into a seasoned DIYer. “I had a hand with the foundations and basic wall/roof build, but then I was on my own,” she says. “I’ve paneled, shingled, lined, insulated, sawn, nailed and cursed many times.”

She has been collecting recycled bits and bobs for the project at junk shops, auctions and Trade Me for the past five years. The feature that gives the shed so much character, she found in a demolition yard. She managed to make three and a half windows for her shed from the five chapel windows she found there.


Once she had her new shed envisioned, Hinson enlisted a fencing contractor friend to help her get started. “He is a good out-of-the-box thinker, and with my ideas and his interpretation of them, we worked really well together,” she says. He helped her get the land leveled, frame the building and put on the roof. Once the exterior walls were covered in spray-painted treated grooved ply sheets, she was on her own.

There’s a charger rack under the window where her tool bench will go. To the right, the door and side panels are salvaged pieces from a house that survived the 1931 Napier earthquake.


Hinson is currently trimming out the windows “just by playing around with some shingles and a craft knife,” she says. She used stick-on plastic that looks like stained glass on one window to give it a chapel look.


Hinson much prefers the look of rain chains to plastic downspouts. “The biggest success has been the rain chains I made with buckets from the $2 store, chains from the farm store and an old oak barrel from a nearby winery,” she says. She will be able to use the water she collects on a vegetable garden she’s planning to plant nearby.


In the meantime, if anyone knows where to score some lovely wooden fretwork brackets for the veranda at a bargain price, Hinson is on the hunt for them. She needs 18 and currently the cost is too prohibitive. But the shed is nearly finished, and she is thrilled. “When the shed is finished I can then start on getting some long-awaited projects on the go and unleash my inner creativity,” she says.

The project started off as an improvement on her teeny-tiny garden shed, but it’s coming out so well that its uses have expanded. “Now I plan to reupholster stuff, paint stuff and make stuff in it, instead of working in our dusty carport or our large workshop,” Hinson says. “This will be cleaner, peaceful and enable me to leave projects out, rather than having to pack away every time.”


From Toolshed to Writer’s Cottage in British Columbia

Who uses it: Katherin Edwards
Location: Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada
Size: 80 square feet (7.5 square meters)
Year built: Unknown; Edwards started to fix it up a few years back
What happens in here: Reading and writing
That’s interesting: Edwards found the leaded glass doors 15 years ago and had been hauling them around with her from place to place until she found the perfect place to put them, on this shed.

“This was an unfinished vinyl toolshed already on the property when we bought it six years ago,” Katherin Edwards reports. “I like to write and read in the she shed, and it also stores memories.”

Edwards had bought the beautiful antique leaded glass doors at an auction about 15 years ago and finally found the perfect spot to use them.


Keeping the stunning antique doors for so many years was worth the wait; they look like they were always meant to be here and add beauty from inside and out. The shed is a work in progress; the most recent addition is the floor tiled with pennies.

“I like to think of it as a room of one’s own and a perfect place to write,” she says.


Almost 100 Percent Salvaged Shed in Coastal California

Who uses it: Susan Hitchcock
Location: Los Osos, California
What happens in here: Craft projects
Size: 144 square feet (13 square meters)
Year built: 2013
That’s interesting: This charming shed is made completely from reclaimed materials.

In 2013 Susan Hitchcock came up with the design and her friend, general contractor Eric Bishop, built it. “We used pre-1960 windows salvaged from a shop in Morro Bay, and a garden door placed on its side as a large window,” she says. She also found a salvaged porthole window and placed it above the French doors.

They also salvaged items from an existing cottage on the property, including the true divided-light French doors, the bathroom cabinets (now used to store paint) and the kitchen counters, which became a workbench surface.


Here is the shed as it started to come together. “We used old fence boards as siding, and the tin roof was made from corrugated tin from a ranch in Paso Robles, California,” she says. “We also cut a large, very old deck in half and moved it over to the site to use as the floor.”


The room gets a lot of natural light, thanks to the recycled windows and Plexiglas on the roof. The clear panels are just about the only materials that were previously unused.


A Grown-Up’s Playhouse in Houston

Who uses it: Tamara Harbert
Location: Houston
Size: 144 square feet (13 square meters)
Year built: 2008
What happens in here: Hobbies and reading
That’s interesting: This was originally built to be a playhouse for the children, but now it’s Mom’s territory.

Tamara Harbert’s husband, Stuart, built this playhouse for their children seven years ago, but now that they’ve outgrown it, she’s taken it over. “I enjoy having a place for my hobbies or just sitting and reading,” she says.

The windows are salvaged and swing out; the brick on the covered patio is salvaged as well. The charming outdoor area is another wonderful place to be on a nice day.


Inside, floral accents continue the garden-inspired look. No need to worry about the Texas heat out here. “Since we live in Houston, he also included a ceiling fan and an air conditioner,” Harbert says.


A Shaded Flower House in the Middle of Georgia

Who uses it: Janet Sills
Location: Eatonton, Georgia
Size: 120 square feet (11 square meters)
Year built: 2015
What happens in here: This shed is a work in progress and will serve as Sills’ greenhouse.
That’s interesting: They scored those beautiful windows for $8 each!

Howard and Janet Sills always have a project going. After spotting a greenhouse made with salvaged windows at the Southeastern Flower Show in Atlanta years ago, Janet had been dreaming of one. “The project was kick-started when I spotted some discarded windows at The Liquidators at Cumming, Georgia,” she says. “The windows were huge, 33 inches by 77 inches, there were eight of them, and I got them for $8 each. What a deal!”

Next Howard designed this little building, which they refer to as her flower house. It was built by local builders Ivan Stanley and Bill Nelms. It is taking a village to pull this off — the split-face concrete blocks for the foundation were donated by a friend, while the rough-cut pine for the boards and battens were sawn by a friend with a Wood-Mizer sawmill.

The couple have put pea gravel on the floor and have some salvaged French doors that will be installed out front soon.




One half of the roof is cold-rolled metal, which will oxidize to a uniform rust quickly, while the other half is composed of Suntuf polycarbonate roofing panels. The shade from the hardwood tree canopy will help cool the building in the summer, while the bare trees will allow plenty of sunlight in during the winter.

Howard scored a Dayton greenhouse exhaust fan on eBay for one gable, and he surprised Janet with the beautiful stained glass window for the gable over the porch.

“I still haven’t decided how I am going to outfit the interior — shelves on the sides or table in the middle?” she says. Any suggestions are welcome!

As for their next project, the couple plans to make a fountain from a giant syrup kettle. Now that’s something I cannot wait to see — I hope they share it with us when it’s done.



A Garden Shed and Trailer in Fort Worth, Texas

Who uses it: Sharon Doss
Location: Fort Worth, Texas
Size: 150 square feet (14 square meters)
Era built: 1960s
What happens in here: Right now it’s a garden shed, but decorating the outside of it has become one of Sharon’s favorite things to do.
That’s interesting: This she shed was originally built as a playhouse for the former homeowners’ granddaughter.

Sharon Doss and her husband fell in love with this existing 1960s playhouse in their backyard. So far they have really tackled only the exterior, and store their garden tools inside. “It still has the original 1960s flooring,” she says. “In the five years we have been in our house, we have added the shutters, the white fence, the outside light fixtures and the rosebushes.”


Doss reports that their backyard was “a total disaster” five years ago when they bought their home. “We love working in our yard and flower beds, and we also love grilling and eating our meals in our screened-in sunroom,” she says. Making the shed a charming focal point has helped a lot. “It has been so much fun to decorate, and we still have more plans for her,” says Doss.


While the shed awaits further renovation, Doss’ place of her own is her vintage 1962 trailer, parked nearby. It’s a she shed that can go on the road. “Our house will always be in Fort Worth; however, in our trailer I can be anywhere,” she says.


She’s given the trailer cozy Shabby Chic style throughout.


Even when the trailer is not on the road, Doss can be caught catching some z’s out here. “I love taking little naps and just relaxing on the bed,” she says.


“It’s a great place to read my favorite magazine or to look on my iPad,” she says. “We often have our meals in our little trailer; after all, it’s the best place to dine in Fort Worth!”


A Cubby Near Wine Country in Australia

Who uses it: Mary Wiking
Location: Mount Evelyn, Victoria, Australia
Size: 67 square feet (6 square meters)
Year built: 2014
What happens in here: Writing a book, playing with the toy kitchen and meditating
That’s interesting: This shed took only two hours to build once the floor was down.

Mary Wiking found her “cubby” (Australian for “playhouse”) on eBay. It arrived as a flat-pack kit, and her husband and a friend put it together in just a few hours. She plans to paint it red with white corners like a Swiss cottage.

Wiking is not the only family member drawn to the shed. She says, “I just love it, and so does my granddaughter, who asks, ‘Can we go to your cubby, MorMor?’” The shed is conveniently located next to a fire pit and her granddaughters’ trampoline.

“I find it very convenient when we have bonfires to have the shed close by,” she says. “It gives a lovely focal point in the garden, and my granddaughters love to go down to it.” She keeps a toy kitchen inside and is currently growing a climbing rose next to it that will cover the porch someday. She also grows
cornflowers, sweet peas and hollyhocks under its window.


Wiking didn’t expect to be able to stand up in her shed, but it turned out a little larger than she thought. She bought the shed, the desk and the chair on eBay with plans to write a book in here while gazing out at the garden. “Although I have to duck to go through the door, I am able to stand up in it, and the design just suited my needs,” she says.


The cubby is also a spiritual place. “I also have a healing book and crystals so people can write the names of family and friends who need healing,” she says. “It feels quite spiritual and peaceful, and I love to meditate in it.”


The tiny building certainly is used for a wide range of activities. “My granddaughter had her first birthday in our garden, and the shed was a central feature for play and face painting,” Wiking says.

URL: Creative Houzz Users Share Their ‘She Sheds’ http://www.decor-ideas.org/cases-view-id-26254.html