By Casen Bria
Garden sheds tend to feel like a tradition. When purchasing a new home, they are often already there at the end of the garden and ready to be used as storage. It has only been this year, in the wake of an international pandemic no less, and the demand for outdoor garden spaces has skyrocketed, calling the necessity and usefulness of sheds into question.
For a number of reasons, homeowners are now starting to remove and replace them. Primarily, the types of equipment and items sheds store are becoming less common. Minimalism has extended from the home and into the shed space, eliminating much of their prior usefulness as residents clear out tangled sports equipment and rusting power tools in the pursuit of fewer belongings and greater living space.
Additionally, as gardens begin to increase the amount of potential value a property has, many sellers are looking to make their own garden spaces as appealing as possible to potential buyers. Less often, it seems, do these redesigns, renovations, and spruces actually include a garden shed. And, at the cost of replacing them, homeowners are choosing to start totally afresh with a new outbuilding room instead.
Most property owners will know the value of square footage and how increasing a home’s potential space increases the property’s value too. This has historically led to extensions being built onto homes and to garages being converted into bedrooms, alongside other similarly creative endeavours, each to maximise a home’s square footage. Sheds, however, have rarely come into this equation, until recently.
Property value can be considerably improved by replacing garden sheds with outbuildings, such as log cabins and annexes, as this creates new square footage. Their utility can be used for extra bedrooms, office spaces, and even hobby and activity rooms, much like any extra room inside the home. They also offer the advantage of privacy and separation from the main property, which can be ideal for those intending to work from the space or rent it out, such as with Airbnb.
In the wake of a growing remote working culture, as well as that of start-up companies and online entrepreneurship, having a dedicated space outside of the home but within the property is becoming increasingly more valued, which is another reason why sheds are finding themselves ousted in place of a more practical alternative. Extra rooms are now being listed on property websites as potential office spaces instead of solely as an extra bed.
Another effect of lockdown has been a wider rethinking of garden utility. Home-growing, composting, and sustainability have long been on the rise as new generations grow more concerned about developing climate impact. Gardens are, in this context, the ideal space to reduce a home’s carbon footprint, allowing residents to compost their food waste, grow their own ingredients, and even create their own wild space.
This growing content and rethinking mean that the traditional garden shed is being left behind. Little, it seems, will be missed, however, since they are being replaced with far more exciting and valuable assets.
