A Garden Studio review

A Garden Studio was constructed in our garden a year ago. It’s been a huge success in so many ways!

 

This building was constructed on site by Creative Garden Studios.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Disclaimer

This is a garden studio review without being influenced by a financial discount of any kind. It is my honest opinion of a garden studio supplied by Creative Garden Studios.

 

 

Why choose them?

Well in fact, we didn’t initially consider this south Devon company and wasted time communicating with a large and better known garden studio supplier. We had a seen a garden studio supplied by this other company and weren’t too happy with how it had looked after a couple of years. Most of these issues were because of poor workmanship which we wanted to avoid. But nevertheless we were ready to send a deposit. To our amazement this large and well known supplier wouldn’t even discuss these issues! They said that they were too busy with orders already placed!

So a quick search soon had us talking to Creative Garden Studios in Devon.

They invited us to view a couple of buildings. And also to meet customers to hear first hand about a garden studio from Creative Garden Studios. We quickly realised that this was a company small enough to care but large enough to deliver.

After an on site visit to our garden and discussions about size, cost, cladding materials and internal fittings and finish, we placed our order.

 

The Build.

Creative Garden Studios delivered all materials for a garden studio to our garden. Other than the windows sliding doors, everything was constructed on site!

Their builder [Simon] worked through the heat to complete the build in a little over three weeks.

To construct this size of a garden studio would normally be quicker but there were a few issues with supply of materials which slowed things down.

Simon worked like a ‘Trojan’ and we strongly recommend him! It seems that he can turn his hand to most things so that only an electrician was needed to sign his wiring off. Everything else was done by Simon single handedly.

The studio sits on the sub soil [top soil removed] on concrete joists.

The walls and roof are all timber frame and between that and the plasterboard inside is masses of insulation.

Of course the floor is raised but again has masses of insulation. We opted for laminate floor covering inside and I recommend that you do too.

A few extra recessed lights both inside and outside of the studio have made all the difference.

We asked for rather a lot of electrical points and of course we can’t be without WiFi connection! These items are all negotiable but inevitably impact on the ultimate cost of a garden studio.

 

Softening the impact

The look of the building on the outside was important to us. We wanted it to make an aesthetic contribution to the garden! This we believe it has done.

We considered having a green roof covered in plants. But since that added considerably to the cost and the roof angled away from our home we decided to have a more conventional roof covering. We reckoned that we could buy and plant a lot more insect friendly plants with the money saved. Space for plants is not an issue in our one acre garden.

At the moment it still looks a bit stark but when plants cosy up to it and get established I’m sure that look will rapidly disappear!

 

 

 

Using the Studio

The building is very cosy and has a thermostatically controlled electric heater.

We use it for work. I’m writing this from inside it on the hottest day of the year so far!

My wife Felicity designs gardens for clients in here.

It is basically our working hub!