05 Aug 16

How to design and decorate a She Shed- Part 1

A She shed designed as a crafting DIY and upcycling creaive workspace at the end of the garden. The balck weatherboard exterior is set off by bright yellow doors and patterned fabric blinds

I recently got one of those pinch me commissions, to design a She-shed, by the lovely people at Hillary’s. A staggering 51% of sheds are being bought by women and I’m beginning to understand why. No longer the sole domain of man, she-sheds are a place outside the home where women can have some space to themselves. Whether that’s somewhere to kick back and relax or somewhere to get creative, either way I think it presents itself with a really exciting interior design opportunity. A chance to be more experimental or to tap into your true creativity. I saw it a bit like doing up a grown up dolls house!

Derek Jarmans house Prospect Cottage in in Dungeness painted in jet black weatherboard with bright yellow window frames

Derek Jarman’s house Prospect Cottage in in Dungeoness

I started off with a traditional summer house from Waltons. For my design and to kick off I hit Pinterest and made up a She Shed mood board of inspiration. You can check it out here. For this project I wanted to go black as that’s quite a classic colour for outside timber buildings. I was reminded of the late Derek Jarman‘s house, Prospect Cottage in Dungeoness, which I’ve visited many times. I love how black weatherboard blends in nicely with garden greenery but then the yellow windows really pop against the dark. ‘Quelle suprise’ I then picked out a selection of similarly bright tones to make up the interior. These were then going to be repeated throughout the fabrics and accessories. The shed was designed in my signature style which is to combine lots of eye catching brights and set them off against a dark background.

Kids bedroom designed by Sophie Robinson in her signature black with pops of bright colour which is ideal for a kids room as the brights look striking against the dark interior. photograph by Alun Callender

My son Arthur’s room inspired the interior design scheme

Just like this interior scheme my idea was to paint the interior black too and use it as a back drop for bright pops of colour. I also wanted the she shed to feel like real bolt hole, a place of escape and I felt a dark paint interior would really help to achieve that cocooning vibe.

Painting a shed in a black ash deckstain with bright yellow exterior doors make a strong colour statement

I chose a decking stain in Black Ash for the exterior and interior, and it took a couple of coats which in all was about 2 days work. The doors were primed then treated to two coats of Bonjour X69 R140C exterior wood paint from Valspar which is a really rocking yellow!

DIY painting the shed in black ash decking stain

I love it when the design team dress to co ordinate with the decorating scheme! Top marks Kate McPhee

Myself, Kate and Antonia then got busy upcycling bits of junk and getting creative with the spray paint in order to make the interior feel really special and one off. If your designing a creative space you can’t not get creative right?! For any work space, storage is key so we covered washed out food tins in colourful patterned wrapping paper, a real Blue Peter moment! But these tins are idea to store pens, brushes and haberdashery.

Making accessories from wrapping paper and recycled food tins for storage in the She Shed

I then couldn’t help but get my trusty spray can out. Its such a super easy and super fast way to add a pop of colour, well to anything really! And if there is a camera crew on set to catch you doing it, then even better. I fund some really cheap wire shelves from Tiger and sprayed them up in neon brights which look awesome against the black.

You can watch the video of the whole makeover in my next post

So drum roll….the big reveal!

I’m so chuffed with how she looks, a proper little piece of backyard bliss. I wanted my she shed to feel like an Aladdins cave and by painting in black throughout really has that high impact and makes all the jewel coloured accessories inside really stand out.

Next week I’m going to post more exclusive shots of the interior with more tips and ideas of what you need to think about when designing and decorating your own she-shed.

In the meantime if you’d like to WIN this shed and its contents, from picture frames to pegboards, all is included. And Hilary’s will deliver and install it in your garden, such nice people. For more details on how to enter visit the Hillary’s website here

Please feel free to share this blog and the competition with fellow she shed lovers…links on how to share this article are below.

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