How to Choose the Best Garden Office for Your Home

Garden offices have become very popular over recent years, and with good reason.

More people now work from home either full-time, or part-time. Garden buildings are better than ever before; offering more choice, better designs and increased comfort.

Garden offices usually don’t need planning permission, although there are a few rules to consider. And you could even add value to your property – potentially 1.25 times the cost of your garden room in some cases.

But how should you choose the best garden office for your home to ensure it’s the perfect place to work? Here’s a guide to help you.

1. Overall Design

Signature Range Room – Into the Garden Room  

First of all, you need to consider the overall design of your garden office. This is a big decision, so take your time. There are several factors to consider:

• Available Space – There may be a physical limit to the size of your garden room based on the size of your garden. But you can still have a large office in a small garden if you’re happy with it taking up more space.
• Function – Do you want your garden office to only be an office, or to double up as something else? Many people choose multipurpose garden rooms that can be used as an office and a living room, for example.
• Position – You might want a garden room that takes centre stage in your garden, or you may prefer a corner room tucked out of the way. You should also consider the amount of sunlight you’ll get based on which direction it faces.

When you’ve considered these basic points, it’s time to take a look at some garden room designs to see if any stand out to you.

This is the stage to consider features like the number of windows and doors, as well as whether you want a veranda to sit outside and enjoy on pleasant days.

There’s an almost endless range of garden office designs to choose from. Some offices are already designed, and some have options to personalise specific features. But if you want something completely original, you may want to choose a bespoke service instead; that way, you can choose the size, dimensions, materials and more to get a garden room that you know is unique.

2. Materials

Signature Range Room – Into the Garden Room  

Once you’ve got a good idea of the overall design you want for your garden office, it’s time to think about materials.

The best garden office buildings are made using high-quality materials that are made to last many years. Some factors to consider include:

• Double-glazing glass – This should be a must to keep your office warmer in winter and cooler in summer, so you can work productivity in comfort.
• Cladding – This reflects your personal style and protects your garden room from the elements
• Doors – Aluminium bifold doors with toughened glass for security and performance are a good choice.
• Sustainability – It’s best to use eco-friendly materials to reduce your carbon footprint. For example, you could use giant ground screws instead of concrete as a lower-carbon alternative.
• Flooring – Durable laminate flooring is a tough and long-lasting option.
• Insulation – You want your garden office to be comfortable to use all year round, so high-quality insulation is essential in the walls, floor and ceiling.

3. Interior Style

Bespoke Room – Into the Garden Room 

When creating a garden office space, it’s important to consider the style of the interior.

For example, your choice of flooring will have a large impact on the overall look and feel of the room. There are several styles to choose from, including:

• Smart Oak
• Tawny Chestnut
• Chestnut Oak
• White Washed

Each has a distinctive appearance that will change the overall feel of your interior space, so think about this carefully because it’s harder to change the floor later on than the colour of the walls.

Speaking of which, you have an almost endless range of options when choosing paint for the walls. The colour will impact the overall feel and have an effect on your mood. Consider choosing something cool and calming like white, light blue or green to help you focus.

4. Important Amenities

Signature Range Room – Into the Garden Room 

You should now have a good idea of the type of garden office you’ll be getting. But to get the best garden building for home working, you’ll need several key amenities to ensure it serves its purpose effectively.

For example, you’ll need to ensure your office has an electricity supply and you have the ability to plug in any devices you’ll be using, like your computer, router, lamps and more.

A good garden office should have plenty of electricity sockets, so you can plug in whatever you need to with ease without having to trail extension leads.

If you want additional sockets, this is something to decide early on so they can be built into the design rather than trying to add them later.

Heating is another important factor. We’ve already mentioned the importance of good insulation to keep the heat in during the winter, but you’ll also want some form of heating.

Smart heating systems are a good option. Stylish, slim and highly effective, these heaters can warm up a small space quickly so you can work in comfort without feeling cold even in the middle of winter.

You may even want a toilet and sink installed, which will save you time taking trips back to your house during the day.

You’ll also want good internet access. One option is to use a Wi-Fi extension to access your home’s internet connection, which you could do if your garden room is 30 metres or less from your home.

You could have an ethernet cable installed alongside the power cables during the construction of your garden office. This will provide a more reliable connection so you can enjoy access to the internet without any problems.

Choose Your Garden Office Furniture

Bespoke Room – Into the Garden Room

All of the four areas covered above are essential considerations when choosing the best office garden for your home. But there’s one final thing to do after your office has been installed – choose the furniture.

You’ll want to fill your room with furniture that will help you to use it as intended – as a place to work and be productive. Furniture can be changed as much as you want over the months and years, but there are a few essentials:

• Office desk and chair
• Shelves
• Desk lamp
• Filing cabinet

You might also want to add some plants. Garden rooms are full of natural light, which plants thrive in. They can also add a sense of calm, helping you to concentrate.

You might even want to add a music system so you can play relaxing music while you work.

Where space is at a premium, consider smart storage solutions like chairs that double up as storage, or a corner desk that frees up space in the rest of the room.

It all depends on how you plan to use your office. For example, as well as using your garden room as an office, you might also want to use it as a living room, a summer house or even a yoga studio. In these cases, you might want to keep your working area to a small corner of the room.

However you go about it, make sure you use the furniture to express your personal style so your office is a place where you’ll be happy to spend plenty of time.

How Long Will It Take to Install a Garden Office?

Bespoke Room – Into the Garden Room

As you can see, there’s quite a lot to consider when it comes to choosing your garden office, including the overall design, materials, decoration, and more. But the actual installation process should not take long.

The average build time for most garden rooms is about 20 days. However, this can be longer for bespoke garden offices, and it depends on the complexity of the project, such as whether you need plumbing installed.

Choose Your Perfect Garden Office

We hope you’ve found this guide useful. You can use the information provided to choose the best design, materials and other features to ensure you get the perfect garden office.

A garden office provides you with a great way to work from home, while enjoying your own space to focus as you enjoy the view of your garden.

With more people working from home than ever before, now could be the perfect time to choose the best garden office for your home.