A shed for the shed in my head

For special reasons family members decided they would like to put money in a pot towards building a garden studio for me.  The last time I had a studio of my own was in 1995.  I had got used to working in the ‘back room’ in the house. My family had got used to the smells of printmaking mingling with the smells of cooking.  That never bothered me but it did bother me when I had to pack all my work away to make the back room where I worked ‘look tidy’ for visitors.  It also bothered my family that I made a lot of mess in one of the best rooms in the house.

At first I felt at odds with the idea of having my own space, it felt too luxurious for me, I was used to making do, but then I started to get very excited about it.  My family were also excited about having the best room in the house back.

So we shopped around and looked around shed heaven.  There was a lot to consider and lots of web adverts to look at.  But you can’t beat meeting a real builder you like, and seeing a real building you like.  We went to meet Trevor Naylor who runs Crusoe Garden Rooms in Nottingham and we liked him and we liked his buildings. 

Here’s some photos of the studio that Trevor, and his team Jack and Floyd built.  

I normally hate having builders around the place but these guys were wonderful. There was one day in particular I will remember as being very special and that was the day the cedar arrived late in the afternoon.  It was the end of the first week of building and the day had a timeline punctuated by smells:

Coffee

Earth

Pine

Fish and chips and vinegar

Wet fleeces

Coffee and KitKats

Cedar…lots and lots of cedar, Canadian red cedar from the Pacific North West, warm-hued and heady resin-scented cedar.

Feel very lucky indeed.

I now have a shed for the ‘shed in my head’ *

*how Grayson Perry describes being an artist.

With special thanks to Di and George Davidson who made this happen.