A backyard in business

After-hours freedom

Michelle’s client base is not your average massage list. Instead, her clients include professional athletes who rely on her expertise to be at peak physical performance.

“I work with a number of NRL and Netball players who are either recovering from injury or need some preparation work prior to games,” Michelle explains.

It’s time-sensitive, high-performance work that requires a professional, dedicated environment and genuine flexibility around scheduling.

“Having a treatment room at home allows me to be flexible to meet their needs,” Michelle continues, “I can now offer them treatment in the evenings which is proving to be very beneficial for my clients”.

Before her Melwood, this flexibility simply didn’t exist. Clients who couldn’t make daytime appointments were difficult to accommodate, and for athletes juggling training schedules, game preparation, and sometimes even second jobs, evening appointments aren’t just a luxury. They’re often the only option.

For Michelle, having a treatment room at home to see clients after-hours gave her work from home freedom with a competitive edge, and allowed her to provide a level of service that wasn’t possible before.

A building, not a shed

But a professional treatment room isn’t something you can just throw together, and Michelle knew exactly what she wanted from the very beginning.

“We didn’t want just a shed in the backyard,” she says, “We wanted something that looked good and was well built”.

She wanted a building with genuine quality – a high-performing workspace that was fit for purpose, comfortable year-round, and presented professionally to her clients.

This is exactly why she chose Greenspan.

“Greenspan provided various designs, sizes and configurations which enabled us to choose one that best suited our needs,” she confirms.

Every Melwood is a certified engineered design, and constructed the way you’d expect and want any room in your home to be built. The wall panels feature deep cavities for insulation to be added before lining, and for services to be run and concealed completely. The roof features Australia’s trusted Colorbond® sheeting and Anticon® insulation, with gutters, downpipes, and flashings ensuring proper water management, just like on your house. Walls are wrapped in a permeable membrane, and the cladding and joins have been designed to overhang and create a weatherproof seal – important details that matter.

These aren’t single skin sheds but proper buildings. And for a treatment environment where client comfort is non-negotiable, this level of quality isn’t a bonus – it has to be the baseline.

Simple from the start

Supported by the experienced team at Greenspan, the design process was fast and easy.

Firstly came the inspiration and trust gathering stage. “There were lots of examples on the Greenspan website,” Michelle recalls. These real customer stories gathered over the years gave Michelle a clear idea of what she wanted and confidence in exactly what she’d be getting.

From there, it was a visit to a Display Centre – a chance to stand inside the buildings, experience the space firsthand and get a genuine feel for sizes and quality in person.

“Then it was a sit down with the designers to work out what our options were and how it would fit in our space,” Michelle recalls.

With almost every element customisable – cladding, colours, windows, doors, layout and more – this was a design collaboration that ensured Michelle could create exactly what she wanted. Plans were then drawn up, ready to approve, Michelle describing it as, “A really simple process which took less than a week from beginning to end”.

For a busy sports professional with a full client roster and a practice to run, fast and simple was exactly what she needed.

Built for purpose

Michelle’s Melwood Mod 15 measures 2.6m x 5.4m – compact yet purposeful, and precisely the right size for a professional treatment room that doesn’t take over the garden.

Timber-framed double glass doors with full height double-hung windows on each side work with this design’s highlight windows to fill the interior with natural light. Combined with the 1.3m front deck, the entrance is a welcoming and appealing transition between the garden and treatment room.

The board and batten cladding, painted to match the “Woodland Grey” roofing, contrasts with the white aluminium windows and painted timber doors to give the exterior a clean, confident finish.

It’s exactly the professional workspace that Michelle pictured from the very beginning.

Twenty minutes to transform

But there’s more to this Melwood.

“Our cabin has a dual purpose,” Michelle tells us.

Her family are scattered across NSW, but regularly visit Sydney. Before, there was not enough room to host them. Now there’s a welcoming place for them to stay.

“Saves them some money and we get to spend more time with them,” Michelle tells us.

The transition between treatment room and guest accommodation takes less than half an hour.

“It’s easy for me to take my table out, rearrange a bit of furniture and put a sofa bed in the room,” she explains, “It literally takes 20 minutes to reset the room”.

And it’s as comfortable as any guest space could be. With fresh, white walls, modern timber flooring, and soft, pastel decor it’s bright but warm. There’s plenty of storage, a split system to help with climate control on the days that need it, and stylish window treatments providing the necessary privacy for both clients and guests alike.

A smarter renovation

For many homeowners in need of additional space, the first instinct is to move; the second is to renovate. But both options come at the expense of stress, time and cost. Michelle did the maths and the sums said it all.

“I certainly could not have reconfigured or renovated my house to provide this additional space at anywhere near what it cost for a Melwood cabin,” she tells us.

A traditional house renovation of this scope would usually mean months of disruption, trades coming and going, and an invoice that would far outweigh that of her Melwood. And it still wouldn’t deliver the separation, the flexibility or the professional environment that Michelle now has at the end of her garden.

The Melwood didn’t just solve the problem. It solved it at a fraction of the cost, time and hassle of the alternative, and with a bunch of benefits thrown in.

“Simple, quick and affordable,” Michelle summarises, “It’s made a significant difference”.

All measurements are approximate.