He wanted a new workshop. She had one condition.
It had to be pretty.
“The final design matches in with our home seamlessly and is absolutely beautiful. It makes me smile when I look at how pretty it is.”
Shed for him. Style for her.
The (not so secret) secret to a successful marriage is compromise. And that’s why, when Glen wanted to replace his garden work shed, it was replaced with more than ‘just a shed’.
He needed storage and workspace. But wife Terri wanted aesthetics: As it would be visible from both the front of the house and the backyard, this was a non-negotiable.
Prone to flooding, with rotten walls and an asbestos roof, their existing shed had seen better days. It had served its purpose for years, but it had never been attractive, and with a prominent position, visible from multiple angles, its deterioration was on display for all to see.
It had to go.
But Terri was not going to settle for anything less than ‘make you smile’ pretty.
If they were going to invest in a replacement, it needed to be a win for both of them. A functional storage and workshop space for Glen, but “one which did not look like a tin can,” for Terri.
In fact, she’d seen the exact one she wanted on a weekend getaway to the country town of Berry in NSW. A pretty weatherboard structure with two sides of 10-lite doors. And with this vision in mind, the search was on.
The search for pretty and practical
However, the pursuit for the perfect building proved to be more challenging – and expensive – than Terri had anticipated.
One company quoted a staggering amount for a custom tin shed – far more than they were willing to pay for something that was far from perfect.
They then started looking elsewhere.
“We got quotes from a few prefab companies,” Terri tells us.
But they still weren’t right.
“These had no character and to be honest were ugly,” she says.
And they were still expensive. These options weren’t just aesthetically disappointing, but they also carried price tags that couldn’t be justified for such a compromise.
Back to the drawing board.
“We then reached out to a few builders to start from scratch,” says Terri.
But again, disappointment.
“Their quotes were actually ridiculous and still not all that pleasant to look at.”
Just when Terri thought she had exhausted all of her options, she stumbled upon Greenspan, and everything she was looking for fell into place.
“The options were much more appealing, matched the aesthetic I was looking for and affordable,” she tells us.
Shed serendipity
Terri made an enquiry, and before long, she was sitting down with a Design Solutioneer, mapping out her exact vision.
“Our Solutioneer was great,” Terri recalls. “He walked us through everything and explained how we could tailor the build/design to what we needed and wanted it to look like.”
Finally, she had found everything she had been looking for.
And then the stars aligned even closer.
While being shown other examples from the 10,000+ previous projects Greenspan had delivered around the country, Terri saw the exact building she had been carrying in her mind since her trip to Berry. The weatherboard cladding, the 10-lite doors, a porch to one end and a verandah to the side. The perfect colours and proportions.
It was the exact shed she had in mind.
The power of personalisation
This is where the flexibility of building with Greenspan becomes truly powerful.
With an exact aesthetic vision to meet, and an existing footprint to work with, an ‘off the shelf’ design would have involved compromise. But at Greenspan, every building is unique; designed for you, by you.
“The fact that we could design our shed to look exactly how ‘WE’ wanted was amazing,” Terri says.
The design started as a custom hybrid of two designs: a Melwood Porch and a Melwood Verandah.
This allowed a feature to be made of the two prominent elevations – the gable, which sat at the end of the driveway and was visible from the front of the house, and the side of the building that overlooks the pool and frames the rear garden.
The 10-lite doors of Terri’s dreams were added next. A double set to the porch frontage, plus a single and a set of doubles to the verandah side. These two visible sides were upgraded to pre-primed weatherboard cladding to tick that visual box and match the house. Also ensuring the building seamlessly mirrored both Terri’s vision and the house, a custom colour of “Windspray” was selected for the Colorbond® roofing, gutters and downpipes. An L-shaped merbau deck wraps under the verandah and the porch, with balustrades at each end applying the finishing touch.
“The many design choices that were ‘ours’ to make along the way, including the stunning ‘ten lite doors’ were just wonderful,” Terri sums up.
A perfect match
Every aesthetic choice was theirs to make, and as a result, Terri and Glen’s replacement shed is exactly what they hoped for. Pretty as a picture, and finished in calm coastal whites, soft greys and the warm tones of merbau, every carefully curated detail coordinates to perfection.
“The final design matches in with our home seamlessly and is absolutely beautiful,” Terri proudly states.
Pulling into the driveway, you’re greeted by a beautiful building that looks completely at home with its pretty decked porch entrance, which wraps around to the side verandah. From the rear garden, it takes pride of place next to the pool, blending perfectly with the adjacent house.
To secure access to the rear garden, timber screening – painted white to match the timber doors behind – has been added to the decking at the front of the porch. To the side, steps have been added to extend the decking and seamlessly connect the building with the garden.
“Our Greenspan Building is exactly what we had imagined!” says Terri, “We have no doubt that our choice to choose Greenspan has added substantial value to our home.”
Pretty for her, practical for him
With so much exterior beauty, it’s easy to forget what this shed’s all about on the inside. In fact, it fools a lot of people!
“Everyone I have shown has said “, That is no shed!” Terri tells us.
But step inside, and it’s exactly that.
Unlined walls and shelving units dotted with tools and plastic storage boxes, a workbench, drawers, garden and household essentials, excess building materials and furniture. It’s Glen’s domain – a typical work shed and storage space. With all the exterior architectural interest applied to those two prominently visible sides, the remaining two have been left to allow ample wall space for the storage this space needs.
It’s the ultimate compromise.
“We now have more floor space and areas to have shelving etc for organising our things,” explains Terri.
All without the risk of flooding, the rotting walls and the dangerous roof. And all with the aesthetics Terri insisted upon.
Now Glen has his space to potter about and tinker with tools. Terri has a pretty verandah to relax upon. They both have their needs met – Glen’s functionality and Terri’s aesthetics. It’s proof that pretty and practical don’t have to be mutually exclusive. Not when you can personalise.
As Terri sums up so well, “A ‘shed’ does not have to be ugly just because it’s ’only a shed’!”
Smiles all round
Where once there was a run-down eyesore, now stands a beautiful shed that belongs. An architectural feature that looks good from every vantage point. A space for him and a space for her.
“It makes me smile when I look at how pretty it is,” Terri says, “Everyone comments that our shed doesn’t look like a shed and that’s exactly the point.”
This couple understood the importance of compromising with each other, but not on the end result.
Or, on the journey to get there!
Recalling her overall Greenspan experience, Terri says, “Nothing was a bother and all the team were lovely to deal with from start to finish. We have no hesitation in recommending Greenspan.”
And that makes us smile.
Terri’s Melwood is a custom Melwood Porch/Verandah 20 hybrid measuring 3.2m x 6.3m.
It features an upgrade to pre-primed weatherboard cladding on two sides, with board and batten as standard on the other two. Aluminium windows are in “White”, and Colorbond® roofing is in the custom colour “Windspray”. Terri further personalised her design with 10-lite timber doors and L-shaped merbau decking.
All measurements are approximate.
Sheds can be pretty as well as practical.
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