Picture yourself walking through your home for a moment.
The garage that should fit two cars, but can’t. The spare room nobody can sleep in. The hallway full of hazards.
You’re not alone. Australian households accumulate a lot of stuff… and a lot of it’s bulky.
Our lucky lifestyle means we collect surfboards and wetsuits, camping and fishing gear, bikes and sports equipment. Then there’s the garden tools, the Christmas decorations, the spare furniture and the second fridge.
It’s not unreasonable to own any of this – in fact, most Aussie families do. The problem is, it all needs to go somewhere… and inevitably it creeps into rooms and areas that are designed for a completely different purpose. You now have to park your car on the street, you’re stumbling over the kids’ bikes in the hall, or you’ve given up on the dream of turning the spare room into a home office. Living space is sacrificed, and everything starts to feel cluttered and disorganised.
So, let’s change all that.
Backyard storage solutions for Australian homes
When your indoor living space starts to overflow with belongings, the logical place for it to go is outside. And we don’t mean piled up under the verandah where you entertain friends and enjoy family BBQs.
We mean proper garden storage. Sturdy, secure space for your stuff. A place that is purposefully designed to reclaim your home and make life feel organised again.
And by proper garden storage we don’t mean a flimsy garden shed from the hardware store. We mean a quality timber building, engineered and built for Australian conditions, and designed to last decades, not just years. We mean a building that’s weatherproof through every season and keeps your precious belongings safe, secure and protected. We mean a structure that looks good in your garden and enhances your home.
We mean a Melwood.
Self-storage units vs a backyard shed
Of course, there is another way. But it’s expensive and inconvenient.
Self-storage units can seem like a sensible fix at first. And for a genuine, one-off or short-term need, they might be a great solution. However, for the belongings that are simply a part of everyday life, not so much.
First, let’s do the maths.
The average self-storage user in Australia is paying between $200-$400 a month. Let’s split the difference and assume $300. That’s $3600 over a year. $18,000 over five. After a decade, a whopping $36,000. Every dollar gone in fees, with nothing to show for it except for the same belongings gathering dust. Plus, once you’ve started on this self-storage journey, it’s very difficult to stop. Quite often, more and more gets accumulated, and more space – at more cost – ends up being required.
- 1 year of self-storage: $3,600
- 5 years: $18,000
- 10 years: $36,000 – with nothing to show for it
Then there’s the inconvenience.
Getting to your stuff means forward planning and a journey to the warehouse. When Mother Nature surprises you with unexpectedly good weather, you can’t just grab the camping gear and go. Simply popping to the beach with your paddleboard isn’t possible. And if you need regular access to your bikes and sports equipment, it’s simply not a solution.
We’ll tell you what is though…
Why a Melwood is a better backyard storage solution
A Melwood shed or studio is ideal for garden storage. Every displaced item scattered around your home and garden can have somewhere to live. And not just a place to be dumped… a proper, secure space where everything is organised and accessible.
The surfboard… stored correctly, off the ground and out of the sun. The camping and fishing gear… all neatly stored away until the next adventure. The bikes… hanging neatly on a rack, helmets alongside them. The pool equipment can be kept out of sight and stored between seasons. The lawnmower, whippersnipper, chainsaw and garden tools are easy to access while safely out of the elements.
And the things that always seem to take over the garage? The spare furniture you only need a few times a year. The Christmas decorations. The second fridge. That last box you never unpacked from moving house all those years ago. All of it just thirty seconds from your back door while finally freeing up space to park your car!
Melwood designs, sizes and customisation options
One of the many things that sets a Melwood apart is how completely it can be made your own.
Start with the size that suits your backyard and your storage requirements. You might only need a compact garden shed for potting plants and storing garden tools. Maybe you need something a little larger to store multiple or bulky items. Or perhaps you need something even bigger that doubles as a workshop or hobby room – two problems solved in one! With a range of sizes from 8m2 to 54m2+ and a choice of wall heights, it’s all covered.
Then it’s a case of choosing your design base from our broad range. The sleek Melwood Mod. The rugged Melwood Workshed. The welcoming Melwood Porch. The traditional Melwood Verandah. The sophisticated eSpace. We don’t just have one standard style but a variety of different designs, so there’s something to suit any taste and property. Explore the full Melwood range.
But that’s just the beginning. Because next, you choose your cladding, your colours, your windows and doors – even where you position them. You can add or remove a deck, combine a verandah down the side with a porch to the front. This unmatched flexibility delivers not just a standard storage solution like all the others, but a stylish building that has been designed specifically to belong in your backyard.
A Melwood is built for life, and more than a garden shed
There’s something else worth considering if you’re weighing up a shop-bought garden shed with a Greenspan building.
A Melwood isn’t just a shed. It’s an engineered design, a proper prefab building; weatherproof and built for Australian conditions. There are wall cavities for insulation and services, pre-lined with permeable sarking. The roofing is Colorbond® and fitted with Anticon® blanket insulation. Gutters, flashings, and downpipes effectively channel water away and keep your building weatherproof throughout every season.
This means you can be sure your belongings stay protected, dry and in the same condition as you left them. It also means it’s an incredibly adaptable space. Because a building of this quality can be so much more than just a storage shed.
Many customers partition off a section of their Melwood, give it separate access, and dedicate that space to storage. Meanwhile, the remainder of the building is put to a different use – perhaps an art studio, a media room, or a pool cabana. Some get even more creative: storing unused bedroom furniture and gaining a guest suite, or turning the storage of the spare fridge and outdoor furniture into a bar through the winter months.
Maybe you need the whole building for storage today. But because it’s not just a shed, as life changes, your Melwood can change with it. And because it’s built to last, today’s garden storage solution can become the home office, the teenage retreat, or the hobby room of tomorrow. The building itself is the constant – what happens inside it is entirely up to you.
The design and installation process for your Melwood
We’ve been doing this for 50 years and have the process down to a fine art. From our very first conversation, you’ll be guided and supported for an enjoyable, stress-free process every step of your journey, from design to delivery.
It’s fast too. Once production drawings are signed off, it’s just a few weeks until your building arrives ready to install. It’s PreCrafted in our Sydney factory by our highly-skilled production team, so adverse weather never causes a delay. It arrives in modular panels, ready to connect together efficiently on site – most buildings are installed to lock-up stage in a single day. It’ll even squeeze through tight access, and there’s no need for extensive ground preparation – your Melwood sits on piers, keeping things simple from the very start.
And because it’s so precise and efficient, it’s sustainable, cost-effective and kinder to your site.
Do you need council approval?
Maybe not.
Depending on the planning regulations where you live, building a storage shed in your garden may qualify as exempt development, meaning no council approvals are required.
The specifics will depend on the size of the building, your property and its zoning, and local requirements — but navigating this is something our team does every day.
As a starting point, we’ve put together some easy to digest information on council approvals by state.
But with us, you don’t have to go it alone. We have an experienced team that is there for you, so let’s have a conversation – we’ll look at what you want, where you live, and walk you through it all clearly. Whether you’re in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide or Perth, the rules vary – we work with customers across all states and territories every day. You can stop wondering whether that backyard storage shed is possible and start planning what you’ll put in it.
A permanent outdoor storage solution for Australian families
Your belongings deserve to belong somewhere. And your garage deserves to house your cars, your spare room deserves to accommodate guests, and your hallway deserves to be clutter-free.
A Melwood timber garden shed or backyard studio is the permanent storage solution to a problem that so many Australian families simply put up with or try to solve with a cheap garden shed.
It’s a building that’s built for life. So, whether it stays as an outdoor storage solution forever, or evolves into something more in time, it’s truly an investment in your property that keeps earning its place – in both your life and garden.
It’s time to reclaim your home.
Related reading
We’ve put together some useful links below to help you explore your options for garden storage solutions:
- Council approval information by state and territory
- Melwood sheds and studios range
- Garden sheds for sale in Australia
- Customer story: A shed… but make it pretty
Storage is solved with a Melwood.
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FAQs
The average monthly cost for self-storage units in Australia is $200–$400. This adds up to as much as $36,000 over a decade with nothing to show for it. A Melwood, however, is a one-time investment in a permanent, weatherproof structure that adds long term value to your property and lifestyle. Plus, for items you need regular access to – bikes, camping gear, sports equipment, garden tools – a Melwood is far more practical, allowing your belongings to be accessible from your own backyard, any time you need them.
Hardware store sheds are typically thin-gauge steel or a single skin timber shell with no insulation, minimal weatherproofing and a limited lifespan. A Melwood is a sustainably engineered building with wall cavities, Colorbond® roofing, Anticon® blanket insulation, and properly fitted gutters and flashings. This means your belongings stay dry and protected through every season, heat, rain and humidity included. And because it’s built this way, it can evolve over time into whatever you need –a workshop, home office, guest suite or creative studio. The building is the constant; what happens inside it is up to you.
Extensively. Buildings range from 8m² to 54m²+, with a choice of wall heights, and flexibility with the footprint dimensions to suit your backyard and storage needs. From there you choose your design base, and add your choice of cladding, colours, window and door placement, and extras like a deck or verandah. There’s no single standard look – every Melwood is tailored to belong in your garden, suit your needs, and complement your home.
No slab needed – Melwood buildings are installed on piers, which keeps site preparation simple and minimises disruption to your garden. As for timing, once your drawings are signed off, it’s typically just a few weeks until your building arrives – because every Melwood is PreCrafted in our Sydney factory, weather doesn’t cause delays. Once delivered, most buildings reach lock-up stage in less than a day on site.
Not necessarily. Depending on the size of the building, your property and its zoning, and local planning rules, your shed may qualify as exempt development – meaning no council approval is required. The specifics vary by state and territory, and it’s something Greenspan’s team navigates every day. Whether you’re in NSW, SA, QLD, ACT, VIC, TAS, WA, or NT, the rules vary – but our team works with customers across all states and territories every day. Get in touch and we’ll walk you through exactly what applies to your property.