Shed of the year 2024, Sponsored by 
We were lucky to have the summerhouse already in the garden when we moved into our new house 5 months ago. The previous owners put the 10x8 cedar summerhouse up in 2015 at a cost of £3,500. They used it mainly as a greenhouse, so we gave the staging and heater away and set about cleaning it up and turning it into an outside room we could use. We have really enjoyed decorating it over the spring, mostly using bits and pieces we already had from our old house or things the previous owners left behind in the new house. We painted the door and windows frames blue to add a wee pop of colour and put up some bunting that we had, then put lots of of our favourite things inside! My favourite part is the chalkboard fireplace – we brought it with us from our old house as it had a lot of memories. We would always write birthday messages on it and on special days like the first day of school and messages for Santa so I’m glad its found a new home in the summerhouse. It makes the room feel really homey and familiar and the kids love drawing on it. The mirror was left in the house by the previous owners and finished the fireplace off perfectly. The wicker chair belonged to my mum’s mum and is still going strong 60 years later!
The two paintings on the walls were done by my daughters, and the slate summerhouse sign was made by my daughter with a bit of slate we found in the garden and cleaned up. All the pots and strawberry planter on the decking we found hidden around the garden and we have emptied them of snails and cleaned them up. Family gave us strawberry runners, herbs, and a 12 pack of petunias!
The summerhouse has been stocked with books, cards, and games like battleships, chess and labyrinth. It also has a radio, bird and wildlife books and binoculars making it a lovely chill out place to relax. You can sit there and listen to the birds, read a book, take a nap, sip a drink, and it’s a lovely place to entertain guests. It’s nice to be outdoors but still feel like you are in the comfort of home. It is the perfect spot for a morning coffee, afternoon cuppa or evening drink. It faces south so it’s always the first spot in the garden to warm up and there is also blankets and lots of light up lanterns for making it cosy in the evening.
We have kept a handy table that we found in the summerhouse - it flips over and folds out to double size so we can also set a table and eat in there. We are looking forward to many summer breakfasts alfresco-ish and special meals in the summerhouse!
The only things we have bought are the lovely green armchair we got secondhand (£90), the radio (£8), a wooden labyrinth game (£6), a tester pot of cornflower blue (£4.50) and my husband made the wee decking area out the front as another area to sit out on (£100).
A new addition to the summerhouse is the wooden sign above the doors - ‘Isn’t life grand when you’re young and good looking like I am’ was a favourite saying of our Granda Boland and its nice to have a tangible reminder of his personality.
