Is your shed ‘Summer Ready’?

Get the best shed with diy kitchen units from DIY Homefit

What do men do in sheds?!

There is a common agreement that men need sheds. The shed can become their own place, a place where they can escape from the everyday bustle and chaos of the home. A place where they can find solitude and have time just to think; just to be.

The symbolic importance of the shed was adopted some years ago by Age UK who launched an initiative called Men in Sheds. This aimed to bring older men together in a dedicated space to share and learn new skills. Though no longer run at a national level, a number of local Age UKs still run Men in Sheds locally because of the benefits it is bringing to older men in their areas.

Everybody – both men and women – needs a place to call their own, a place where they can relax and have some uninterrupted solitude. And in fact a shed can seem quite a strange place to find that, squeezed between four wooden walls, amongst tools and junk!

But sheds are serious business these days. There is a National Shed Week, an annual event which has been celebrating the British Shed since 2007. It features a National Shed of the Year competition and entries for this year have just closed. The categories are:

• Nature’s Haven
• Unexpected
• Cabin/Summerhouse
• Workshop/Studio
• Pub & Entertainment
• Budget
• Historic
• Unique
• #notashed

Last year’s winner was the Bee Eco Shed. Pictured below, this is  a self-sufficient shed with self-watering technology, space for growing vegetables, a herb garden, room for bug houses and even bee hives on the roof!

(Image: © Cuprinol )

So what can you do to improve the shed for the man in your life? Here are some ideas – and you’ll be pleased to hear that most of them could also apply to any space for anyone! Why not try some or all of the following?

Colour

Introducing colour into your shed can totally transform it. From an interior design point of view it is good to use three different colours – for example in the paintwork artwork and furniture. This can add a whole new dimension and make it seem more spacious.

Theme

As well as colour you can pick a theme for your shed that fits with your personality and interests. Maybe a nautical theme or American diner(how about a jukebox?!) or shabby chic. The choice is yours and yours alone!

Make the exterior a garden feature

How about painting it in a neutral colour such as  white, cream or sage? It will look way better than boring old brown, and can become a feature of your garden rather than a bit of an embarrassment – particularly if you then enhance it further with garden furniture and flowerpots.

Add more storage

One of the joys of your shed is that you can keep lots of stuff in there. So why not add some clever storage solutions into your shed? Kitchen cabinets are ideal for sheds: you can either buy DIY kitchen units new or reuse old ones if you have recently had a kitchen refurbishment .

Kitchen cabinets come in many shapes and sizes and at DIY Homefit we have a whole range of different cabinets that are ideal for storing away all the special stuff that goes in sheds! Why not take a look at our impressive range here?

Upcycle

As well as upcycling DIY kitchen units, there are all kinds of other clever upcycling tricks that you can use to bring new life into the inside or outside of your shed. Take a look at our article on summer upcycling projects this to get some more great ideas!

So enjoy your shed this summer! And we hope that the above ideas will help you transform it even more in to the special place you need it to be.