Vivid Green » home office

Jo Angells’ studio

Russell — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 07:40:19 +0000

Now finished, this studio for Jo Angell (www.joangell.com) looks great in the Spring sunshine. See News on March 26th for more detail. Jo is designing an amazing canopy fot the Thrive charity garden at Chelsea this year (www.thrive.org.uk) and there was a model of it on the kitchen table yesterday. It looks fantastic and will look wonderful full size. If you are going to Chelsea this year make sure you check it out. Jo is very happy to show people the studio so if you want to know what it looks like give us a call and we can arrange.

Landscaping enhances garden studio

Russell — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 07:31:52 +0000

A small office in Cambridge we completed last year but our client has just completed some further landscaping so we called in last week to take some photos. It was a freezing cold day with occasional snow flurries but it was lovely and warm in the office thanks to the underfloor heating and the excellent insulation. Third photo shows what the garden looked like before!

Music studio

Russell — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 18:18:58 +0000

We completed this music studio last year and recently went back to get some better photos. It includes a double layer of plasterboard to reduce sound transmission and the client has added curtains to reduce the sound escaping through the windows and doors. The studio includes a shower room with WC and is clad in cedar. Windows and doors are aluminium clad timber, double glazed and argon filled. The client has been partiocularly impressed with the thermal insulation: “We have the heating on for two hours in the morning and two hours in the evening and, even in the recent cold winter it has never been cold in the studio”.

Remote worker award winner moves in to prize office

Russell — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 08:48:36 +0000

Last September Amanda Farren of Ella Announcements won one of our garden offices in the 2009 Remote Worker awards and last month she moved in to her new premises. The office has given 22 year old Amanda much needed additional space as she juggles caring for her three young children and building her business. Amanda said: “It’s great to have our dining room back! Being able to keep the house for the family has been an enormous benefit and I love being able to work in the office and watch my children playing in the garden“. Vivid Green Director, Neil Johnston said “The design works really well with lots of light from the large windows and glazed door and a good view of the garden and house. Also, the installation is a good example of the benefit a garden building offers to separate work from home”. Ella Announcements is run by Amanda, a work-at-home mum to 3 young children from her home in Coventry, where she juggles everything from designing and printing, to hoovering and laundry, with several lunch stops, nappy changes and school runs (4 a day!) in between. www.ellaannouncements.com/

Standard designs and ‘bare board’ reduce investment in insulated garden buildings

Russell — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 15:32:34 +0000

Standard designs at a discount All of our insulated garden buildings to date have been bespoke but, in recognition that there is a significant cost saving if customers choose a design that we have already built, we are now offering some of our designs at a discount of 10-15%. The other option we are offering is ‘self completion’ or ‘bare board’. We install the insulated garden building, complete with roof membrane, external cladding, windows and doors and customers put in the electrics, internal plasterboard, heating and decoration. For those with the time and capability this offers a further 15-20% saving. In both cass the buildings are just as well insulated as our bespoke designs with the same quality of materials and workmanship. Prices below exclude VAT and are for installation within 100 miles of Harpenden. Call for prices beyond and for detailed specification.

Edden: 2.4x 2.4m; £6,500 complete, £4,700 bare board

Jaray: 4 x 3m; £13,500 complete, £11,500 bare board

Moore: 5 x 2.7m; £14,400 complete, £12,200 bare board

Collier: 6 x 3m; £17,800 complete, £15,320 bare board

McClelland: 3 x 3m; £12,100 complete, £9,900 bare board

Rawlings: 3.2 x 3m; £11,700 complete, £9,500 bare board

Wikinson: 5 x 5m; £23,000 complete, £19,800 bare board

Fowkes: 6 x 3m; £13,500 complete, £11,000 bare board

Russell — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 09:05:58 +0000

Recent builds

Insulated garden office with verandah

We recently completed this insulated garden office in our home town of Harpenden. With a hipped roof clad in cedar shingles and a verrandah for the client to hang his hammock, the office provides a good sized work space away from the clients two young chindren. Although the building required planning permission because it is higher than the 2.5m limit, this was readily granted. With 120mm of insulation in the roof and our standard 100mm thick walls and floor, the office has been very warm even during the recent cold. External cladding is vertical cedar and the decking is larch. The photo is not great but we shall be taking more if and when the we see the sun again.

Garden gym!

Russell — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 15:00:39 +0000

Our latest build has provided a home gym for a fitness enthusiast and replaced a very old shed. Sited on a sloping site, the building is clad in long lasting cedar with double glazed, argon filled windows and doors. As well as providing power to the gym for the exercise equipment, we also extended the Sky cable to provide entertainment whilst working out. The gym incorporates our usual underfloor heating and plasterboard finish. Not the greatest photo but weather has been so poor recently; better to come in the Spring!

Garden office cheaper than renting

Russell — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 13:24:48 +0000

How a Woking businessman saved money by moving from town to a garden office

Building for challenging times

Neil — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 18:02:09 +0000

Although all of our garden buildings have been bespoke to date, there are economies to be had in sticking with a standard design. Also, because the planning rules changed 1 October 2008, there is a need for low rise structures which can be placed within 2 metres of boundaries so, our standard units are designed to meet this requirement.

If you need to check on planning issues, there is a great site: www.planningportal.co.uk

The Vivid Green philosophy of high levels of insulation plus good quality windows and doors still apply in our standard unit but, with standardising sizes, colours etc allows us to pass on discounts to customers.

There are two units in the range, the Penthouse 8 with 8 sq metres of floor space and a very contemporary, five sided look and the Penthouse 7.5, a rectangular building with 7.5 sq metres of floor space. Both units have a porch and the Penthouse 8 has two bays for a window seat (with the potential for storage under) and desk whereas the Penthouse 7.4 has just one bay.

Both units are installed with surface mounted electrics, internal lighting, clad in treated Larch or Douglas Fir with a rubber membrane for the roof covering with a 15-20 year life.

The Penthouse 8 is priced at £9,890 and the Penthouse 7.5 at £9,530 (inclusive of VAT, delivery and installation in Herts, Beds and Bucks plus London, North of the Thames).

Penthouse 8

A striking, contemporary design with 'letter box' windows, a large porch and two bays

Penthouse 7.5

A high quality space with one bay and large single door