My first blog to accompany a revamp of our website. We have added lots of photographs of recent garden buildings and several new products. Our year seems to be settling down into a summer and autumn installing bespoke garden offices, studios and workshops in gardens of various sizes and shapes and a winter designing buildings for the leisure sector, notably dormitories, holiday accommodation, lodges and the like. That said, we are busy installing a garden workshop for a bookbinder in London the week before Christmas and enquiries for work space in the garden show no signs of reducing.

Although we would love to offer standard garden buildings, we seem to be asked for bespoke designs more often than not. Unusual requirements, odd shaped gardens and requests for good quality natural light all make it difficult to deliver an acceptable solution using a standard product.

If you have stumbled on our website and have a keen interest in ‘green’ building, please visit the Garden Office Partners page for a list of websites with much more comprehensive information than we can provide.

I can’t let the opportunity go by without commenting on the recent changes to planning requirements which makes it almost impossible to install a structure within two metres of a boundary. Since most people want to put garden offices, workshops, and even sheds close to boundaries and in corners of their gardens, this severely restricts what can be installed. The height restriction of 2.5 metres within 2 metres means that it is virtually impossible to design a garden building with sufficient headroom and insulation under this constraint. Let’s hope 2009 brings a change of heart from the planning authorities.

From Nina, Tony and I, we wish you a Happy Christmas and a secure and healthy New Year.