6m x 3.5m Guest Annexe in Worthing by Miniature Manors
Published: 4 August 2026
Reading Time: 4 minutes
Some design and installation teams are better than others at getting a new building into an established garden. More often than not, plants get cut back and the ground has to be made good, with the garden taking a couple of seasons to look settled again.
Miniature Manors are one of the teams that get it right. This annexe in Worthing was designed to sit within an established garden with lush, mature planting on three sides, and, judging by the photographs, a lot of care went into building it. The planting and the courtyard around it have been preserved, so the annexe looks like it was dropped into the space.
The brief was self-contained sleeping accommodation for family coming to stay, in a building that would complement the main house, a fisherman's cottage, and its coastal setting.
An L-Shaped Bedroom
The annexe measures 6m x 3.5m, so 21sqm in total. The shower room is placed in the rear right-hand corner, and that single decision shapes everything else: what's left is an L-shaped main room rather than a rectangle with a bathroom running across one end.
That L is what makes the space work. The area next to the shower room takes the double bed, while the wing at the rear of the building holds the bunks. Two sleeping areas, both properly defined, in a footprint most people would choose for a garden office.
A 4m Wall and a Bespoke Bunk Bed
The roof is a pent, sloping from its highest point at the rear of the building down to the front, finished in black corrugated metal. At the back that gives a 4m wall, and the owners have used every bit of it.
They commissioned a bespoke bunk bed, made in birch ply, which Miniature Manors incorporated into the design and coordinated with the furniture maker as part of the project. It's become a real feature of the room, the warm plywood set against crisp plastered and decorated walls and ceiling. LVT tile-effect flooring runs underfoot.
Light at the Back as Well as the Front
The glazing is all on the front elevation: a three-pane set of aluminium bi-fold doors, and a rectangular window that peeks out through the planting in front of it, at the double bed end of the room. Integral blinds are fitted in both, so light and privacy can be controlled.
Glazing on one wall alone often leaves the back of a room dim. Here the rooflights fitted into the pent roof carry daylight right through, so the interior is as bright at the rear as it is by the doors. The one over the bunk beds does something better than that: whoever's sleeping up there can lie back and look at the stars.
Black on Every Elevation
The roof, rear and side elevations are clad in black corrugated metal, with PermaChar Raven charred timber cladding across the front. The aluminium doors and window are black too. Nothing interrupts the palette, and the mix of profiled metal and charred timber gives the annexe a cabin-like feel that suits a coastal plot.
It's a low-maintenance set of finishes as well. Metal, charred timber and powder-coated aluminium all weather by the sea without asking for annual painting or staining.
A Shower Room That Makes It Independent
The shower room includes a large walk-in shower, a vanity unit and a WC, which is what turns a garden building into somewhere guests can stay properly rather than crossing the garden back to the house at night.
Miniature Manors handled the plumbing and drainage and ran all the utility connections back to the house, and the annexe was designed and built to meet full Building Regulations. That matters here. Once a building includes sleeping accommodation it's assessed as somewhere people live, which brings insulation, ventilation, structure and means of escape into scope. It's worth working with a company that knows where the requirements for an annexe part company with those for a garden room.
Turnkey Service
The electrical specification was tailored around the clients and how they wanted to use the room, so sockets and lighting land where they're actually needed rather than where a standard layout puts them.
Miniature Manors managed the project through to a finished building, from design and Building Control liaison to coordinating with the maker of the bunk bed. A guest annexe like this adds value to the property, but the more immediate return is on family life, and having room for everyone to stay.
Learn More
Miniature Manors design and build bespoke garden rooms and annexes across Kent, Surrey, Sussex and South London, with a full turnkey service. To discuss a guest annexe of your own, visit www.miniaturemanors.co.uk, call 01403 610 619, or email contact@miniaturemanors.co.uk.
