Rustic Realities Garden Office with Storage
Published: 8 October 2024
Reading Time: 2 minutes 50 seconds
One of the benefits of garden room design is that if you choose the right company to work with, you are not limited by a standard design or specification. This was exactly what recent clients of Rustic Realities were looking for when deciding to buy a garden room.
When the clients approached Lee from Rustic Realities to design their new garden office with storage, they weren’t entirely sure what they wanted—except that it needed to be different. Feeling uninspired by the cedar-clad boxes dominating the market, they sought a building that offered comfort throughout the year while reflecting their style. This is where Rustic Realities truly excels. By combining a variety of rustic materials with a multi-layer, insulated timber frame core, they create bespoke designs that are both unique and practical. Each project begins with a detailed consultation to understand the client’s vision and identify the materials and features they wish to include. This tailored approach ensures every build is distinct, as demonstrated in the archive of articles we have written about their projects.
Rustic Realities specialises in bespoke garden room projects across Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, and Oxfordshire.
Garden Office with Storage Room and Log Store
The process begins with a design consultation, during which Lee, the founder of Rustic Realities, discusses your ideas and requirements for the project. During this meeting, he also assesses your garden, gaining a clear vision of the space. This forms the foundation of the designs that Lee prepares. In this case, the clients wanted to create a garden office that also incorporated a storage room and an outdoor area for storing logs.
Rather than opting for the common contemporary combination of cedar exterior cladding and a white plastered interior, they envisioned a cabin aesthetic—Rustic Realities’ speciality.
The design Lee created, in collaboration with his clients, has an overall external footprint of 7.2m x 3.2m. The office space has an internal width of 3.8m, the storage room 2m, and the log store 1m.
Originally, the clients were considering waney-edge boards for the front wall external cladding, but after exploring Rustic Realities' back catalogue of projects and seeing how different finishes could be combined to create a variety of textures, they chose to pair the waney-edge boards with Western Red Cedar shingles on the office's front elevation.
The back and side walls have been finished with shiplap cladding, treated with a dark stain to blend with the cedar shingles and waney-edge boards. Black timber doors and windows add a contemporary twist against the rustic materials.
Contemporary Cabin Interior
Inside, the clients opted for Rustic Realities’ contemporary cabin interior, where a white dry-lined ceiling is paired with hardwood plywood walls. This combination provides a soft cabin feel while maintaining the clean, crisp lines that serve as an excellent backdrop for furnishings.
The office has a bright, airy feel, enhanced by the inclusion of a skylight, which can be opened to allow additional ventilation.
The storage room also features a skylight. The finishes in the storeroom are OSB boards, offering a highly durable surface strong enough to support shelves, hooks, and other storage solutions.
Electrics and Lighting
As part of their turnkey service, Rustic Realities handled the electrical work for the new building. The specification includes a wall-mounted electric heater in the office and ceiling spotlights for effective working light. The storage room features an LED strip light, while external downlights have been fitted into the roof soffit, casting a warm light down the front of the building. The Rustic Realities electrician also handled the final connection between the office and the main house.
Designed for Year-Round Use
The exterior detailing of a Rustic Realities garden room may embrace a traditional style, but the core structure is built using modern, multi-layer techniques. The timber framework is insulated with Thermafleece in the walls and roof, while Hybris closed-cell insulation is used in the floor.
The garden room sits on a ground screw foundation, and the roof is covered with a single-piece EPDM rubber membrane, ensuring the building remains watertight.
Learn More
To learn more about Rustic Realities’ garden rooms, contact Lee on 07712 581 532 or email inforusticrealities@gmail.com. Visit www.rusticrealities.co.uk to see more examples of their work.
