A classic garden studio on the Dorset coast by Timeless Garden Rooms
Weatherboarding in Farrow & Ball green, a cedar shingle roof and a veranda deep enough to sit out on, built on a protected site on the Dorset coastal path.
Some people want the sharp lines of a contemporary design, while others want something softer and more classical. This garden studio by Timeless Garden Rooms is for the second group. It is a classic, timeless design: a 6.0m x 3.5m office and studio with a 6.0m x 1.5m covered veranda along one side, on the Dorset coastal path.
The setting made it more than a straightforward build. The site sits within a Site of Special Scientific Interest, so the project needed full tree and archaeological surveys before permission was granted.
At a glance
- Size: a 6.0m x 3.5m office and studio, with a 6.0m x 1.5m covered veranda along one side.
- Built for: an office and studio on the Dorset coastal path, with a veranda for morning coffee looking out to sea.
- Construction: screw pile foundations on a levelled site within an SSSI, after tree and archaeological surveys and with permission granted.
- Finishes: Farrow & Ball Breakfast Room Green weatherboarding, dressed lead under the windows and a cedar shingle roof; inside, a kitchenette, a built-in desk and shelving, and a WC in De Nimes.
- Company: Timeless Garden Rooms, Kent, as a turnkey service, with 30 years’ experience.
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Farrow & Ball weatherboarding and exterior detailing
The building is clad in weatherboarding painted in Farrow & Ball Breakfast Room Green, a soft, muted green that sits easily among the pines around it. The same colour carries onto the corner boards, the bargeboards and the veranda posts, so the whole building reads as one colour, set off by white windows and doors and black guttering.
The detailing is where Timeless Garden Rooms set the building apart. The windows are white casements divided by glazing bars, and the Timeless team always use proper dressed lead detailing beneath them. The lead is dressed over the boards under each sill and finished with a decorative cut edge, so it throws rainwater clear of the cladding and gives each window a traditional finish. The broad bargeboards give the gable end a proper frame rather than a thin edge.
Cedar shingles on the pitched roof
Timeless Garden Rooms finished the pitched roof in cedar shingles. They are long wooden shingles, lapped so that any point on the roof is covered by more than one layer, which is what makes a shingle roof so weather-resistant. Cedar shingles are highly durable, with a lifespan measured in decades, and they weather from this warm orange to a silver grey over time.
Laying shingles well takes care at the edges, the ridge and where the roof meets the veranda canopy, and the Timeless team detail this beautifully. The construction photographs show the roof finished before the cladding went on, with the courses running straight and even across the whole slope.
A veranda deep enough to sit out
The veranda runs the full 6.0m length of the building and is 1.5m deep, enough for a small table and chairs. That is what the owners had in mind: somewhere to sit with a morning coffee, looking out to sea. Glazed doors open straight onto it, with an outside light beside them.
That depth comes from Timeless Garden Rooms’ 30 years of experience. Not all the verandas we see are big enough to truly sit out on, and a canopy that only shelters the doorway is a different thing from one you can spend time under. With the roof above, the owners can sit out whatever the weather, and it is rather lovely to sit under a veranda like this when it is drizzling a little.
Inside the studio
Inside, the studio is open plan, with a kitchenette and a WC at one end. A bespoke desk and shelving system is built into the wall structure, so the working space takes no floor area of its own. The walls continue the Breakfast Room Green from outside, and the WC is painted in Farrow & Ball De Nimes, a deeper blue-grey.
Surveys, permission and a turnkey service
Building on an SSSI means working within tighter controls than an ordinary garden allows. Timeless Garden Rooms are experienced with the surveys a site like this needs, and they handled the tree and archaeological surveys that led to permission being granted. The site also sloped, so it was levelled, working with the environmental officer to protect the trees. The building stands on screw pile foundations.
Timeless Garden Rooms offer a turnkey service, managing the project from design and approvals through to the finished building. Their base cost for a garden room of this kind is £3,200 per square metre.
Learn more about Timeless Garden Rooms
Timeless Garden Rooms design and build traditional garden rooms, studios and annexes, installed by the same team in England, on the Isle of Wight and in the Channel Islands. To talk to them about a garden room of your own, call 01843 821 851, email sales.timelessgardenrooms@gmail.com, or visit www.timelessgardenrooms.co.uk.
