A Crusoe Garden Room: The Extra Space Solution
Published: 30 April 2026
Reading Time: 3 minutes
At 12sqm, this 4m x 3m garden room by Crusoe Garden Rooms is not a large building on paper. But it is a good example of what can be achieved when you work with the right designer. A compact footprint that supports three different uses — art and craft space, pilates and meditation area, and occasional overnight accommodation with a sofa bed — and makes full use of what would otherwise be an underused corner of the garden.
Set in Whitby within a terraced garden with limited and angled space, the room sits between an existing building and the boundary fences, maximising the footprint available in the courtyard garden. The brief was to create a single room that could support all of those uses, year-round.
Building On Site to Fit the Plot
This project also illustrates a practical advantage of Crusoe Garden Rooms' construction approach. Rather than working with prefabricated panels, Crusoe builds every room from scratch on site. On a tight, angled terraced plot like this one — where access and boundary constraints are part of the picture — that flexibility makes a significant difference. The building can be positioned and configured around what the garden actually offers, rather than what a factory-made system can accommodate.
A Stepped Entrance and Canopy Detail
The front elevation has been stepped so the 2m-wide sliding patio doors sit recessed beneath a canopy, rather than flush with the face of the building. That move gives the entrance more depth and a more sheltered threshold, and exterior-grade LED lighting fitted within the canopy reinforces it further. The result is a welcoming entrance to a room that reads as a proper extension of the home's everyday living space.
Cedar Cladding with Secret Nailing
The exterior is finished in 90mm Western Red Cedar boards laid horizontally, a choice that gives the building a wider visual emphasis and suits its compact, contemporary proportions. Crusoe Garden Rooms can install the cedar either horizontally or vertically depending on the look the client prefers.
The cladding is fitted using a secret nailing technique, where fixings are concealed through the tongue-and-groove joint. It takes longer to do than other fixing systems, but the result is a clean cedar facade with no visible puncture marks — a standard of finish you only notice when you see a building where it wasn't done.
A Ready-to-Move-Into Interior
Inside, Crusoe Garden Rooms finish their buildings to a high standard: plasterboard and plaster-skimmed walls and ceiling, white decoration, laminate flooring on underlay, and painted skirting boards. The images show the crispness of that finish — the kind of result that Crusoe Garden Rooms clients describe as giving the feel of one of the best rooms in your home, even in a smaller building like this one.
A high-level opening window on the rear wall adds extra daylight and ventilation without compromising wall space for furniture.
The electrical specification is tailored to each client's brief. In this case, internal and external LED lighting on smart app dimmers, four double sockets, and a 1.5kW wall-mounted heater. Crusoe Garden Rooms also include the final connection between the garden room and the house as part of their service, so the building is ready to move into at handover.
Learn More
Crusoe Garden Rooms design and build bespoke garden rooms across mainland UK, with each project constructed on site and tailored to the garden and intended use. To explore more examples, visit www.crusoegardenrooms.co.uk, call 07977 035 254, or email info@crusoegardenrooms.co.uk.
