About The Garden Room & Annexe Guide

This is the UK's only truly independent guide to buying garden rooms and annexes — written by someone who spent years building them before writing about them.

Who is behind this guide

The Garden Room & Annexe Guide is edited by Woody, a professional garden room designer who began designing and building outdoor structures in the late 1990s. The first project was a fully insulated, double-glazed playhouse. The commissions that followed — garden offices, studios, summerhouses — grew steadily more complex, and eventually included exhibits at the Chelsea Flower Show.

An accident ended the hands-on work. But 25 years of accumulated knowledge about what makes a garden room genuinely good — and what makes one a costly mistake — doesn't disappear. In October 2009, that knowledge found a new outlet: this guide.

Sixteen years and hundreds of published projects later, The Garden Room & Annexe Guide covers more UK garden room and annexe builds each year than any other independent publication.

What independent actually means

The garden room market is full of advice that isn't really advice. Company blogs, sponsored comparison tools, and affiliate-driven review sites are designed — however subtly — to sell you something specific.

We are not. The Garden Room & Annexe Guide earns its revenue from display advertising. We do not accept paid editorial, paid reviews, or commission on referrals. The companies that advertise here do so because we reach their customers — not because we give them favourable coverage in return.

That means we can tell you when a company's claims don't stack up. When a specification that sounds impressive is actually standard. When the cheapest quote on the table is the one to avoid. We tell you what a designer who has built these structures would tell a trusted friend.

What we cover

  • Prices and costs — real-world cost data across all budget levels, not manufacturer-supplied figures
  • Planning permission — a plain-English guide to Permitted Development rules across all four UK nations
  • Construction and materials — insulation, cladding, roofing, foundations: what the choices mean for longevity and running costs
  • Design — how to specify a garden room that works for your plot, your use, and your climate
    Company reviews and directory — an independently assembled directory of UK garden room and annexe suppliers, based on real projects
  • Case studies — detailed profiles of completed builds across every budget, size, and use type

The Garden Room & Annexe Guide is published by Square Meter Media Limited, registered in England and Wales (Company Number: 08777696), based in Salisbury, UK.

For editorial enquiries, contact us via the contact page.