Office, Gym and Storage: A 5.8m x 5.6m Garden Room Divided into Three
Published: 30 May 2026
Reading Time: 3 minutes 20 seconds
When the cost of moving house starts to feel less like a solution and more like an expensive way to end up somewhere you didn't really want to be, a well-designed garden room can look like a different kind of answer. That is roughly how this project came about. The owners had considered moving to gain more space but kept finding that the properties and locations available didn't match what they were looking for. They decided instead to extend the house and, alongside that, build a garden room in the space left by the demolition of their existing double garage.
The result is a 5.8m x 5.6m building by Cosy Garden Rooms that does not try to be one thing. It is three things at once — and a good argument that a larger garden room footprint, divided thoughtfully, can deliver more flexibility than a single open-plan space of the same size.
A Layout Creating Three Rooms
Two partition walls divide the interior, with the central horizontal wall also serving as a structural supporting wall. The two smaller rooms each measure 2.0m x 2.8m, occupying the rear of the building, while the main room — at 3.3m x 5.6m — takes up the remaining footprint.
It is the kind of layout that the experienced design team at Cosy Garden Rooms are happy to create for clients. The partition walls give each space a distinct character and purpose, so what could have been a large, general-purpose room instead works as three rooms that each perform their role properly.
The Main Room: Work, Music, Family
The largest of the three rooms is owner Andy's everyday base. He works from home and needed a dedicated workspace, but the room has also been designed to accommodate his guitar collection — freeing up a spare room in the house that had gradually become taken over by instruments. A sofa, television, rug, and toy storage mean the room doubles as a family space where his daughter can use it as well.
Glazing and Natural Light
The glazing in the main room has been well thought through. A set of centre-opening sliding doors with glazed sidelights forms the main connection to the garden — when open, the room extends naturally outward; when closed, the sidelights keep the view and the light. To the left, a wide, tall window with an opening top section brings in additional daylight and allows the room to breathe without having to open the doors. The same window is replicated on the right-hand elevation, so ventilation can be managed from two sides independently of the door arrangement. It is a practical detail that makes a real difference to everyday comfort in a room used for both focused work and family life.
The doors and windows are Anthracite Grey on the outside — consistent with the rest of the exterior — but fitted with white frames internally.
The room is finished with white-painted grooved board walls and light chestnut laminate flooring — Cosy Garden Rooms' a signature interior pairing. The overall effect is bright and contemporary, a good backdrop for the owner's furniture and the guitar collection that prompted the project in the first place. Across all three rooms, there are 16 dimmable spotlights and seven power sockets, with the lighting spread to suit each space's use rather than distributed uniformly.
The Gym
The second of the smaller rooms has been fitted out as a compact gym. It holds a weights bench, free weights, and a Wattbike — the sort of setup that suits regular, focused training without requiring a large footprint. The room is finished to the same standard as the main room, with grooved board walls and laminate flooring.
The Storage Room
The third room is finished differently: OSB walls and flooring only, without the decorative interior used elsewhere. It has its own separate external side access, so it operates completely independently of the rest of the building. The practical finish makes sense here — it is a working storage space, built to absorb whatever gets stored in it without looking worse for wear.
The separate entrance is worth noting. It means the storage can be accessed without going through the main room or the gym, and it can be locked independently. For garden equipment, bikes, outdoor kit, or overflow from the house, that degree of separation is genuinely useful.
A Mix of External Claddings
The exterior uses two cladding materials across the elevations, and the combination works well. The front elevation is finished in Spiced Oak composite wood slatted cladding — the warm tone and vertical rhythm of the boards giving the building contemporary character. The left, right, and rear elevations are finished in Anthracite Grey Hardie Plank fibre cement cladding, which matches the Anthracite Grey uPVC doors and windows used throughout.
The two colours complement each other. All the exterior finishes are chosen for their long, low maintenance lifespan with the bonus that the appearance of the garden room will continue to look like this rather than weather and age like timber claddings do.
A 300mm canopy overhang runs across the front and right-hand side elevations, fitted with six external spotlights. It provides shelter at the entrance and the lights will create an attractive curtain of light down the front elevation in the evening.
Learn More
To find out more about this project or to discuss your own garden room, contact Cosy Garden Rooms on 0115 77 22 715 or email info@cosygardenrooms.co.uk. You can also visit www.cosygardenrooms.co.uk to see more examples of their work and explore how they tailor layouts, finishes, and features around each client's needs and garden.
