Oiled Cedar-Clad Garden Room Looking Good a Year On
Published: 23 July 2026
Reading Time: 3 minutes 30 seconds
Garden rooms are almost always photographed the week they are finished, when the building is pristine but has not yet had time to really nestle into the garden. It tells a reader very little about how it looks once the weather has had a go at it.
This Western Red Cedar garden room by Executive Garden Rooms, built as part of a wider landscaping project in Lymington, is one we have been able to see again a year after completion. It's a good example of what you get when the construction is done properly and the materials are chosen well, because a year of South West weather later, it still looks like it did on handover day.
What Was Built
The building is 6m x 4m, designed with a local architect running the wider garden scheme. Large sliding doors are configured to meet at a corner, creating a glazed corner that frames views across the garden, with the aluminium corner post colour-matched to the frames for a streamlined finish.
Rather than the Anthracite Grey that most garden rooms use for doors and windows, the frames here are a light grey aluminium. A solid door in the same finish leads into a separate storage room, and both rooms have a small rear window set high for ventilation without interrupting the clean lines. A deep roof overhang, clad in Cedar to match, provides shading and shelters the cladding beneath it.
The Cedar a Year On
The cladding has held its colour. The timber still reads as the warm reddish-brown of new Western Red Cedar rather than the silver-grey untreated cedar reaches, and the horizontal boards keep the depth and grain variation they had on completion day.
That's partly the material. Western Red Cedar is naturally durable and stable, so it doesn't cup, twist or split the way cheaper timbers do, and it will last decades whether or not anything is put on it. It's also the detailing. That deep roof overhang keeps the worst of the rain off the boards. The cladding is secret-fixed too, so there's nothing on the face of the timber to stain, streak or work loose, and the board alignment is as tidy now as it was at handover — which only stays true if the framework behind it was built accurately in the first place.
Why It Should Keep Looking This Way
The finish is the part the owners control. The cladding was treated with a UV-protective oil before the boards were exposed, and that's what's holding the reddish tones rather than letting them fade to grey. Keep that topped up periodically, sunniest elevations first, and there's no reason this building won't look the same in another five years.
It's an easy job. UV oils go on without much fuss, bring out the grain and help repel water, and it's worth asking Executive Garden Rooms what schedule they'd recommend for your elevations at the point of order. Left alone, cedar silvers gracefully and plenty of people prefer that look — but if you want the colour in these photographs, this is how you keep it.
Inside, a Year Into Use
The main room is furnished and in regular use, and it's wearing well. It was finished to a high standard at handover, with plastered and decorated walls and ceiling, wooden flooring, a bespoke electrical specification, and air conditioning for year-round comfort.
The adjoining storage room was finished in OSB with recessed LED downlights and power sockets, and it takes the garden equipment and household overflow.
Learn More
Executive Garden Rooms are based in Bournemouth and focus on projects in the surrounding region. They build using a traditional insulated timber frame method, constructed to Building Regulation standards, and handle every stage from foundations to interior decoration. To discuss your ideas, call 01202 874 766 or email info@executivegardenrooms.co.uk. Visit www.executivegardenrooms.co.uk to explore their bespoke design and turnkey service.
