Replacing a Garden Shed With an Insulated Garden Office in Nottingham
Published: 7 August 2026
Reading Time: 3 minutes 40 seconds
Most gardens already have a building in them somewhere. It's usually a shed, it usually holds a mower and a few tins of paint, and it's usually the least considered corner of the plot. It's also, more often than people realise, the obvious place to put something far more useful.
That's what happened here. The owners in Nottingham wanted a dedicated office away from the house, and the spot the old shed had occupied was the right place for it. Cosy Garden Rooms built a 3.5m x 2.7m insulated garden room in its place. At 9.5sqm it isn't a large building, but it's one of the most popular small office sizes, and this project shows what that footprint can hold.
A Level Base Overcoming Sloping Ground
The chosen position had a slight fall across it, but there was no need to excavate and level the site first. The difference in ground level was accommodated during construction of the concrete base, so the office could go exactly where the owners wanted it without separate groundworks beforehand.
Cosy Garden Rooms use a concrete slab foundation as standard, included in their turnkey quotes and service. It's a solid, continuous base across the whole footprint, rather than the spaced pads or groundscrews some companies work with, and it can be designed to overcome sloping ground without additional groundworks.
A Fully Glazed Front Elevation
The front of the building is given over almost entirely to glass. Double sliding doors meet in the centre with side lights either end, so the wall facing the house reads as one continuous glazed run and light carries right through to the back of the room.
On the side elevation there's a square opening window set at desk height, sitting directly above the workstation and looking out across the lawn. The owner had obviously envisioned their preferred working position, and the Cosy Garden Rooms design team worked with them to place the glazing accordingly.
Above the doors, a 300mm roof overhang runs across the front to form a shallow canopy, finished in the same dark grey as the doors and windows and with two exterior spotlights recessed into its underside. They wash a curtain of light down the glazing after dark. A small detail, and it lifts the whole elevation.
Pearl Grey Hardie® Plank a Low Maintenance Choice
Cosy Garden Rooms finished the exterior in horizontally laid Pearl Grey Hardie® Plank, with anthracite uPVC doors and windows. Hardie® Plank is a fibre cement board, made from cement, sand and cellulose fibre and coloured at the factory rather than finished on site. It won't rot, warp or split the way timber can, and it doesn't need the periodic oiling or re-staining a timber-clad building asks for every couple of years.
The darker anthracite of the frames and roof trims against the lighter grey boards is what gives the building its definition, and every one of those finishes was chosen for durability as much as appearance. The office should look much as it does now in ten+ years, where a timber-clad room would have silvered and shifted.
Inside a 9.5sqm Garden Office
Inside is Cosy Garden Rooms' signature style: grooved board walls with a plain board ceiling, in this case all painted white, six recessed spotlights, and light chestnut laminate flooring. Power points are set around the room so the layout isn't dictated by where a single socket happens to sit.
The room currently holds a desk and a sofa and still feels spacious, with somewhere to sit comfortably away from the screen. Lose the sofa and there would be room for a second desk, making this a comfortable two-person office.
It's a good example of what you can fit into a garden room this size, and of what a £20,000 budget buys when it's spent well. Cosy Garden Rooms delivered it as a turnkey project, concrete base, insulated building and finishes included, and because those finishes were chosen for durability there's very little further outlay ahead. 9.5sqm that works as an office now and could become an art studio, sitting room or home gym later.
Learn More
Cosy Garden Rooms design and build bespoke insulated garden rooms across the Midlands and beyond, each one tailored around how the space will be used and the garden it sits in. To discuss a project of your own or see more examples of their work, visit www.cosygardenrooms.co.uk, call 0115 77 22 715, or email info@cosygardenrooms.co.uk.
