Making space at home to create

It’s all about the She Shed on my YouTube channel this week, as I give my humble potting shed a desperately-needed update to turn it from a dingy dumping ground into a usable shed that will hopefully encourage me to get creative in the garden. My shed was piled high with junk – old buggies, kids’ garden toys, old bags of compost and even craft bits that I couldn’t fit into my craft cupboard indoors. So I had a whole heap of stuff to clear out, most of which is now sat in a pile on my lawn, covered with a tarp, while I try to muster the energy to deal with it.

Which is what got me thinking – wouldn’t it be nice to be able to clear a space without having to go through the painful process of finding new homes for all the displaced stuff? I spend way too many hours imagining my ultimate studio space at home – a lovely clear room with white floors and white walls where I can photograph things for the blog without having to clear all the clutter first. I’d love a proper purpose-built garden office (Twig Hutchinson’s summerhouse is the stuff dreams are made of), but our garden isn’t big enough and my budget is too tight, so if I ever created something, it would have to be within the space we already have.

I have loved Katy from Apartment Apothecary’s home office since she shared her makeover last year (and may have to admit it being my main source of inspiration when I gave my own office an update a few months ago). Katy turned her guest bedroom into an office, reasoning that the bed didn’t get used nearly enough to justify all the space it took up in the room. Makes sense, doesn’t it? And this is where the idea of a storage unit suddenly seems like a very appealing solution. If you have a guest room that’s hardly used, then you could pack all that bulky furniture into storage and use the space however you want – a snug, an office, a studio, a sewing room. Somewhere purely for enjoyment where you can create or relax. But you’re not burning your bridges because you still have the furniture so you can reinstate the room as a bedroom whenever you want (if your needs change or you’re selling your home) .

Unfortunately, we use our guest bedroom enough that I couldn’t do without it, so that isn’t the answer to my studio problem. I’ve always thought that we don’t need extra storage because we have a garage which acts like our own personal storage unit, but imagine if I could sort out the stuff, get rid of what’s not needed (using the KonMarie method, of course – and I’m delighted to have passed on my KonMarie passion to Katy, too), and put the rest into storage. Shurgard, the storage expert, has units that go from 10 to 240 square feet and with 23 stores across London and the Thames Valley there’s actually a store just over 5 miles from our house. So. Very. Tempting.

Or could I move my gardening things into the garage (once I’ve decluttered), replace my potting shed with something a tad bigger, and turn it into the She Shed of my dreams? One of these would do nicely, thankyou…

Image: Blood & Champagne

Image (from Twig Hutchinson’s amazing summerhouse): Remodelista

Image: housetohome

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Disclaimer: This post was written in collaboration with Shurgard, but all ideas and content are my own.