Garden Shed DIY

Yesterday I started a new project.  It’s really not new.  I’ve been putting it off for a couple of years.

When we bought our house back in the Stone Age, it was supposed to be a project to renovate an antebellum farmhouse as a simple weekend retreat.  We were so overwhelmed by the house itself that we could not focus on the yard and surrounding acreage.  At the time all I could imagine was to just clean up the small grassy yard immediately surrounding the house.  The walls of renegade trees and overgrown muscadine vines were just a border between the yard and the acres of un-kept fields.  It was hard to image venturing beyond those borders at the time. 

We needed a cheap storage area to keep tools and construction supplies, so we had one of those basic little wood storage sheds built. It was the kind where a few guys in sleeveless Harley Davison tee shirts and lots of tattoos show up with a truck of 2x4’s and some particle board and a half a day later you have shed.  We hid it behind the wall of muscadine vines, out of sight.  Later C installed a copper wind vein and cupola.  It helped, a little. 

By year three or four, although the house was nowhere near finished, we did focus more on the grounds and the entire thing seemed less daunting.  We started making big strides in clearing the overgrowth.  All of a sudden the basic little shed was in plain view of the house and pool and had to be dealt with.

We still needed the storage and I’m too cheap to even have thought about tearing it down, so I did the next best thing.  I had a house mover come in and yes move the shed to the other side of the property at the end of the new vegetable garden. 

So ‘the shed’ now became known as ‘the garden shed’.  

We had a porch, green tin roof and lean-to added.  By the time we did all that, plus the cost of Billy Bob’s House Moving Company, we probably would have been better to tear it down and start over!

Over the next few years it has received the benefit of all the recycled doors, windows and other discarded items from the constant construction on the main house.  But, there’s never been a master plan on the garden shed, so instead of a cute vintage cobbled together garden shed, it’s turned out to resemble Granny Clampet’s mountain shack! 

Actually, the inside is better than the outside.  Two summers ago we decided to use leftover construction materials to add a ‘finishing’ touch to the inside.  We had enough sheetrock to do three walls; the fourth was clad in heart pine planking.  We replaced the barn doors with glass French doors and added some Cha Cha molding around them.  In fact, it’s probably the only shed in the county that’s painted with Farrow and Ball paint and has Ballwin brass door hardware.  Actually, my house is probably the only house in the County painted with Farrow and Ball paint so I’m damn sure the shed is the only shed in the county sporting a Farrow and Ball $75 a gallon interior paint job!

Now it’s really time to focus on the exterior.  As you can see it needs help.  But, typical for me I’ve started again without a plan.  I keep thinking along the lines of Greek Temple meets Mount Vernon meets Refined Recycled.  I’ll probably end up with Alabama Trailer!

 

Recent...

Here's the look I'm going for...

But, I'd settle for this...

or this...

I could even work with this...

I need to do something before it gets to this...

but will probably end up with this...

Which is better than this hot mess...
Although I'm kinda liking that little red skirt he's sporting...

I’ll keep you posted on the progress.