Most gardens have a shed. Tucked away in the bottom corner, with a few spades, trowels and the lawnmower hidden away in it. Yes it's practical, but does it look exciting? Well if not, we've got you covered!

A lot can be achieved in just one day with a tin of paint and a little effort! We've noticed that sheds are regularly being repurposed as offices, craft rooms and spaces to enjoy afternoon tea in the garden these days, so get involved and make your bog-standard shed into something special.

What you'll need

For our garden makeover, we chose a small 6ft x 4ft shed because even the tiniest of buildings can look great when you put a bit of love into them. Instead of the traditional shape, with one door at the front of the 4ft section and windows down the side, we chose a shed which was 6ft across the front. This means that there is room for double doors at the front, which makes it look similar to a beach hut and that's exactly the kind of effect we are hoping to achieve: a seaside-inspired shed.

Coastal Theme

It's easy to make your shed look distinctly 'coastal' with just a coat of pastel sea-green paint. The traditional beach hut style can be achieved by painting the roof trims, edges or doors in contrasting colours. Of course, you can explore a range of colours in the garden and really go to town with stripes or paint a design on your shed. You're not limited to brown shed treatment anymore because there's a rainbow of coloured garden paint available in DIY stores these days. Whatever colour you decide to go for, here are our tips for painting your shed.

Top Tips:

• Start by painting all the edges, the joins in the panels & any knots in the wood.
• Use an old toothbrush to push paint into the grooves & knots easily.
• Paint over the heads of the nails to blend them into the shed.
• Use a mini-roller to paint the rest of the panel in your chosen colour.
• Just one coat of paint creates a lovely 'washed-effect' ideal for beach-hut style sheds. Or paint a second coat onto the wood if you want a richer shade of colour.
• No need to re-paint the crevices unless you missed any time the first time round.
• It's easier to paint all the roof trims, edging, diamonds and doors batons before attaching to the shed.
• If you'd like the hinges or bolts to match (or contrast with, for that matter) the colours of the shed, spray paint them with a couple of coats of paint that is suitable for metal, and allow them to dry completely before attaching to the doors.

When you're done painting your shed and putting it together, you are free to do whatever you like on the inside. Turn it into your very own reading room, an art studio or sewing workshop by simply adding a desk, chairs and your favourite bits and bobs. Or you could even use it for gardening!

Whatever the purpose, we think it's a good idea to add some flooring to make cleaning up a breeze. We decided to stick some low-cost self-adhesive vinyl tiles onto the floor of the shed to brighten up the space, to make it feel more homely and easy to wipe up muddy footprints.

Related articles

Monthly Newsletter

Not signed up to our monthly newsletters and would like to keep up to date with a variety of products? Select from below which products you would like to receive.

Caravan Boat Property Personal Business

Please enter a valid email address

Subscribe