Garden Offices

Professionally Designed Garden Office Plans for Year Round Working, Flexible Space and Smarter Self Build

A garden office gives you a dedicated place to work from home without sacrificing valuable space inside the house.

From a compact small garden office for one person to a larger insulated garden office with storage, glazing and year round comfort, a well designed garden office can turn an unused part of your garden into practical everyday working space.

At APN Garden Rooms, you can choose from our range of professionally designed garden rooms and use the design as the starting point for your own office.

Each design can be purchased as a Complete Design & Technical Plan Pack, giving you the drawings and construction information needed to move from idea to build.

Why Build a Garden Office?

Working from home has become a permanent part of everyday life for many people, but working from a bedroom, kitchen table or corner of the living room is rarely ideal.

A purpose designed garden home office creates separation between home and work while keeping your commute to a few steps.

A garden office can provide:

A quiet and private workspace
Separation between working life and home life
Space for one or more desks
Storage for files and equipment
A professional background for video meetings
Additional usable space without extending the house
A flexible room that can later become a studio, gym or hobby space

For many properties, an outdoor office can be one of the simplest ways of creating additional usable accommodation.

Insulated Garden Offices

If you intend to use your garden office throughout the year, insulation needs to be considered as part of the overall construction rather than added as an afterthought.

A properly designed insulated garden office should consider the floor, walls and roof together to create an effective thermal envelope.

A typical insulated garden office may include:

Insulated floor construction
Insulated timber framed walls
Insulated roof construction
High performance windows and doors
Vapour control layers
Ventilation
Electric heating
Power and lighting
Data and internet provision

A fully insulated garden office can provide comfortable working conditions throughout winter as well as during warmer months.

Our technical plan packs include construction information that can be used by builders when pricing and constructing the garden room.

Small Garden Offices

You do not need a large garden to create a useful office.

A small garden office can provide enough room for a desk, office chair, shelving and storage while taking up surprisingly little outside space.

Compact designs work particularly well where the objective is simply to create a dedicated workspace away from the house.

A tiny garden office or micro office may also suit gardens where a larger building could dominate the available space.

With smaller garden offices, good design becomes particularly important.

Carefully positioning the door, glazing, desk and storage can make a relatively compact room feel considerably larger.

Garden Home Offices

A garden home office can be designed around the way you actually work.

For one person, this may simply mean a comfortable desk, storage and good natural light.

Larger garden offices can accommodate:

Two or more workstations
Meeting space
Built in storage
Filing and equipment areas
A small kitchenette
WC facilities where appropriate
Seating or breakout space
Separate garden storage

Starting with a properly planned layout allows these requirements to be considered before construction begins.

Garden Offices With Storage

Combining workspace with storage can be particularly useful where garden space is limited.

A garden office with storage can incorporate a separate compartment accessed either internally or directly from the garden.

The storage area could be used for:

Garden tools
Bicycles
Lawn equipment
Outdoor furniture
Business equipment
General household storage

Designing the storage area as part of the original building normally creates a much more integrated result than positioning a separate shed alongside the office later.

Modern Garden Offices

A modern garden office can become an architectural feature within the garden rather than simply a functional outbuilding.

Popular contemporary features include:

Large areas of glazing
Sliding or bi fold doors
Timber or composite cladding
Flat or low pitched roofs
Rooflights
Deep overhangs
Recessed entrances
Contrasting materials
Clean simple elevations

A contemporary garden office can be designed to complement both modern and traditional homes.

30: The Cadence
Signature Collection — £695 + VAT

A highly glazed contemporary studio with an integrated outdoor relaxation area.

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31: The Veranda
Signature Collection — £695 + VAT

A characterful timber garden room with a deep covered veranda for year round enjoyment.

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32: The Loggia
Signature Collection — £695 + VAT

A light timber studio combining comfortable internal space with a sheltered outdoor room.

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Bespoke Garden Offices

You may find a garden office design that is almost right but needs adjusting to suit your garden or the way you intend to use it.

Rather than commissioning a completely new design from scratch, one of our existing garden room designs can be used as the starting point.

Our Adapt Your Design service can be used to alter items such as:

Overall width and depth
Window positions
Door positions
Internal layout
Storage arrangements
Glazing
Cladding
Roof configuration
Internal room divisions

This gives you much of the flexibility of a bespoke garden office while starting from an established design.

Garden Office With Electrics

Most permanent garden offices will require electrical power.

Depending on how the room will be used, this might include:

General lighting
Desk sockets
Computer equipment
Electric heating
External lighting
WiFi or data equipment
Electric blinds
Security systems
Additional power for printers or specialist equipment

An insulated garden office with electrics should ideally be planned as a complete building rather than treating the electrical installation as something to consider after construction.

Electrical work must be designed and installed in accordance with the relevant regulations by an appropriately competent person.

Garden Office Sizes

The right garden office size depends on what you want the room to do.

A compact office may only need space for a single workstation.

A larger garden office could incorporate several different functions within the same building.

Think about:

Number of people using the office
Desk sizes
Storage requirements
Whether clients will visit
Whether you need meeting space
Whether part of the room may later have another use
Available garden space
Access around the building
Relationship with boundaries and neighbouring properties

It is normally worth planning the furniture layout at the same time as the building itself.

Where Should a Garden Office Be Positioned?

Position can make a significant difference to how well a garden office works.

Consider:

Natural light
Sun orientation
Views from the office
Privacy
Distance from the house
Garden access
Existing trees
Boundaries
Drainage
Electrical supply
The outlook from neighbouring properties

Sometimes the obvious location at the bottom of the garden is the right solution.

In other gardens, positioning the building along a side boundary or creating an L shaped arrangement may use the available space more effectively.

Do Garden Offices Need Planning Permission?

Many garden offices can potentially be constructed under permitted development rights, but this should never simply be assumed.

The planning position can depend on matters including:

Overall height
Position within the garden
Distance from boundaries
Amount of land covered by outbuildings
Intended use
Listed building status
Conservation areas
Previous planning conditions
Whether permitted development rights have been removed

A garden office used genuinely as an incidental part of the house may be treated differently from a building intended to operate as an independent dwelling or separate commercial premises.

Where there is uncertainty, the planning position should be checked before construction starts.

Do Garden Offices Need Building Regulations?

Building Regulations requirements depend on factors including the size of the building, its construction, its location and how it will be used.

Electrical installations are also subject to separate requirements.

Larger garden rooms, rooms containing sleeping accommodation or buildings positioned close to boundaries can raise additional Building Regulations considerations.

Where Building Regulations approval is required, the technical construction design needs to demonstrate compliance with the relevant requirements.

Building a Garden Office

There are several ways to create a garden office.

You could:

Purchase a fully installed garden office
Buy a prefabricated or modular building
Use a specialist garden room builder
Employ a local builder
Project manage the construction yourself

For people who want greater control over design, specification and budget, purchasing the design and technical information separately from the construction can provide a very different route.

This is the approach behind APN Garden Rooms.

What Is Included in an APN Garden Office Plan Pack?

Our Complete Design & Technical Plan Pack provides professionally prepared information for the selected garden room design.

The pack is intended to give you and your builder a much clearer basis from which to price and construct the building.

You can then decide how you want the room built and who you want to build it.

Choose a Garden Office Design

Our collections includes garden rooms suitable for a wide range of office uses, including:

Small garden offices
Insulated garden offices
Modern garden offices
Contemporary garden offices
Garden offices with storage
Large garden offices
Garden studios
Multi purpose garden rooms

Choose the style and layout closest to what you need and use it as the starting point for your project.

Build More Garden Room for Your Budget

At APN Garden Rooms, we separate design from construction.

Instead of buying a complete turnkey garden room from one supplier, you can purchase a professionally prepared design and technical plan pack and then obtain quotations from builders or manage the construction yourself.

This gives you greater control over:

Who builds your garden room
What materials are used
How much you spend
Which products you choose
When the work is carried out

Depending on the specification, contractor and way the project is managed, this approach can potentially produce savings of 40% to 50% compared with some turnkey garden room packages.