A record 331 entrants are competing for the Cuprinol Shed of the Year title, as reported on June.
… not the fancy and expensive architect-designed sheds but are often quirky and fun…
Treehugger writes:
Every year we cover the Cuprinol Shed of the Year competition, a celebration of a great British tradition: the construction or the adaptive reuse of sheds for modern uses. British homes are generally smaller than those in North America and often don’t have useful basements or spare bedrooms, so that shed at the bottom of the garden where the outhouse used to be can be very useful. These are not the fancy and expensive architect-designed sheds but are often quirky and fun, true labors of love.
This plague year may have been awful for so many reasons, but it was a good year for sheds, with so many people stuck and home in crowded conditions and a record number of 331 entries— double the number from 2020.
The Shedmaster of Ceremonies, who founded the competition and is head judge, Andrew Wilcox, tells Treehugger: “With the lockdown, many people have spent more time at home – so they needed an outlet for their creativity and to occupy their time and the first place these sheddies looked was their humble garden sheds—and they have converted them into multi-use buildings”
The Batbarn
Wilcox announced the finalists in each category—the public can vote for their favorite sheds in each. He points Treehugger to what used to be called the eco-sheds, but are now “Nature’s Haven,” which, to my eye, don’t look any more or less eco than many in other categories….
The Oratory of St. Joseph
In 2020, Wilcox introduced a new Lockdown category for people who built sheds as a project during the pandemic….
…Take the Oratory of St. Joseph, a remarkable shed built by Father Len Black, formerly an Anglican priest who converted to Catholicism.
He writes: “Within the Catholic Church, I have the care of a small group of ex-Anglicans in Scotland called the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. As we had no permanent church, I enhanced the interior of the shed to make it suitable for saying daily Mass on weekdays.”
As his congregation grew, so did the shed…
The Hideaway
The Hideaway is another finalist in Nature’s Haven category, but if you read Rosemary Hoult’s description, it might well have been in Lockdown…
It’s a cozy classic. Hoult adds:”The Hideaway was constructed by my husband David largely from up-cycled scaffold boards and timber. Its modelled on a National Trust vertical planked shed with a galvanised tin roof, large viewing windows to the front and a stable door.”
Peaky Blinders Pub Shed
One category that is a victim of the lockdown is the very popular pub shed. These are often so elaborate, but Michael and Sue break new ground with their shrine to Peaky Blinders:…
[Michael Vermiglio writes] “The bar is very much a family bar, and it was kitted out to entertain our family and then when all this virus has finally disappeared we can then invite our further friends and family and me and my wife will be in the bar on Saturday.”
These are not your garden-variety garden sheds.
The Guardian recently ran an article about office sheds, with the horrible new moniker “Shoffice,” discussing the booming sales of high-end sheds. . That’s what most North Americans see in the design magazines. Some of them are lovely; you can see more of them on Alex Johnson’s Shedworking site. The Shed of the Year competition shows a very different thing, serving different roles, with most of the sheds being built by hand, by their users.
Wilcox notes:
“The past year has been an incredibly challenging time for all of us and, now more than ever, we’re aware of how important the humble shed can be. Sheds are not just unloved, brown structures at the bottom of the garden that house tools and household junk, they are vital spaces where you can go to relax, work on a project or burn off some steam.’”
That’s why I titled this “The Shed of the Plague Year”—it all has a different feel about it and the sheds have often played a different role. I usually pick a favorite right away, but this year I can’t decide. I think I want to get under a blanket in the Hideway with my iPad loaded up with Peaky Blinders episodes….
For more background see Cuprinol Shed of the Year Competition.
