Cute Little Garden Shed - Designing Scarlett

This too was a fun project – the garden shed!

We had had an old wooden floor which was part of something else since dismantled, but didn’t want to toss it as the wood was still sound! So we kept it knowing that we would find use for it at some point in time.

And our “some point in time” had arrived!

I told Joe what I was wanting in my thoughts of a garden shed and how I thought we could make use of a couple of windows original to our 100+ yr old house which we had found in the basement. There was also an old door to be used!

Building The Cute Little Garden Shed Without A Plan

So Joe, being the smarty pants that he is – and not a carpenter mind you AND without a building plan, set out to build a garden shed for us. BUT, there were a few requirements. It had to fit exactly the small floor that we had been holding on to. As well, it would have to accommodate a curved window and another old window. And the two would need to be completely functional with hinges etc.

As well, I was wanting a Dutch door – where the door is in 2 segments and the two open and close independent of one another.

The shed would also have to have a wood shingled roof. And wood siding that I could later do something with. It would also be needing easy access for our wheelbarrow at one end. And of course, the end result would have to match the house!

Oufff! All conditions and wishes considered, that’s a tall order!

The Passing Of The Torch

He worked on it continuously over a couple of weeks of vacation time from work. Once he completed the build, I base-painted the wood siding in the trim color of our house, and wiped on a paint wash to have the wood appear aged. I painted the outsides of the doors in our house’s main body color, and left the inside of the Dutch door the dirty distressed white it naturally was. I then sporadically painted the window trims in white.

Later, Joe added a step built of 1 1/2” hardwood original to our home which we had set aside – left over from our old front porch when we opened it up years ago. And then built a ramp for the double doors.

I carved out, shoveled sod and laid a brick path on a 42C day in the sun and thought I would die! But oh, the pride in having done it all by myself! I’m a big girl now! 🙂

The old washtub was a curbside find, and the chair, another of the same – different curb!

We so love our little shed! Years have passed and it now sees some serious grapevine growth since our beloved Murphy outgrew his mischievous puppy years and finally decided to let them grow beyond grass level!

On summer evenings, we get to enjoy the little enchanted shed covered in fairy lights.

And in late summer, we get to share the rewards with neighbors via buckets of grapes for them to make something of and enjoy. Grape cake, desserts, liqueurs, jams – we have yet to attempt making wine from the grapes but, there’s always this year 😊!