If you’re looking for an all-year-round way to transform how you use your internal living space and garden, purpose-built modern summer house buildings are a great option.

We’re not talking about traditional single-skin wooden summerhouses. Today’s contemporary summer house buildings are far more versatile, functional and architecturally considered.

Offering the same comfort levels, if not better than within the home, there are many reasons to buy a summer house. As you can imagine, we’ve helped design hundreds of different spaces – from cliff-edge artist studios, inspiring hobby rooms and garden offices to bespoke home gyms (and everything in between).

So, if you’re looking for reasons to buy a summer house, here’s our top nine.

Why Should I Consider Buying a Summer House?

1. A space to work from

With just over a third (36%) of working adults reported to have worked from home in January 2022, it looks as if flexible working is here to stay. We can see why but working from home only really works if you have the right environment – one that’s free from distraction and allows you to separate work from home life. That’s where a fully insulated modern summer house really comes into its own.

As an example, Rhianne and Oliver, the lovely owners of this 3.7m x 2.6m fully insulated Affinity garden office, worked with TV presenter and property expert Sarah Beeny to ‘unlock’ the potential of their home.

With plans to grow their family, they were struggling with space and being able to accommodate home working. Creating their very own modern summer house at the bottom of their garden has given them a versatile office/social space.

Most importantly, unlike traditional summerhouses, a modern summer house can be comfortably used in all seasons.

 

2. A Garden Room that Brings the Outdoors in

A garden room can dramatically change how you use your outside space. Over the years, we’ve worked directly with garden landscapers who place modern summer houses right at the centre of their designs.

They’re keen to embrace the concept of ‘outside’ living and in doing so they create a space that transforms otherwise redundant spaces into living spaces with purpose.

A good example of this is the luxury Ultra Garden Room below, which is used as a creative studio. The owners wanted a light-filled stylish space that gives them a serene and peaceful place to paint and sketch-out their ideas. We must say, we love how they’ve paired the Ultra’s bold architectural design with a light industrial concrete patio area.

 

3. A Creative Space to Inspire

Talking about creative spaces, there’s something quite majestic about the modern summer house. Maybe it’s the floor-to-ceiling glazing, peaceful environment, natural outlook, purposeful design, or a combination of all four that creates just the right setting for hobbyists.

Whether you make your creations to sell or simply for pleasure, having a space dedicated to your craft is really quite special, and practical too.

Unless you love working in a tidy space, there’s no need to clear everything away. You can leave everything just as you left it, ready for when you next feel inspired. That could be in the early hours of the morning or even in the middle of the night!

One of our most popular designs for hobbyists is our Key Studio. As with all our garden rooms, it is fully insulated and so warm and inviting all year round. The natural tones of the thermowood also add to the calming ambience.

 

4. A Place to Workout

If you love taking care of your body and mind, a luxury home gym makes sense. By transforming your modern summer house into your own gym, you get to choose the equipment, when you visit the gym (there are no time restrictions) and forgo any monthly direct debits. Over a lifetime, that’s quite a saving. If more than one person in your home has a gym membership, you could save even more.

It’s very seldom purely about money though. Having a home gym can help relieve stress and bring more balance to your life.

If you’re a personal trainer, large summer buildings can be a sound investment. Your clients could work out surrounded by nature if you face your equipment overlooking the garden, as the owners of this Ultra garden gym have done.

 

5. A Sanctuary to Retreat to

If you feel like you need to press the pause button from time to time but find life gets in the way of being able to switch off, a modern summer house could be the perfect solution.

Whether you’re planning on simply having a quiet place to chill and read or want to create a yoga/mindfulness studio, a fully insulated garden room is ideal. Anyone within your family could use the space for downtime.

You might decide to dedicate a small area within your luxury garden room to relax. For example, a strategically placed sofa with soft furnishings works well. Also, think about internal lighting as the owners of this Shale blue 3.2m by 2.1 m Belle garden room have done. When they want to make their space even cosier, they switch on their fairy lights.

 

6. Somewhere for Everyone to Enjoy

Even within the same family we all have different hobbies, routines and likes and dislikes. Creating an outdoor modern summer house that everyone can use isn’t a challenge, though, as there are clever ways to divide the space, especially with large summer buildings.

Take the owners of this double-aspect Belle garden room. Keen to create a real family hub where the musicians in their family could practice without distracting the rest of the family simply looking to chill out, they chose to partition their 8.6m by 3.2m space, which is connected by an internal door.

We’re pretty sure there’s not a month in the year where this fully insulated garden room is not used.

 

7. Entertain all year round

How many times have you counted down the months to entertain in your garden? With a fully insulated modern summer house, you’ll never get this feeling again.

Ok, so somebody may still have to BBQ under an umbrella, but rain doesn’t have to mean an end to your garden party. If you have the luxury of a garden room, you can take cover in a space that seamlessly connects with its surroundings. Plus, it’s ideal for those colder evenings. Instead of hiding under a blanket, you can relax on your garden room sofa.

As so many of our clients have done, you may choose to pair your garden room with a hot tub for a truly indulgent entertaining space, as the owners of this Affinity garden room have done.

 

8. Become your own Landlord

If you like the idea of running your own bar that you can use all year round, a modern summer house is a worthwhile investment. It’ll certainly be cheaper to buy a pint or cocktail than at your local bistro. If you’re big on entertaining, you’ll never be short of customers!

Having a blank canvas means that you can easily recreate that bar atmosphere, as the owners of this garden bar have done. Notice how they’ve introduced panelling, under-bar lighting, bar stools, optics and beer pumps to create the right atmosphere.

 

9. A Good Investment

As with any home improvements, it’s best to get the opinion of a developer or estate agent if you’re looking to add value to your home. In our experience, though, a garden room is a great investment.

There are a couple of reasons for this. Firstly, if you’re looking for extra living space but do not like the idea of paying an extortionate amount to move, staying put and introducing a modern summer house instead may make far more financial sense. It is also quite a bit cheaper to build a garden room than it is an extension too, especially when it comes to large summer buildings.

Secondly, if you want to make your house more saleable, a luxury summer house building is also going to appeal to buyers. Instantly, they’ll consider your garden room a bonus as they imagine how they’ll use the space.

Start Your Garden Room Journey Here

Now that you have more than enough reasons to purchase a modern summer house, where do you start with choosing the right design?

Well, with seven luxury garden room ranges to pick from (each with its own unique charm), we recommend downloading a copy of the SMART brochure first. Then, with over 80 pictures from garden room owners across the UK, you’ll soon shortlist one or two summer house buildings you love.

From there, you can delve straight into using our garden room configurator, which you’ll absolutely love. Using your PC, laptop or tablet, you can change the size of your garden room, add windows and doors where you like, introduce decking and canopies and specify your interior design choices. It really is an immersive experience.

Best of all, once you’re ready, you can use our visualiser app to view your summer house building design in 3D, in your own garden, using augmented reality (AR).

We also encourage you to read our summer house building reviews on Google and even pop into our showroom for a guided tour.

You can also give us a call if you’d like to chat through your options – there’s nothing we love more than bringing a design to life!