In a lifetime, you can expect to work almost 85,000 hours, which on an average 35 hour week adds up to 1,795 hours per year before retirement. So, it’s important that the time you spend at work is pleasurable and doesn’t eat into too much of your family time.

Thankfully, post-pandemic, we now live and work in a world where you can work from home and be more productive. That’s why there’s been an explosion in modern garden office builds over the last two years and why homes with an office are selling faster than those without.

According to Rightmove, if you’re working from home, even part-time, having a separate space outside of a busy home that is fully insulated can add real value to your home.

With so many modern garden office options, where do you start with choosing one that’s best for you?

Deciding on Your Garden Office

Up to half of our total waking hours during any given day are spent working. What if you could shave off at least an hour every day by purchasing a modern garden office? That’s no commuting, no getting distracted by colleagues, being pulled into meetings or being stuck in traffic.

What would you do with that time? Would you go for a run? Make dinner for the family? Or just relax and unwind?

There are quite a few things to think about, and that’s before you’ve decided on the perfect modern garden office for you.

Before you go into full creator mode with our modern garden office configurator software, it’s a good idea to answer the following questions as part of your garden office review.

How many people will be using the space?

If you and your partner have office-based roles, it could be that you both need to use your modern garden office. Maybe you have plans to alternate the days or perhaps you have two desks to save all the tidying away. Either way, you need to decide what the likely set-up will be so that you can accurately design your fully insulated space.

Also, try not to forget who may visit you during your working day. For example, do you have plans to host client meetings or perhaps run training sessions? If so, you’ll need enough room for a break-out area as the owners who left us a wonderful photo with their garden office review have done:

Will you need planning permission?

It’s highly unlikely that you’ll require planning permission to build your modern garden office, but it’s not unheard of. Around 90% of installations do not require planning permission or building regulations checks.

If you are in the small minority that does, you’ll likely already know this. If you’re unsure, though, the best thing to do is to check with your local planning office to see whether there are any restrictions.

If planning permission is required, we can assist with the process for free.

What size modern garden office will you need?

While your immediate priority will be to work out what space you need for your modern garden office, it’s also a good idea to think about how else you might use the space.

Built with high-grade insulation, your garden office can be used all-year-round and for any occasion, making it a truly versatile space. At the weekends, you may want to use your garden office for entertaining and relaxing. Or you could partition your space so that you have two interlinked rooms, each with its own purpose.

Just three days ago, Brian, the owner of this stunning Key Studio below, left us a lovely garden office review to say:

“My garden office was built around Sept 2021. I’ve used it daily for 8 months. I practically live in it. Daytime I work in it and night time I watch films or game in it.”

 

Where will you place your garden office?

Everyone has their own ideas on where they’d like to place their modern garden office. It all depends on what you’d like your outlook to be and the space you have.

If you’re struggling to visualise your chosen design, don’t worry. We have an app for this. Once you’ve created your modern garden office using the SMART configurator, you can download our visualiser app to view it in 3D in your garden using your mobile or tablet.

How will you power/heat your garden office?

Thankfully, one of the benefits of purchasing a modern garden office with industry-leading insulation is that you don’t need to heat your entire house. Instead, you just heat the space you work from, and even then, that’s only during the colder months.

You have two options for heating your SMART modern garden office. All our designs are fitted with a slimline, wall-mounted, thermostatically controlled radiator. This is perfectly good for giving you the right amount of heat. If you like to have more control over the exact temperature of your workspace, you can upgrade to a full climate control heating and cooling system.

Naturally, you will need power to your garden office, and so you must keep this in mind when deciding where to place it. Your garden office will come ready to connect to your power supply, which a qualified electrician should do. But, again, this is something that SMART can arrange.

What design should you choose?

This is one of the biggest questions people have. So to save the confusion yet still give plenty of choice, we’ve kept things easy at SMART Garden Offices.

In our modern garden office range, you will find 7 designs available in over 60 different sizes – to suit every budget. Each design has its unique architectural influence, character, charm and design intention.

For example, the budget-friendly Key Studio range, starting at £12,525, receives plenty of positive garden office reviews for its classic warm style with a modern twist.

If you’re looking for a modern garden office with a more robust classic British feel, the Evolve range (starting at £12, 680) is another good choice, as pictured below.

As with all SMART’s garden offices, the Evolve is built using TusC® construction for unparalleled rigidity, solidarity and security and features industry-leading 40mm polyisocyanurate insulation for all-year-round use.

You may, of course, want to make a striking statement with your modern garden office so that your design takes centre stage. If you’re looking to make a big impact, the Ultra (starting at £14,365) is a great option. As you will notice when you read our garden office reviews, the Ultra’s soft floating cedar panels and powerful lines truly set it apart from other modern garden offices.

Creating the Perfect Inside

How you arrange and decorate your contemporary garden office is just as important as the exterior proportions. Here are a few things you may wish to think about including in your design:

Allocating space to relax and think

While it may be your dream to work distraction-free, time can and does slip by. Before you know it, you’ve spent an entire day without moving from your seat.

It doesn’t need to be big but having somewhere you can relax is important. Some of the best modern garden offices we’ve seen are cleverly zoned for this purpose. Take the owners of this cosy home office. The brightly coloured screens beautifully divide the peaceful social area from the office environment. There’s even an espresso coffee machine for a midday boost.

Make full use of the natural light

A recent study at Cornell University found that office workers exposed to more natural light experienced an 84% drop in issues such as headaches, blurred vision and eyestrain. So, having a modern garden office with floor to ceiling glazing can have positive health benefits too. Just make sure that you know where the sun rises and sets in your garden to make the most of it.

Introduce the things you love

If you’re going to spend a third of your life at work, surround yourself with the things you love. This could be as simple as hanging a picture of your family on the wall or creating a space for your hobbies, as the owners of this contemporary garden office have achieved.

Theme your interior design

One of the benefits of having a modern garden office is that you can decorate it how you wish. Take the owners of this breath-taking contemporary Affinity garden room overlooking the sea. The owners have embraced the coastal theme by introducing interior design colours and textures mirroring the natural world around them.

Order a Free Brochure

If you haven’t already done so, the best place to start in creating your ideal garden office is to download a free copy of our brochure.

Inside, you’ll find all the information you need to help you make the right choice. As well as being able to compare all seven ranges, you can read more about our unique TusC® construction and the lengths we go to make sure each garden office is fully insulated and built to the highest standards.

Once you’ve chosen a design and explored your budget and payment options, you can bring your design to life using our SMART configurator, which is simple to use. You’ll love it!

You decide where to place your windows, doors, decking and specify your interior finish to create a design that’s bespoke for your working needs. Then, when you’re ready, you can test your design to see how it works in your own garden using our 3D visualiser app.

For 100% confidence in the quality of our garden offices and more inspiration, we encourage you to read SMART’S garden office reviews from all over the UK (we deliver everywhere apart from Northern Ireland). We promise you will not be disappointed!