Sheds: Bigger than they look from the outside

For Americans, the garden shed is—at best—a storage space. A rake, a hoe, mismatched gloves, an old leaf blower you thought might come in handy. The only creature comforts are for spiders. Elsewhere in the world, particularly in the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand, sheds mean serenity. For many people, they are a portal into another world and a way to escape the demands of life. To quote the British [Mirror]( “Sheds were traditionally the hiding place for dads. A place of peace and quiet where they could stir paint with pieces of wood and listen to the radio.” [Garden shed on Instagram]( And North America is beginning to [catch on]( to their many possibilities: saunas, places to get that novel out of your system, guest suites, hideaways to whine and to wine in. Most are no more than 120 square feet—easy to keep clean, cozy, and creative, yet ample breathing space to unplug and remove oneself from the clutter and stress of one’s home. Let’s see what we find there. We won’t be leading you up the garden path. 🐦 [Tweet this!]( 🌐 [View this email on the web]( Sponsored by [Quartz Obsession] Sheds September 06, 2018 Not just a place for tools --------------------------------------------------------------- For Americans, the garden shed is—at best—a storage space. A rake, a hoe, mismatched gloves, an old leaf blower you thought might come in handy. The only creature comforts are for spiders. Elsewhere in the world, particularly in the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand, sheds mean serenity. For many people, they are a portal into another world and a way to escape the demands of life. To quote the British [Mirror]( “Sheds were traditionally the hiding place for dads. A place of peace and quiet where they could stir paint with pieces of wood and listen to the radio.” [Garden shed on Instagram]( And North America is beginning to [catch on]( to their many possibilities: saunas, places to get that novel out of your system, guest suites, hideaways to whine and to wine in. Most are no more than 120 square feet—easy to keep clean, cozy, and creative, yet ample breathing space to unplug and remove oneself from the clutter and stress of one’s home. Let’s see what we find there. We won’t be leading you up the garden path. 🐦 [Tweet this!]( 🌐 [View this email on the web]( By the digits [120:]( Maximum permitted square footage for sheds without planning permission in the state of California [120:]( Typical size in square feet of a “tiny home” [$699:]( Cost of Home Depot’s most popular shed [14,000:]( Number of public votes in the United Kingdom’s 2014 “Shed of the Year” competition [Shed of the Year candidate on Instagram]( [46,400+:]( Instagram search results for the hashtag #SheShed, referring to so-called “man caves” for women [$60,000:]( Cost of a luxury shed from prefab shed maker kitHAUS, which counts comedic actor Amy Poehler among its clients [$24 billion:]( Annual revenue of the United States’ self-storage industry How sheds save lives --------------------------------------------------------------- Since 1998, Australia has used sheds as a way to reach men who might otherwise be adrift. The premise is this: The best way to build communities of men is through shared work—the gentle joy of being side-by-side in a shed, working on meaningful projects. The [Australian Men’s Sheds Association]( as it’s known, has an unofficial motto: “Men don’t talk face to face—they talk shoulder to shoulder.” So, what is a men’s shed? The requirements are fairly loose—it has to be accessible to all men; create a safe, friendly and healing environment to get things done at one’s own pace; have the objective above all else of improving male members’ well-being and health; and encourage them to be a part of their community. They don’t even have to be in sheds, with garages, portable cabins, and other community buildings providing admirable alternatives. Over two decades, the organization has blossomed. There are now 985 Men’s Sheds across Australia, reaching an estimated 150,000 individuals. Now, the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, and Ireland are all following suit, to striking effect—according to [one recent study]( attending a Men’s Shed left men with a sense of belonging, a surge of self-esteem and confidence, and new friendships with people they trusted. More than that, as one 72-year-old noted, “It saved me from an early grave. I was in a right state and this was good for me.” Sponsored by Oath What’s it like to code without limits? --------------------------------------------------------------- Get the scoop from engineers and data scientists working at Oath across brands like HuffPost and Yahoo Finance. In Behind the Screens, they share their feats of innovation in AI, accessibility, and storytelling—all at a scale of 1 billion users.[Watch and find opportunities to join them.]( AP Photo/Jackie Johnston Quotable “The shed’s magnificence is in the infinite possibilities that lie in the imagination of its creator. Your shed can be a monument to the time in your life that you were happiest, or it can signal the start of a new way of being.” — Joel Bird, author of [The Book of Shed]( brief history When a shed became London’s best restaurant --------------------------------------------------------------- In 2017, British gonzo journalist and anything-for-a-laugh-er Oobah Butler launched his appointment-only restaurant, The Shed at Dulwich. Glowing TripAdvisor reviews mounted and it rose to the top of London’s best restaurants. Butler’s phone began ringing off the hook, as punters attempted to use their jobs, status and connections for a seat at the table. The catch? The Shed at Dulwich didn’t exist. Butler had faked the whole thing, including writing convincing fake reviews and then persuading a legion of friends and acquaintances to do the same. Eventually, as Butler wrote for [Vice]( “a restaurant that doesn’t exist is currently the highest ranked in one of the world’s biggest cities, on perhaps the internet’s most trusted reviews site.” Eventually Butler decided to host a one-night-only pop-up for those lucky enough to book for the right night. A friend made minestrone; another served food and mugs of wine to guests who sat on Butler’s rooftop. Incredibly, he pulled it off: Guests enjoyed themselves so much, some asked whether they could book for next time then and there. “If I can transform my garden into London’s best restaurant,” Butler wrote, “literally anything is possible.” Such is the magic of The Shed. Fun fact! “Bikeshedding” is the term given to obsessing over a minor detail in a major project. It takes its name from a 1957 argument by naval historian Cyril Northcote Parkinson known as Parkinson’s law of triviality: In his example, a committee tasked with planning a nuclear power plant will spend most of their time fretting over the staff bike shed. It’s since become a common term in [software development]( and the IT industry. Pop quiz Which word shares the same Old English origins as “shed”? ShiedShodShadeShield Correct. Incorrect. If your inbox doesn’t support this quiz, find the solution at bottom of email. Timeline[Shed on Instagram]( [5 BC:]( Jesus Christ is born in a cowshed. [1481:]( A Medieval Dutch story in William Caxton’s Reynard the Fox describes “a yard, in which was a shed, in which were six great dogs.” [1970:]( Alaska’s high-end residential and commercial buildings are increasingly built in the “Shed Style,” featuring solar panels and wood exteriors. After 1985, the movement’s popularity wanes as the buildings prove hard to maintain. [1991:]( English artist Cornelia Parker blows up her garden shed, later displaying the pieces in Britain’s Tate gallery under the title “Cold Dark Matter.” [1994:]( Boy Scout David Hahn builds a homemade nuclear reactor in his mother’s garden shed, in Michigan. [2007:]( Britain’s Shed of the Year competition launches. The prize goes to a Roman-style folly, complete with blue LED mood lighting and classic fiberglass columns. [2011:]( The family of children’s novelist Roald Dahl launch a £500,000 campaign to save the garden shed in which he wrote many of his most famous works. Watch this! Shedloads of skill --------------------------------------------------------------- No matter how secure you might be in your DIY skills, these handiest of handymen risk putting you to shame. Watch a surprisingly restful timelapse in which a shed appears as if from nowhere, and be grateful that no one’s asking you to help out. Work this way Shedworkers of the world unite! --------------------------------------------------------------- For many the shed is a place to do work that’s not work—the meditative process of doing things by hand. For others it’s a place to do 21st-century jobs. [Shedworking]( is a way for remote workers to have a home office that’s not literally in the home, and there’s a [blog]( and a [book]( all about it. take me down this 🐰 hole! Every year, British “sheddies” compete for the most coveted of backyard prizes: Shed of the Year. Competing entries are veritable wonders to behold, from a Deathly Hallows-themed double story showstopper in the shape of a mushroom, to the so-called West Wing, under a thicket of wild turf growing on 400 half-milk cartons. There are [dozens of entries from past years]( to work through, exclaim over, and be inspired by—and when you’re done, you can place your vote for 2018’s winner. Poll What’s the best way to use a shed? [Click here to vote]( Tools, lawn equipment, everything else I will neither throw away nor useAirbnb “rustic” granny flat, babySecret hideaway at the bottom of the garden 💬Let's chat! 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