My life extension
Permitted development
Place for me to shed

If you have your own shed then you are in creative company- Dylan Thomas had one and so did Virginia Wolf, so too did Roald Dahl – Our sheds tell good stories, so perhaps this is why the writers like them so much.  A shed takes us outside the home, and perhaps it takes us outside in order to be closer to a more creative aspect of who we are – to a wilder state than the more domestic versions of ourselves.

His and her own shed

The wild woman Caitlyn Thomas used to lock her husband Dylan in his own shed to make his poetry work, maybe he would have preferred to go down the pub, but so much more creativity came out of his writing shed. In his ‘A poem in October’ he wrote:

“….And I rose…In rainy autumn…And walked abroad in a shower of all my days…”.

In the shed we are just inches from the elements, and our human nature walks abroad, yet not so far from home.

Make your own shed a pink shed – Do it for breast cancer

I used to Envy the roadside worker looking so at home with kettle on the woodstove in his own shed by the roadside, and then the allotment couple retiring from the worldly race in their own shed, seeming so content to pass the time, with the married man extoling virtues of time well spent alone, and the office worker’s abandonment of form for freedom at home in her own shed; where self-employment became fulfillment, and her expression of joy was pretty in pink; Yes! not the old age brown, or green, or weathered grey boards, but the new age pink - which I thought at first a reactionary jest to challenge a stereotype – “no longer just the man shall inhabit the shed”.  But no; a bold and pretty statement, that draws attention to the female breast, as an advert for this Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

My own shed story

My own shed is nearing completion, and I cannot do that pink thing to it – I can tell you it is not a pretty place; home to my peculiarities – It tells my story. Cobbled together from past and present; from the Larch of my woodland, my old french doors, and the cast iron stove now 30 years from its starter home, with mirrored window imposing  my reflection upon what I see outside, and 50 years of story scratched and scrolled into floor boards that now adorn my new walls- Enriched with the fabric that rubbed against my home life; home now to the books that inspire me still.

The wilder-ness of your own shed

So what about you? Do you have your own shed, or another place that will put you in touch with the wilder-ness of who you are? Building your own shed is a chance to explore.

Explore the idea of fabric and texture, of fragrance and light, of openness and enclosure, of your own shed and what its humble shelter could do for you. So many are doing it now, but without so much expression – Shed sales are up by 300% and the back garden economy is booming. Home is now for work, no longer just for rest and play, and that is a modern function of the shed – home is a mirror of self, and the shed now has so much more to say.

Check out my shed pics at:  http://www.pinterest.com/lindsayhalton/studio-sheds/

Is your shed a UK best? if so nominate it at  http://www.readersheds.co.uk/shedme.cfm

More pink sheds at:  http://www.easyshed.co.uk/blog/breast-cancer-awareness-month-pink-sheds/

The Secret of Home  was my first book; a self-help guide to read your home and to work with your home as a means to achieve a better life.

I will be writing about the meaning of colour in future blogs – Why do women wear red shoes and what happened to the woman who lived in a black and white house?

Follow me on  Twitter  and read my future blogs to find out more, Let me know about your own shed.   Contact me

Lindsay Halton Architect-Author-Guide