Working from home is one thing. But once you’ve alienated your family with the constant repetition of your latest theme tune and even the dog is bored of seeing your face, it’s time to re-think. Could your life be better with a garden studio?
We’ve been working on garden studios of all shapes and sizes and suitabilities for well over a decade, and the recent drive to work from home has only added to the demand. But what’s involved, and what do you need to think about before embarking on such a project?
Well, we’ve put together five key considerations that you should make before taking the plunge:-
What’s your noise threshold?
Insulation (or soundproofing) is typically the first thing people think about with their garden studio, but it’s often starting from a position of requiring complete isolation. Complete isolation can be difficult and expensive to achieve.
So ask yourself - how much quiet do I actually need?
Are you currently working in complete silence? Do you like working in complete silence?
Do you require complete silence for your work (if you record string quartets daily, the answer may be yes, but if you predominantly work with software instruments, it may be somewhat less critical). There again, if you are occasionally recording acoustic instruments, can you work around a bit of noise and plan accordingly, or is it easier to hire another studio on the odd occasion you need to do this?
What is the ambient noise level at your proposed site? Ultimately, you might ask us to carry out a noise survey to determine the suitability of the site, particularly if you’re in the “complete isolation” bracket, but you can do your own very simple noise survey simply by positioning yourself in the space for a while. What are the noises around you? What is the nature of the noise? Low-energy, high-frequency noise is relatively easy to deal with; high-energy, low-frequency noise is very difficult to deal with. If you’re on a noisy flight path and you want complete isolation, you’ll likely be looking at a building considerably more complex than your average garden shed!
The bottom line is that the higher the insulation requirement, the more expensive your building will be.
How will your workflow change?
If you currently work in a room in your house, you probably nip down to the kitchen for a cup of coffee, or across the hall to attend to a call of nature. Is this still practical with your garden studio or is it going to be disruptive to your workflow to have to walk down to the house every time you want anything? Will you need a toilet or kitchen facilities in the new space?
Will you have clients coming to visit you and do you, therefore, need some way to accommodate them and make them feel comfortable?
How much space do you need?
Once you’ve established how big your building can be (normally dictated by a combination of the space available, planning restrictions and budget), you need to take into account the requirement for additional rooms (toilet, shower, kitchen, storage), sound insulation (which can increase wall thicknesses considerably compared to a “standard” garden room) and internal acoustic treatment, which should always be considered early on in the process. Again, treatment will normally bring each wall and the ceiling in by upwards of 100mm.
How will I breathe?
This is an area which is often overlooked. Ventilation is not usually something that you have to consider too carefully in a home environment. You have a big structure with doors and windows that are regularly opened, renewing the air satisfactorily. But in your garden studio, you are going to be doing your best to seal it airtight, in order to provide the required sound insulation, and it’s a much smaller space.
If you work for an hour or two at a time and do expect to get up every hour or two to go to the kitchen or bathroom, you will probably be okay. However if you are working for hours at a time without opening doors or windows, you will start to find that you are falling a sleep or getting headaches. A mechanical ventilation system is the answer, and, for a small space, it needn’t be a hugely expensive addition.
What will it sound like?
We already mentioned internal acoustic treatment, which should be regarded as essential and considered early in the process. But before this, the shape, size and features of the room need to be carefully planned. We are often called to treat existing rooms where unnecessary obstacles are in the way, due to a lack of forethought.
People generally like their garden rooms to have plenty of daylight, understandably. But it is really important to ensure that any windows are not going to cause acoustic problems or preclude the installation of treatment in critical places.
A garden composition studio designed by Yellow Technology