David Harber, Savills and Nicholsons Show garden visualisation for RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2021

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How to create an inspiring garden office

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The search for more space, both to work from home and to enjoy the benefits of greenery and a breath of fresh air, has been a major theme for the prime property market over the past 18 months.

For sculptor David Harber, the experience of lockdown is also the focus of his trade trade stand at this year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show. Co-sponsored by Savills and garden design practice Nicholsons, the stand explores our changing relationship with outdoor space including the possibilities of WFG (working from garden). 

Here, Managing Director of Nicholsons Liz Nicholson shares her tips for creating the perfect garden office environment for anyone who likes the idea of WFG.

Creating a garden office

Where should I position a home office and what is the ideal view?

Many of our clients tell us that the best thing about WFG is the short commute. A garden office also gives you a chance to leave the house and the associated responsibilities behind and enter a dedicated work zone – one that enables professional thought.

I tend to design home office spaces which help separate homelife and the workplace: well-considered garden design should encourage orientation of the garden office to the best view, but remove it from the view of the house. Out of sight, out of mind.

If space is restricted and it is difficult to give separation, then good garden design can come to the rescue with dividing hedges, pleached trees, or espaliered fruit to provide an increased sense of isolation.

Ayr Cabins

What style of garden office could I consider? 

In terms of style, the clear favourite features sleek and contemporary lines, as demonstrated by the bespoke cabin company, Ayr Cabins, above. Even against the most traditional architecture this contrast creates a comfortable friendship of opposites.

Creating a garden office

At Nicholsons HQ, in the leafy Cotswold village of North Aston, we developed five work-from-home huts, above, last year, during the pandemic. With a focus on individual character and style, they have been used endlessly by local businesses and the team here to carry out socially distanced meetings.

Their quirky individuality has a rustic style and engenders creative thought. In this case the huts cost around £17,000 and offer a great space which could double up for fine dining in the evenings.

I would even consider a treehouse if my garden afforded the space for one. You don’t always need a mature tree as being among the tree canopy on a freestanding structure gives the sense of embedding into nature and lifting you above the day-to-day routine, providing an opportunity to deal with creative projects or tight deadlines away from disturbance.

Creating a garden office

How do I plant for wellbeing and concentration?

I would recommend a very natural touch to any vista from a home office space. One suggestion would be to keep it very simple with long meadow grass and trees, encouraging nature into the space without feeling the need to weed a border or deadhead a rose.

All seasons demonstrate a range of emerging grass seed heads, wafting in summer breezes, moving onto the magical hues and spiders’ webs of autumn, and then to mystical frosty glints in the winter light. A totally inspiring landscape with nearly no maintenance, encouraging wildlife and ideal for enriching the working soul.

Creating a garden office

How can I make sure my garden office blends into the existing space?

Any garden building could benefit from surrounding planting to absorb it gently into the landscape. This can often be valuable extra planting space for trained fruit trees, or vines, or even a billowing English rose – where the blooms and tendrils hang down over the window and waft in the wind.

Creating a garden office

How can the ‘commute’ to work link the garden office and the house?

The journey to work is an exciting garden design opportunity as there are potentially 20 to 200 yards along which to leave behind domestic lists and enter a new mindset ready for the working day. Many of us utilise car journeys or a commute by train to reset our brains, but the new challenge for working from home is to do this in a much shorter time frame.

Solid paths that allow you to keep your feet dry could wind through beautiful herbaceous beds offering all season interest. You could enter new spaces by passing through gaps in hedges or dipping under the boughs of mature trees, accompanied by the soft background noise of a water feature perhaps.

Creating a garden office

What else could I consider in a garden office?

All the mod cons in a garden office can be readily provided. One consideration is around keeping a space warm and dry, suitable for storing paperwork and sitting at a desk for long hours. Eco-technologies including air source heat pumps are more refined now and easy to operate. I suspect incorporating solar panels onto the roof of your garden office could take you on the journey towards becoming carbon zero, adding to your sense of wellbeing and purpose when working from home.

You will want to ensure you have natural light but I have learnt to my peril that the exciting proposition of putting in a glass roof lantern, allowing you to see the sky as you work, has its limitations for working on a screen. I think, if the space is large enough, this would be a wonderful thing to have in a more leisure-friendly space, rather than in a desk-based area.

Creating a garden office

Are there suitable plant choices to offer interest in all seasons?

Planting trees and shrubs for seasonal interest will give added structure to any garden. Some of my favourite choices include Betula utilis jacquemontii, with its wonderful white stems that glow on winter mornings and soft apple-green shade in summer. Rowan trees are well known for attracting birds and buddleia bushes bring in butterflies, all adding interest. Lavender meanwhile is good for bees, winter architecture and herbal cookies.

Most importantly, hang a bird table for those dreamy moments when you look up from your work and take in your fabulous surroundings.

  • Savills and Nicholsons are sponsoring the David Harber trade stand at this year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show

 

Further information

Contact Crispin Holborrow

Savills at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show

 

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