Fun Sheds

I'm so excited:  Last weekend, Dave & his dad put together a new shed to replace this one:

I really wanted to save this thing but it just wasn't happening:  It was rusted out, full of holes, dark & dirty and I'm pretty sure some animals lived in it because our dog Ashby would sniff around in there like a mad dog every chance she got.  Anyway, we got this little 6 x 8 shed from Lowes to replace it:

(Shed here)

...And they were able to save the mass of honeysuckle that grew up it.  We also got another larger shed (12 x 10 I think) that now houses all of Dave's tools & is actually a workshop inside.  (We don't have a garage.)  Because we already had a concrete slab for the falling-apart shed on our property, we decided to put up a new shed on the slab that will be sort of a hangout place/ playhouse for us & the kids...  a "fun shed" if you will ;) 

Repurposed sheds have always intrigued me.  The first one I really fell for was designer Ann Nicholson's shed featured in Country Living a few years back:

She had carpenters trick out (I really can't think of any other work for it right now :)  a standard shed:

{photos by Keith Scott Morton}

I'm also crazy about the beautiful little playhouse Linda MacDonald of Restyled Home and her husband built for their daughter Sophie:

(Click here for the full tour.)

And this "guest house" shed by Kate Humphrey:

{photo by Lucas Allen for Country Living}

I went nutty for this 18 Century pigeonnaire featured in Cottage Living back in 2008.  Do you remember it??!!

Perfection!!

{images via Apartment Therapy... click here for the full tour}

And last year when we found our house, Heather Cameron's shed (below) really got me thinking that we could actually have a fun shed one day...

{Photo by Janis Nicolay for Country Living}

Michael Devine's shed - a reworked harftord shed from Lowe's - shows how beautiful you can make a standard shed & we actually purchased this same shed for the workshop shed:

And I also wanted to share with you a bunch of beautiful sheds I found on the Better HOmes & Gardens Website in an article on sheds:

{Seriously???  Better than my house!}

{Love this...}

{So gorgeous..}

{I want this.. the floors?!!! wow.}

{And this one is just so sweet.}

So...  I'm not expecting anything as crazy beautiful as what's going on in the above pics...  We're going to keep the front standard so it looks just like a normal shed... 

...But we are going after the inside to make it a "fun shed."  Here is is now below with a tarp over it because the shingles are going on this week...

...And here's the first coat of no VOC primer going on:

I cannot WAIT to get this place feeling special.  This has been one of the best projects ever to plan: part hangout spot, part playhouse.  (I am in no way pretending this is soley for my children...  I know i'm gonna love this thing!) 

Hope everyone had a great weekend & happy mother's day to all the mothers!!

xoxo,

lauren

ps-  We don't have cable so I haven't been able to check it out yet, but Tuesday's episode of 9 By Design ( May 11 at 10PM on Bravo)  features a really special fundraising event for Jasmina Anema. Jasmina was a "spunky 6- year-old" who lost her battle with Leukemia this past January. Jasmina was a very close friend of the Novogratz family. They are trying to get as many people as possible to tune in to this week's episode

in an effort to help spread Jasmina and Thea's (Jasmina's mother) message, which is to raise leukemia awareness and make people more aware of the need to register to become a bone marrow donor. (http://oneforjasmina.com/)