Today’s post has been in my drafts for months and months, but I never took the time to snap all the photos I wanted to share (despite unending requests to see the shed!)
Now I have the photos, and I’m finally sharing a mini tour of our shed, almost ONE FULL YEAR after we actually built it — better late than never right? 🙂
Our shed is a 10′ x 10′ square — and although I wanted it to be a bit smaller, I think it really fits this space quite nicely and looks great when you’re coming down our driveway (which is one of the main reasons we chose this location). It’s also super handy to have it RIGHT next to the vegetable garden (another reason we chose this location).
As you’ll see from the photos below, there is a single door on the front and a larger sliding barn door on the side. The single door is what we use almost all the time — but Dave uses the barn door to get the mower out (we move the red chair to push the mower out to the driveway).
Eventually, we plan to have more plants and flowers around it — maybe an arbor or trellis with vines growing up the side. And I really want to get a small old windmill and water pump to use as decorative features next to the shed!
It’s a work in progress, but we are very happy with how it looks so far — and of course we love all the extra storage too!
Here’s a tour of the inside…
As you can see, it’s pretty basic on the inside — nothing fancy at all! We just used a few extra wooden shelves we had leftover from our mudroom addition to create a bunch of vertical storage, and we used a piece of plywood to create storage in the rafters for extra fence pickets, our roof snow rake, and a couple outdoor Christmas trees I use to decorate over the holidays.
We also used the overhang on the front of the shed to store more of my outdoor Christmas decorations and a few pieces of camping gear that we don’t need to access on a regular basis.
Our shed is actually quite a bit emptier during the spring, summer, and fall months, because so much of our outdoor stuff is in use. Once the weather starts getting colder, we’ll actually move our kiddie pool, all our patio furniture, our stackable Adirondack chairs, and some larger planters into the shed. Plus, we’ll hang our bikes from hooks in the rafters.
It’s amazing how much we can fit in a 10′ x 10′ square building!
On.
So some of you might be wondering…why ANOTHER shed?
As you might remember, we built a teeny-tiny outhouse-looking garden shed 3 years ago.
The idea behind that shed was mainly to add a decorative element to our landscaping — because for some odd reason, I’ve ALWAYS wanted an outhouse-looking building in my yard.
Plus, this tiny shed was built with old barnwood from the ORIGINAL big barn that used to be on our property back when this was a working farm — so it’s pretty cool to have a little piece of that history in our yard again.
The outhouse shed was not built with the intention of “storage”… but it has been a cute and decorative way to create a small amount of storage on the far side of our yard. We’ve used the outhouse shed for yard tools, kid’s toys, lawn games, and more over the past few years (not all at the same time!) and I just LOVE how it looks.
However, over the last couple of years, we have felt the need for some sort of larger shed to keep lawn tools (especially motorized and/or dangerous tools), fertilizer, gas cans, propane tanks, oil receptacles, weed killer, pesticides, etc.
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But what about the Garage?
We were previously storing almost everything I mentioned above in our garage, but after having kids, it became apparent that kids toys + chemicals, propane, oil, and lawnmowers were NOT a good mix!
Plus, after our super fantastic garage renovation, we hated to clutter up our nice, neat garage with yucky oil cans, grass-filled mowers, and messy fertilizers.
Thanks to the new shed, our garage ONLY contains car stuff (soap, buckets, windshield wiper fluid, air compressor, etc.) and a boatload of kid stuff — bikes, strollers, toys, scooters, side-walk chalk, bubbles, jump ropes, bats and balls, etc. etc.
And what about the extra garage?
Yes, that’s right — we have an extra 2-stall garage + outbuilding that could easily accommodate everything in our shed plus SOOOOOO much more… and for about a year, we did move everything out of our garage and into the outbuilding because we wanted the garage to just be for car stuff and kid stuff (as I mentioned above).
However, the problem with storing all the gas, propane, fertilizer, pesticides, and mowing equipment in our outbuilding is that we actually use our outbuilding for entertaining on a very regular basis… which meant we were constantly moving all that dirty, grassy, smelly stuff out, covering it with a tarp, sweeping out and cleaning the inside of the garage, and then moving the stuff back in after our party was over.
This was do-able, but not for the long-term.
Since we don’t have a nice basement (see pictures here), this heated outbuilding is often our “hangout spot” when we have lots of people over. We haven’t done any renovations in this space yet, but we have big plans for it… eventually!
For now though, we really just wanted it to be free from messy lawn tools, smelly fertilizer, and greasy gas cans.
So… we built a shed! 🙂
I know it might seem a little crazy for someone who doesn’t like extra stuff to have 2 full-size garages and 2 storage sheds… but I promise we don’t fill any of them with things we don’t use!
At this point, we don’t store anything in our basement except a few Christmas decorations, our extra freezer, and my canning supplies… and the tiny outhouse shed is completely empty right now.
Also, believe-it-or not, our large extra garage + outbuilding is also almost empty because we recently sold most of the furniture as we’re hoping to start demolition in there over the winter (yay!!)
The extra storage is fabulous… but the fact that it’s cute and decorative (and uses a bit of that old barnwood again) is just the cherry on top!
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One last Before + Progress + After photo progression!
(December, 2010 — the day we moved into our house)
(September, 2013 — after doing quite a bit of yardwork)
(August, 2016)
Karina Dick says
What material is that on your garage floor/baseboard area? I love it!
Andrea says
It’s all just concrete that was painted with the epoxy floor paint (at least in our main garage). You can read about it here: https://andreadekker.com/new-epoxy-garage-floor-qa/
Illen says
Is there a meaning for the star above the shed or is it only for decoration?
Andrea says
no meaning, I just love stars and I had this star waiting for a “home”. I suppose it’s a little big for above the shed, but it works for now!
Bob says
I disagree with the star being too big for the shed I think it looks so cool, and the whole yard is looking so great. I am going to take some of your ideas and put them to use at my place. Wow you have some great idea and pictures. I hope you put the basketball hoop up somewhere else. I am a kid at heart! I would be out there shooting baskets even though I’m old. Lol
Lee Winemiller Cockrum says
Love everything that you have done! It is really nice to have the space for entertaining family.
Karen says
Oh I know how much work you have put into those spaces. We need all those buildings, lol. Our land is not leveled as it slopes down and we are in the process of clearing trees, leveling and all that extra prep work so that we can haverify a building for our
Karen says
Tools, cars, etc
Andrea says
wow — sounds like some fun projects for you! Good luck!
Tina says
Wow, so many places to play! The possibilities are endless. You guys are blessed for sure. I hope your family enjoys that space for many years!
Andrea says
Thanks Tina! WE hope we enjoy our home for years to come too!
Beatriz says
I love your shed! I sometimes feel like that too, all the clutter from my lawn equipment is a little too close to my car for my taste. That’s a great idea, I may have to look into something like that but probably on a smaller scale for my yard.
Andrea says
Thanks — and yes, we LOVE keeping all that smelly, dirty, stuff separate from our garage and outbuilding!
Jane says
Always really enjoy your posts. I’ve been wondering if you wouldn’t mind sharing how you plan for any big home projects. Do you and Dave make a list/prioritize, estimate cost, budget, timeline, etc.? Do you have a “project fund” you put aside each months? How do you stay on track? Thank you very much. Your shed looks wonderful!
Andrea says
Thanks Jane.
We honestly don’t have a system for planning or preparing for projects. We knew this house would require YEARS Of projects when we purchased it — so we’ve always had a good amount of money set aside for projects (so no, we don’t budget a certain amount every month).
Also, we don’t necessarily “stay on track either” we just do what we do when we feel like it or when it seems to work with our schedule. Once we decide to start a project, we do have some sort of timeline to finish it — but again, that’s just based on the time of year and what type of project it is. We don’t have any hard and fast “rules” that we follow.
Debbie says
Such a cute and functional shed! I love the window planter and the barn door! My hubs built a shed and now that I see your barn door on the side, it would have been a cool idea to do that. He did make a french door for it so it’s plenty big. The barn door is just a cool thing to see. He also regrets not building the shed even bigger than he did.
Andrea says
Thanks Debbie! And yes, EVERYONE told us we should build it bigger — but based on the space where we put the shed, we could have only built it WIDER and I didn’t like the look of that. Now, we will just be happy with what we have and get rid of things if they don’t fit 🙂
Christine @ The (mostly) Simple Life says
Your shed is so cute! I’m sure it’s nice to have a separate place for yard stuff. It’s crazy how many extra buildings and how much storage you have! It’s nice, though. I can’t stand clutter, but that doesn’t mean I always like tiny spaces. I like bigger areas that aren’t filled up.
Andrea says
we have LOTS of space — one of the reasons we loved this house so much!!
None of the spaces are filled (except the shed in the winter time) but they are all available for various storage needs (and potential future needs) 🙂
ShellyL says
Love, love, love!! Your posts are sooo inspirational! We also have the potential for lots of extra space but, unfortunately, ours is filled with clutter. Makes me want to clean it all out and then see what could be possible. I can’t wait to see what you do to the extra building. So exciting!
Andrea says
Thanks Shelly 🙂
We’re excited to do something fun in the extra building — but we aren’t exactly sure what we’re going to do… or when we’ll do it (hopefully sooner than later though!)
Lynn Oyama says
I love your home and all the outbuildings! Such an inspiration! 🙂
Andrea says
Thanks Lynn! It’s been fun to put our own personal touches on this home over the past 5.5 years! I still can’t believe we’ve been here almost SIX years!