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Shed & Studio Design Photos and Ideas

Although Wakebayashi is not a professional Noh actor, he performs in front of an audience once or twice a year. For these performances, his preparation goes beyond memorizing lyrics and choreography—he sometimes even visits temples and locations where the story is set. “I need to understand the contents of the Noh play, which is how the main character feels, and the background of the story including history,” says Wakebayashi.
The home’s Noh stage is constructed of hinoki cypress. On the back wall, Kagami-ita—which literally translates to “mirror board”—is a polished board on which the sacred pine tree is depicted. “It serves as an echo board for the sound on the stage, and is known as the large pine tree that first catches the eye upon entering the Noh theater,” says architect Takanori Maita.
Despite its small footprint, the flexible, multi-purpose space includes bike storage and a niche for storing weights.
Almo Troup repurposed nearly all of the materials from a tumbledown shack to create a dreamy, minimalist workspace in his backyard.
“I wanted to bring in a little bit of apricot to nod to the name of the studio,” says Troup of the $25 USD orange velvet curtain he hung as a space divider.
The LED lighting is encased in translucent poly-carbonate panels on top and bottom. Daylight streams through from the roof when the lights aren't on.
Fir plywood from Freres Lumber joins IKEA cabinets. The figure painting is by Dylan Dean.
This room can be a family room, office, or guest suite. The flooring is the same throughout: Riva Floors, Engineered Wood Select Grade, in Crystal Thunder, and the couch is from Restoration Hardware. Unseen is the foosball and ping pong tables.
The curved wall is just as pleasing of a detail when experienced on the inside of the writer's studio.
Rose’s pottery studio opens right up to the back lawn to let the sunlight (or curious pups) inside.
The sauna structure includes a small deck.
A wood-burning stove from Harvia, of Finland, heats the sauna. The pavilion’s rough-cut pine walls are treated with tar, a preservative that yields a time-worn aesthetic.
A guest bedroom, with furniture from Room & Board, overlooks the bridge above the dining courtyard. The home’s landscape architecture is by Ventura, California–based Jack Kiesel. Photo by Coral von Zumwalt.
The concrete wall behind the porch provides a backdrop for the wood stove and privacy from the road.
Technically, this small building is not a tree house, since it’s braced at the ground by supports, but Grey didn’t want to compromise the tree, which “doesn’t have a very long lifespan,” the designer says. “So, I didn’t want to jeopardize however long that tree had with any excess baggage.”
The ribbon-like design affords the building three different gable profiles—one is symmetrical, while the other two lean in opposite directions.
The structure is made entirely from treated pine, while its corrugated polycarbonate roof protects it from the elements.
The sinuous interior is lined with CNC-cut wooden panels that define stepped sauna seating and porthole windows.
The sauna is named after Huginn and Muninn, two ravens from Norse mythology.
A bathroom is tucked beside the new sunroom behind the sliding barn door, which was found at Albany Architectural Salvage.
A small, dilapidated 10' x 12' neighboring structure was brought back to life and is now used as an art studio and guest cottage with a Murphy bed. In total, the property can sleep 10 people comfortably.
The screened porch functions as the building’s primary bedroom, creating a cabin-like experience.
A 25-foot custom bifold door made of corrugated plastic and twin-wall polycarbonate encloses an artist’s studio designed by Marc Frohn of FAR frohn&rojas.
We tried to be very resourceful. You shouldn’t see any tile on the deck that had to be cut; it’s almost like a perfect puzzle,” comments the designer, Marc Frohn.
This dreamy, glass bedroom by the lake was created as an early prototype for the prefabricated greenhouse/she kits known as the Kekkilä Green Sheds.
The bi-level car barn, a spare, timber-clad structure with an A-frame roof, nods to traditional farmhouses, but is “sleek and contemporary in spirit,” says Geremia. Inspired by an old photo of a porcelain farmhouse sink, it features polished concrete floors.
A spacious deck and large glass doors allow for seamless indoor/outdoor living.
The Exbury Egg asks us to reexamine the way we live while carefully considering sustainability and the use of natural resources.
These tiny egg-shaped cabins are mounted onto small podiums to keep them stable.
Inside, playful pillows can be rearranged in any manner, and are often used as mock beds for relaxing and looking at the canopies above.
Helsinki architect Ville Hara and designer Linda Bergroth collaborated on a prefab shed-meets-sleeping cabin, which can be assembled with little else than a screwdriver. Bergroth, inspired by nomadic yurt dwellers, wanted an indoor/outdoor experience for her property in Finland.
The Backyard Lounge and Office is 330 square feet and features windows on all sides.
Marco V. Morelli says his Studio Shed is the perfect refuge. “It’s changed my life for the better,” he says. “I’ve gotten so much more work done, and I think my marital relations are much better because I have a place of my own.”
The sauna door handle is a simple piece of driftwood. “One principle rule I followed,” says Kiehl, “was: Don’t build on outdoor space if it can work as outdoor living space. Norwegian summers are short. We want to be outdoors as much as possible.”
Davor (with his wife, Abbe, and son, August) designed the main living and dining pavilion as a double-height space to increase its perceived volume, and added high cubbies for extra storage.
The Shudio and patio with privacy trellis.
Phillips designed Judith a stark white, glass-fronted art studio.
Working with his colleagues at Austin Maynard Architects, architect Andrew Maynard added a 184-square-foot, sun-saturated greenhouse extension to his existing 364-square-foot home, and the new space serves as an office for him and his team.
Designed by Stockholm firm Waldemarson Berglund Arkitekter, this prefab artist studio called Ateljé 25 is shaped like a Monopoly house, serves as an artist’s studio and has simple plywood interiors and massive skylights.