I’m spotting them everywhere. In gardens, on Pinterest and even at Latitude festival. Yes, painted sheds are ‘all the rage’ these days and it’s a trend that is certainly here to stay. No longer do sheds have to be a boring brown or blend-in-with-the-bushes green, especially now that there are so many garden paint colours available in DIY stores. Read on to check out some of the examples of ‘beach hut sheds’ that I’ve recently come across and find out how to get the look in your own garden too.
I actually painted my own shed a lovely duck egg blue shade last year, and decided to add contrasting trims with a cream garden paint. I was definitely inspired by all the gorgeous beach huts I see along the Suffolk coast and I wanted to recreate the effect by painting my tiny 6ft x 4ft shed in coastal colours. I shared a step-by-step guide to painting sheds on my blog so be sure check that out if you’re planning to paint your own shed this summer.
This beautiful summerhouse is the ultimate beach hut shed, and is owned by my blogging buddy Lucy from LucyLovesYa.com – you can read more about her garden room here. It’s a beautiful sky blue hue, with contrasting white window frames. Size-wise it’s even more like a beach hut than my tiny shed, and there’s plenty of space inside to unfold a deckchair and take in the lovely garden views.
I also spotted a painted shed at Latitude Festival earlier this summer. In fact, there were quite a few painted sheds dotted around the woods, all brightly decorated with images and patterns. Okay, these aren’t really traditional ‘beach hut’ designs, but they still definitely make the best use of the range of garden paints available these days. I would probably consider creating a piece of artwork on my own shed if I was more confident of my drawing ability!
If you’re considering putting up a shed in your own garden and giving it a lick of paint to spruce it up, you’ll need to consider the design and size, and imagine how it’ll look once it’s on your plot. Whether it’s a playhouse, a workshop, a summerhouse, or a tiny shed to store your tools, you can find the best one for your needs online. Do you want a pent roof for extra height at the front, or do you prefer the look of these apex sheds? Do you want windows or are you going to paint every wall anyway? Whatever your needs, I’m sure you’ll be able to find the right garden building with a quick browse around some websites.
This summer we painted the sheds in mum’s garden to look like a row of beach huts. She too has small 6ft x 4ft sheds (one for gardening tools, one for BBQ bits, one for the kids toys etc) and they were looking a little boring in their original ‘shed treatment’ colour. We popped to the DIY store and picked up some colourful paints, including a sunshiney yellow, a bubblegum pink and a pastel sky blue.
We used three different brands of garden paint to get the best combination of colours, all of which took two coats of paint to get a strong enough colour. The first layer would have resulted in a seaside-style ‘washed’ finish, but we wanted a defined colour for each shed. In fact, the best paint we used was actually the B&Q own brand garden paint, which we used for the cream-coloured trims. This was thicker than the other paints so it went on much more easily, with fewer drips, and only really needed one coat to cover the treated wood.
What do you think of the trend for sheds decorated like beach huts? Have you gone for a bright or pastel shade in your garden? Perhaps you’ve gone all-out coastal with a striped design? Let me know by leaving me a comment below or by tagging me in your Instagram photos @Cassiefairy.
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