It’s finally time to reveal the new summerhouse to you. Its being used every day at the moment, so I actually needed to give a little of a tidy up before I took these photographs. It’s definitely a retreat for me in the day, but in the afternoon its been taken over by both of the girls and their friends. I’m hoping as soon as the weather gets a little warmer in the evenings, we’ll get even more use out of it. I have a cunning plan for some lighting up there, which I will hopefully be revealing soon too.
First up though a little reminder of the space before :
I almost can’t remember the summerhouse not being there now. It just fits perfectly in this corner of our garden.
Here is the Waltons contemporary summerhouse, when it was first built:
12 x 8 Waltons Contemporary Summerhouse with side shed – £1249.00 not including building it -£379.99
As you can see there was green plastic on the windows, this actually made the process of painting so much easier, and the wood untreated looks pretty grim that colour. However after three coats of Cuprinol Garden Shades on the outside, it looks like this…ta da!
It was a few days of painting and hard work, but it was so worth it!
We painted both inside and out with Cuprinol Garden Shades, which is a paint I have used before elsewhere in the garden, and coverage is excellent. You definitely get what you pay for I think with paint, especially outdoors!
Muted Clay was used everywhere outside (its a warm grey) apart from the top trim which was in Pale Jasmine, a near white colour.
It’s hard to see the difference between the colours when its sunny in the photographs, but it looks really striking in real life. The inside was painted in the Pale Jasmine, again Cuprinol Garden Shades. We did try to choose a cheaper paint as a base colour, but that was a big mistake, the coverage of the Cuprinol was far better. The floor was painted in the Muted Clay, as we wanted the line of decking on the covered ‘porch’ area to run seamlessly through to the Summerhouse when all of the doors were open.
I wanted to try to furnish the summerhouse as cost effectively as I could, so the first thing to do, was scour the house for items I could re-purpose, like this green painted stool, and my Orla Kiely planters.
I also did some thrifty hunting in all of the local charity shops, and this was where I found some great pieces, including the smaller stool which can be used for additional seating, or as a plant rest.
Can you spot the patchwork rug? Hopefully you can in the photographs, as it was an amazing find. It’s actually an indoor/outdoor rug, so perfect for this space. It was great value too, as I wanted the whole floor to be covered and I did so for only £69. Its resistant to stains and repellent to water, is anti static and moth proof. It promises to be hard wearing, also importantly its colourfast essential with all of the sunlight. You can find out more details on the Land of Rug site.
The feature I love the most of this summerhouse, is the bi-fold doors.
You can see the door to the side storage room to the right of this picture, which at the moment we are using to house the lawn mower, but we are hoping to include our gardening tools too.
We had a garden voucher left over, so went on a discount day to our local garden centre, as everything had an additional 20% off. We managed to find a cherry tree, soil and flowers all for under £40. There was a chip in the pot and I cheekily asked for a further discount.
I knew I needed a table, mostly for photography. I wanted something compact though, and I was starting to run out of budget. My very clever Dad adapted something that he found on sale for only £15.99. Its foldaway style, perfect for lots of different uses and once folded it really doesn’t take up much space at all.
F&M Basket, vintage contains wallpaper to be used as backdrops for photography.
I take photographs every day, and I’m always looking for good light, so the summerhouse table is just perfect.
Using the higher stool I could use it as a desk, or even to pop some food and drinks on when were in the garden as a family.
I loved furnishing the room. I wanted it to be fun and retro, and that’s why I chose orange as the main pop of colour. Most of the accessories and chairs came from Next, you can read more about my choices HERE.
Everything else I already had, or was a thrifty bargain. I love a good throw, and have many of them in our home, so thought these might be useful on chillier nights.
The ultimate way to keep warm in the garden though is this very cool Helios fire pit from Houseology by Skagerak. 
I’ve always wanted a firepit, and this firebowl is just perfect, toasted marshmallow and watching those flames is almost hypnotic!
So that’s it, our summer house has been completed. I’d love to know what you think. We are going to use it so much, and we have already. 
Huge thanks to my Mum and Dad, who helped me with all of the painting, and to my Dad for his expert DIY skills. Who knows, maybe next year we#ll be able to get that big oak conservatory – come orangery that we keep talking about too.
There is an interesting review of the Summerhouse I reviewed on What Shed?, and its is also ranked #2 in their Top 20 Wooden Summer houses list in the UK.
Also a big thank you to Waltons for supplying me with the summerhouse. I love it, thank you!
UPDATE :
I thought it would be useful to update this post, four years down the line, and how the Summerhouse is faring.
Well, over the last two weeks we’ve emptied out the summerhouse as we use it in the Autumn and Winter months to store our garden furniture. We cleaned, de-spidered and tidy it all up. This is the first year, so far we thought that it needed a little bit of a repaint so we did that. It only seemed to need doing on either the high traffic or areas or ones that had been in direct sunlight, everywhere else looked absolutely fine. There was a small amount of damp (very small but in a couple of areas on the left-hand wall) but we had a huge Sundance – Choisya ternata growing right up to this wall so we think that this is why. No other walls have been affected. So we’ve cut back the plant a little so sunlight and air can get to the outside of that wall, and within a couple of days, I can already see that it has nearly disappeared. There’s also been no leaks with the roof. We really do love this extension to our home, and I’m sure we will use it for many more years to come.
Truly lovely Amanda you have styled it beautifully, looks the perfect retreat ……. I love it so pleased for you
Thank you. Come visit!
Wow I absolutely LOVE this!! This is something I have been wanting as an outside office for me to work and a place for the children to escape to. My only fear is spiders?!?! Are there many holes for them to get into?!?
Thank you. We are so pleased with how it turned out. It had a couple of really small holes (knots) which we spotted whilst painting. We used the tiniest amount of putty and then painted over. No spiders so far!
oh it’s turned out SO well Amanda!!
Thanks Ali, long summer evenings with a vino had better be happening now 😉
It’s so beautiful A, what a fab job you have done of making it your own, and a great space for you and the girls to hang out (is Tall Dad banned?) I really love it x
Wow, it looks absolutely gorgeous, you must be thrilled! What a difference the paint makes to the look of it – excellent colour choice. It’s looking great inside too.
Oh wow! It looks wonderful, Amanda. I love the colour you have chosen and I am super jealous of your photography table. Enjoy the summer days in your shed! x
wow!!! It looks amazing – what a fantastic spot to spend those summer days xx
Oh it’s so cute! Lovely job!! xxx
Oh my goodness, Amanda, such a perfect retreat! I love the design of the summer house with those folding doors and the extra storage – a really clever design. I too used Muted Clay from Cuprinol on our playhouse from Waltons. It’s a lovely shade and looks very contemporary on your summer house – then the colourful accessories give it that punch of retro! Lovely styling and the table your dad created is a brilliant idea 🙂 xx
Wow, this looks amazing, what a beautiful space. I love everything about it, love the retro touches and the prints
Oh wow, this is absolutely gorgeous! And well done to your dad – what a brilliant idea that table is! I love the fact that it’s in two parts, so you can still hide away stuff like the lawnmower without having to have a garden full of sheds!
That’s so lovely and I love the colours and big folding doors. Such a sweet space to chill in when it’s sunny. Great job 🙂
When can I move in? ; As you know, I have been following this with interest and I really do love the colour scheme. Grey combined with bright colours is so effective. You are really good at the ‘accessorising’ and ‘finishing touches’ …I always seem to run out of puff after decorating and neglect to add the little extras that make it really special. Great work!
Oh wow Ana I absolutely love this – the Cuprinol paint worked a treat and the shade you opted for is perfect – plus the furniture is perfect for the space and works so well – such a lovely retreat at the end of the garden
Laura x
Looks fab Amanda, I bet the side door is really useful for storing things away and I like the way the bi-fold doors really let the outdoors in. Enjoy! xx
Gorgeous. I love the grey paint you have used on this. I also like how it has bi-folding doors- makes the whole thing more user friendly. I would love this in my garden
Amanda I love, love, love it, I so need a garden room, we have a lovely big shed that I keep threatening to do, but I love the steely of this, I could put it behind the shed and it could me my little garden haven ooooh bliss x
Oh Amanda, I love it. I really, really love it. The colours, the accessories, the flowers, the table … they’re all just perfect. It must be the most amazing place to sit. I’m so jealous 🙂 xxx
Aaaah this is SO exciting!!! We’re just in the middle of building my ‘she-shed’ at the moment. It’s been a big job but it will be so worth it!! Seeing your pictures makes me so excited for when I can start decorating mine. I absolutely cannot WAIT. It’s been a long time in the planning. I can’t believe it’s actually happening finallY! 🙂
Wow Amanda, it looks AMAZING. I could feel myself there, relaxing in the sunshine as I read this. Such a brilliant idea. Love it!
Amanda it looks INCREDIBLE! I love it! I so need one of these for the garden at The Barn – it would be perfect at the top end, a little space for some me-time in the Summer months. You did an great job with the colour scheme, and orange is one of my fav colours so it would suit me down to the ground! Enjoy x
Amanda this looks gorgeous! We’ve actually just bought a Walton’s shed and hoping to get that painted and up in the garden in the next few days. Not quite as dreamy as a summer house but it’s going to help so much for storage in our little house.
What a transformation! It’s styled so beautifully. Nice to keep that extra bit of storage too, we have a cabin in the garden but didn’t think to keep any storage space – doh!
Lovely job 🙂
Lx
So beautiful! It’s looking so stylish and well organized.
Wow – it’s so amazing! x
looks great.. how many tins of paint were required of each color? I have the same shed and think I will do the same!
We used 2 of the larger tins of each colour, I think. So 4 tins in total. We did do a base layer of just white (some paint we already had) on the inside though. Hope that helps.