Victorian Style Shed & Playhouse


The time has come to paint our shed/playhouse, so while I'm working on my veranda, Brian and Astrid will be tackling our functional yet fancy Victorian-style little cottage. It's not an old building, twenty years at most. The previous owners had this two-storey structure, with balcony and deck, built for garden storage and their three children to play in. Rarely do we see such attention given to a backyard construction. Gingerbread details found on the DV have been replicated for the adornment of the shed. Even the swing set is nicely coordinated. It is fully wired for electricity and a water pipe has been brought to the shed for ease of watering the garden. The stone steps leading up to the the playhouse are engraved with the names of the previous owners' children. Astrid was just a little too old to fully enjoy this amazing playhouse, so even the upstairs serves as storage now.


It's often referred to as the tree house because of the huge pine growing in the back, giving the illusion that the deck is built around the tree. You can see in the shot below that the tree is several feet away.


After scraping and sanding, Brian and Astrid are now priming. The colours used on the DV will be repeated on the shed/playhouse, along with two new ones to make it more whimsical. Stay tuned for shots of work in progress.


Until then, here are a few of my favourite garden cottage sheds, aside from mine of course.

English Tudor cottage, Great Britain, photo by Tom Schroeder
Charlotte's Post Office of Spindle Cottage, UK

Water tower cottage by Geoffrey Holton and Associates, S.E.A. Construction, San Carlos , CA
Uncredited photo of hen house from designcaller.blogspot.ca
Rabbit cottage by Cordwood Construction
Pigeon cottage (an original pigeon house converted into a  retreat)
Living Roofs, Inc.