Higlett House 'Cactus Shack'

It’s with great excitement, that I reveal my Coastal cabin from SheShed. Located in my backyard, this studio space offers me the ability to work from home, you gotta love a 10 second commute to work!

Photography Coastpark Creative

You may remember we had one of SheShed’s Star Cabins in the backyard of our previous home (click here to check it out), and we loved the fact that it gave our small home an extra space to work from. My partner used it as his photography/videography studio. It also doubled as a space he could listen to his record collection without me telling him to turn it down haha.

This time though, I wanted our new cabin, at our new house, to be just for me. Not only does this space function as my home office, it also doubles as a pop up shop for me to sell plants (mainly cactus and succulents). I’ve affectionately called my shed ‘The Cactus Shack’ and it was fun to bring this space to life. I bought a cheap reception desk and added ribbed paneling to the front to give it a more designer look. I painted the panels in Tint ‘Potter’s Square’ which is a lively terracotta colour. I love the fact this desk can also function as my front counter when I eventually run my pop up shop.

I also needed plenty of storage for all of my paperwork, magazines, printer and office stationery. I purchased three ‘Ivar’ cabinets from IKEA and painted these in Tint ‘Gracie’ - a dusty peach colour which works in so well with all of the other colours in the space.

I chose the Coastal cabin from SheShed because of its shape - I love how it really complements our own home’s aesthetic. It has a modern feel with a skillion roof which fits in so well with our own home’s back exterior. The cabin comes as a kit with everything you need to put it together. It does however require some carpentry knowledge and skills to assemble and for that reason we hired a builder to put it together for us. It took two experienced carpenters approximately 4-5 days to put it together. Prior to it being built I had a trench dug from our house out to the concrete slab base for our shed, and hired an electrician to lay electrical cable out to it so that the shed could be connected to power. I have power points, LED strip lighting and even an air-conditioner in here so that it is a comfortable space to work from. I will say this - it’s definitely worthwhile getting an air con as these sheds can get very hot inside.

Another thing we added to our Coastal cabin is a small deck. We chose a composite decking from Ekodeck in the ‘Backbeach’ colourway which is the same style we used on the back of our house. We love that it’s a low-maintenance product and the colour of it is quite coastal in style too.

The walls are made from untreated timber, so it does need to be painted to help protect it from the elements. We painted our exterior in Tint ‘So Fresh and So Clean’. Inside we had a little bit of fun with the colour palette. The majority of walls and the ceiling are painted in Tint ‘Midnight Pancakes’ which is a lovely soft pink colour. The back wall is painted in a slightly darker tone of pink - this is Tint ‘Dawn Patrol’.

I just adore my Coastal cabin, and I think when it comes time to sell our home, this studio space will add so much to the resale value. The future home owners could really use this space for anything - a work space, a hobby room or even a potting shed!