August 2020 - Rooms2U

Will Working from Home Become the New Normal?

Posted on 26th August 202014th December 2020

For a while now, companies have recognised the benefits of having staff that work remotely. It saves their resources in the form of large office spaces and the overheads associate with them. The biggest concern in the minds of organisations, however, was the security associated with allowing employees access to systems from home.

COVID expedited what we believe would have happened slowly over the next few years and enforced homeworking, which made companies test their infrastructures and systems earlier than expected.

Homeworking is beneficial to both the employer and employees. Workers enjoying cutting out the commute time and can be around at home for deliveries, family, pets, and so on. So, with it seemingly being a win-win, will more people opt to continue working from home once this pandemic has passed?

The ‘gig economy’ has been exploding in recent years, with many people gaining paid jobs on the internet and working from home, so if employers offered the chance to work from home instead of travelling into the office how many more would opt to do so? Google already told staff they would be working from home until at least Summer 2021 and they are unlikely to be alone in this measure.

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Of course, it’s not all a bed of roses, many people found that working from home with the entire family home was distracted and could limit productivity. There was very little warning with COVID which meant people were operating under makeshift conditions, working from a laptop at a kitchen table, Argos and the likes quickly sold out of desks and chairs so that people could create that dedicated office space.

There has been a rise in people looking for some extra space since lockdown in the form of garden rooms and offices. These rooms a multi-functional and provide additional space that can be used to work in peace and quiet, increasing productivity and ensuring everything needed for the tasks required are at hand and not cluttering up the main living accommodation. They also provide space to start a home business as well as being purely office space.

Ultimately, COVID has inadvertently produced a large social experiment that could change the world on so many levels in the immediate future, steering us towards a new normal and where and how we work will be at the forefront of this. IT skills will likely become even more valuable, with many other jobs likely to become in lower demand such as cleaning contractors who service office blocks for example. This will leave some people needing to reskill in order to maintain some form of paid employment.

We predict a massive shift is beginning to take place, we would love to hear your thoughts about this topic. Join in the conversation with us on social media.

If you want to be prepared and fancy a garden office of your own, you can start your search here.

Cabin Cuts : A Resilient Young Hairdressers Cabin Business

Posted on 20th August 202014th December 2020

People are increasingly realising the potential of garden rooms and cabins, both for relaxation and leisure as well as a place to earn a living. After the heavy restrictions of lockdown recently left many people having to work from home, with some, still yet to return to their place of work, it became very apparent that make-shift dining table desks and the hustle and bustle of daily life at home just couldn’t cut it for many.

The search for garden offices increased post lockdown, with a huge uncertainty of what winter may bring with regards to this pandemic. Some people, however, have known about the benefits a garden room could bring, long before lockdown and even run a cabin business from their own back garden.

19-year-old Josie Mead from Eastbourne is one such person. She began running a Cabin Cuts, a hair salon from the cabin in her garden just over a year ago. Josie has a very unfortunate problem for a hairdresser, she found she was actually allergic to hair dyes making it difficult for her to work in normal hair salons.

Josie is no quitter though, and had a brainwave! Already having a cabin in the garden, she saw the perfect opportunity to convert it to a hair salon where she could control the products and processes to avoid exposure to the hair tints that caused her allergic reaction and embarked on her journey to create a cabin business.

Cabin cuts offer a range of services from wash and blow-dry, to cuts, braids, men’s hair, and beard services, and children’s haircuts. She even provides extensions and funky hair tinsels which bring magic and sparkle to people’s lives! Bleaching services such as highlights or balayage are also on the menu because working from the cabin means Josie is able to control the ventilation to help her allergies.

Josie’s clients at Cabin Cuts love the salon:

“They love the fact it is a fully equipped salon without being busy like your usual hairdressers. Especially during these uncertain times! My clients have said to me how safe they feel knowing it’s just me and them. And I can control and clean the area easily.”

Cabin Cuts is solely owned and managed by Josie, being tucked away in a garden has not held her back. She promotes her business by posting regularly on her social media channels and does the occasional leaflet drop. Being talented at what she does also means that many of her customers are direct referrals from her clients who spread the word.

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While COVID meant that hairdressers were unable to operate, Josie feels it gave her the time she needed to build her business, learn new skills and get the word out, showing just how resilient she is. Her clients are happy and know that it’s probably one of the safest salons around being just her and them in the salon at any given time.

Josie was lucky enough to have the cabin at her disposal, but it was not ready for use as a salon. She says the process of converting it was fairly easy and she was lucky enough to have friends and family that were in the necessary trades to assist her. She laid some floor and painted the cabin to create a welcoming environment for her clients and her dad being a plumber meant he was able to fit all the necessary equipment for her such as the basin, which took around two days to fully install. She says she spent roughly £1000-2000 buying equipment, insurance, products, and more to get the salon started which took around two weeks to complete. The cabin was already fitted with electricity but the water source had to be extended from the main living accommodation.

Josie has demonstrated how nobody needs to be held back by limitations such as discovering an allergy after investing in training for a career, COVID didn’t hold her back either giving her time to learn new skills and promote her business.

She says “I am so grateful for my amazing family who helped me set up so quickly and I am very grateful for all of my lovely clients.”

If Josie’s story has inspired you, you can find a garden building of your own to kickstart the cabin business of your dreams here.

Compact Garden Offices – Don’t Sacrifice Style

Posted on 17th August 202014th December 2020

With an increasing number of people now willing and able to work from home, people are turning to the garden to get the space they need to work in peace, quiet and calm. With so many garden room office options providing the ideal working area we have decided to narrow down the options and share some compact Garden Office solutions that are ideal for people who just need space for a desk, computer and chair to get their work done.

Lugarde Napoleon Home Office

The Napoleon Garden Home Office is available through Cotswold Garden Buildings. It utilises the Lugarde System which means it is easy to build at home and comes with easy to follow tutorials. Its compact size belies its capacity to be the perfect tiny home office which is planning rules friendly at less than 2.5m high. It’s flooded with natural light through its double-glazed windows and matching door and the interior is beautifully finished in natural pine with an internal roof finial, requiring no further wor, unless you choose to decorate to make it your own.

Barbados Mini Garden Office

The Barbados Mini is a compact office solution by Cabin Living which incorporates a stylish design with a smaller footprint for tight spaces. The lowered ridge height allows placement close to a boundary often without the need for planning. This stylish timber cabin is delivered for self-assembly by the owner although you can opt for installation for an additional charge by contacting the seller in advance.

The Micro

The Micro by ModuLog is the smallest building in their range and is made up of 2 modules creating an internal space area of 2.44m x 2.2m. Taking up very little garden space, and with a curved design, this cute little garden room is certainly eye-catching. This building g can be delivered as a flatpack making it ideal for anyone with access issues and can be built at home as a DIY project. You can even customise your Micro with cladding and window options including Bi-fold doors.

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The Madison 1900 Small

The Madison by Nordic Garden Buildings is a superb garden room specially designed to make the best use of those awkward corners in the garden. Retaining privacy towards the rear, the front of the building allows light to flood in bringing you closer to the surroundings of the garden for a beautiful view while you work.

As you can see, being limited on space doesn’t mean you need to compromise on style or taste. There are numerous options, in a multitude of styles, colours and materials even at the smallest end of the scale, allowing you that dedicated, peaceful working space to get your job done and maximise productivity.

Start Working For Yourself With a Garden Room

Posted on 8th August 202014th December 2020

There’s no denying that are living in the midst of a seismic shift. The Covdi-19 pandemic seems to have accelerated things that experts have known would happen for years.

Organisations have been looking at financial and environmental factors that would have eventually led to a focus on employees working from home. For businesses the costs of physical offices, staff to maintain these offices and the carbon emissions of premises are all negatives that could be reduced by implementing strategies for their workforce to carry out their tasks from home.

Government organisations and large companies who were forced into testing this home-working earlier than perhaps they would have liked have seen that their infrastructures could support this shift with some now deciding to make these changes more permanent.

Other organisations have made unfortunately had to make some serious cuts to their workforce with numerous redundancies despite the government’s furlough scheme.

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Those that did work in makeshift conditions during lockdown will know that if this was to become a permanent change, they would need a more dedicated space to work from. Kitchen tables and laptops can’t cut it on a long-term basis, which is why the demand form garden office solutions has increased in the last few months.

Not only can garden rooms be used to create a dedicated office space, but the versatile nature of them also lends itself well for so many home-based business opportunities, so whether you’ve been asked to start working from home, or were made redundant and want to go solo and start your own enterprise, the garden is the place to do it! We take a look at some solutions below.

The Garden Office

There are so many garden offices on our marketplace that there really is something to suit everyone. Whether you’re looking for a small dedicated space in the garden to work in peace and quiet, or something larger that a small team of people could occupy, then the garden office Is the ideal solution. There are even cubicle solutions that can be installed both inside and outside.

*Pictured is the Steel Framed garden Office By Option garden Buildings

Craft Room

Crafters will know that they need their own dedicated space to create their little masterpieces. Organisation is key with everything in its place and a place for everything. Garden rooms are ideal, giving you that dedicated space to create exactly as you desire with bespoke options, off the shelf units and even DIY projects for those that enjoy a challenge.

•Pictured is The Bespoke Handcrafted Workshop by Burlington Garden Buildings

Fitness Studio

COVID has certainly made a huge impact on how we work out. With clever PT’s, yoga teachers and the like finding new ways to keep their clients in shape. Zoom was a godsend for many, and while Joe Wicks managed to find a room to teach the nation’s children, making sure they had a dedicated space was something that the majority weren’t prepared for. A garden room provides ample space, with the ability to choose the flooring and interior to work around you and your workouts.

•Pictured is Sensational Spaces Home Gym

Beauty Room / Salon

Those in the beauty industry have perhaps had the most confusing time of all navigating the ever-changing government advice on when they could return to work with some of these small businesses being hit extremely hard by the pandemic. Anyone qualified and talented in hairdressing and beauty treatments can always find clients with the help of some advertising g on social media, which is why creating a dedicated space makes sense. It eliminates the majority of the overheads, means clients don’t have to come into your home and you don’t need to be travelling to theirs. You can create the perfect atmosphere for your clients to relax while they get pamperedwhile you work from home.

* Pictured is The Balmoral by HG Spaces

Workshop

Workshops are handy for many home-based businesses. Whether you’re a carpenter, mechanic, a tinkerer, or perhaps a restorer, having a dedicated workshop built for exactly your needs could help your business venture soar.

*Pictured is The Bespoke Room by RA Garden Rooms

Music Room / Sound Studio

These garden rooms lend themselves very well to creating a dedicated sound studio for music producers, or an ideal band practice room, or teaching room for music teachers. Away from the main living accommodation, they can be easily soundproofed if necessary and keep the noise of your love of music away from people trying to relax at home.

*Pictured is the Pinnacle by Green Retreats

Writers Retreat

Writers need some peace and quiet to allow their creative juices to flow. Creating a dedicated space to take a cuppa and go and write with a nice view of the garden and the sounds of the birds for company creates the perfect serene backdrop to get those words down.

*Pictured is The Writers Studio by Curve Garden Buildings

Artist’s Studio

Art can be a messy business, which is why creating a dedicated studio away from the main living quarters makes a lot of sense. As with writers, artists need some space and quiet time to think and produce their masterpieces, so the garden is the perfect space.

•Pictured is Log Cabin Emma by Urban Decor

Air B&B

For those with ample space on their hands, there are numerous options to create a little Air B&B or glamping business. Staycations have become increasingly popular and will probably be even more sure during the throes of this pandemic and for a while afterwards as people will be wary of visiting foreign lands. The possibilities here are huge, from basic accommodation or empty shells that you can fit yourself, to fully ready and operational solutions.

•Pictured is The Bespoke Camping Pod by Garden Room Design

As you can see, there are so many opportunities with a humble little garden room, but these are just the tip of the iceberg, you are only limited by your imagination, so why not visit our website here and review and compare all the options to start working from home!

Of course, there are certain considerations that should be made before you start executing any plan for your home-based business such as seeking permission from your mortgage provider or landlord. Depending on the nature of the business, you may also need permission from your local council, so we always advise doing a little research first.