Summerhouse Style and How to Get It — Theresa Gromski Studio

One of my favourite places in my home is my summerhouse or She Shed as it’s laughingly know (my husband has a Man Shed right behind it but it’s no way near as pretty!)

It’s a great place to go and hide away with a drink and a book (and yes I do go there to hide from my kids and husband on a regular basis!) I think we all need somewhere to escape to that we can call just ours, we can decorate it how we wish and shut out the world. So this blog post is all about how you can create your own little private space in your garden (and ideas on how to decorate it!) You may already have a suitable structure you can use or you are maybe looking at building a summerhouse in your garden in the future and are wondering how to decorate it.

The She Shed styled up as a ‘restaurant’ during lockdown when we couldnt go anywhere!

Our summerhouse was a Billy-Oh design from Wayfair, this particular model is no long available but take a look to find similar here. We built ours ourselves and is actually pretty easy to do if you are a competent DIYer (I was actually 8 months pregnant at the time!) We then built the scaffold board deck around it the year after and the year after that built the large ‘Man shed’ behind it. Which enabled us to store all the tools and practical stuff so I could then decorate the interior of the She shed and turn it into the summer house escape of my dreams! So a gradual process taken over a few years.

If you read my blog and Instagram regularly you may be familiar with my garden and know that my patio area directly leading from the house has actually a very different look from the summer house area. I wanted to create a different vibe and feel down here. I’m a big fan of vintage and buying second hand and recycling materials so a lot of the decor was vintage or recycled.

The in built seat (which has a lift up top for storage) was built using our old lawn borders that we replaced with stone edgers a few years ago. I just gave the wood a good clean and completely sanded the wood back (it was a particular nasty reddish stained wood previously) and then Mr G built a wooden frame which we attached the wood strips too. This cost us nothing apart from the cost of the screws and the wood for the frame.

I then simply painted the whole interior with white emulsion and stencilled the wooden floor with a stencil from Dizzy Duck Designs (you can find the stencil here) Again I used some emulsion tester pink paint I had on top of white floor paint. I then sealed it with a clear varnish.

Along the back wall we constructed a display shelf from an old reclaimed scaffold board and some vintage brackets I found on ebay, find similar here.

For furniture I added a few pieces I’d sourced cheaply from ebay, a small chippy painted side table which I think possibly is a vintage over bed table from a hospital. A small wooden table, that I can use as a desk or a drinks table (definitely more regularly as a drinks table!) An old vintage wicker chair and then a couple of new rattan effect chairs from Von Haus, which are super practical as they can be left out in all weathers and don’t need covering up in the winter even.

One of the joys of having a summerhouse or outdoor space is accessorising! I’ve styled the summerhouse and deck with a mix of vintage finds and pieces I’ve collected over the years. A vintage grain sack from ebay I turned into a wall hanging (I’d originally intended to turn it into a cushion but thought it was too nice to cut up) A selection of liberty print and vintage linen cushions that I mostly made myself. Festoon lights, vintage style lanterns and a selection of fairy lights illuminate the space so we can sit here in the evenings. And a collection of vintage ceramics and books decorate the shelf. Its a great place to style products and shoot photos for work too. You may notice one of the product shots in the shopping selection was actually shot here on the summerhouse deck for a location shoot by the brand Lights 4 Fun! A couple of jute rugs, one I stencilled my self add a bit of cosiness underfoot.

Then planting wise I’ve gone for more flowers down here and a more cottage garden theme than on the patio with it’s more tropical planting. I’ve used vinatge style doly tub planters and galvanized tubs and buckets to plant a mix of hydrangeas, cornflowers, Heucheras, salvias, Astible and blueberry trees and a fig tree.

I hope you enjoyed finding out all about my She Shed! After all that though, News Flash! Possibly we will be knocking it down next year to make way for a proper home office now my husband works permanently from home (thanks Covid!) I’ll be so sad to see this go but due to our garden being such a narrow space we have no other spot to build one unless it was in the middle of the lawn!

Anyway I’ll enjoy it possibly for the last summer and if you want to recreate the look I’ve compiled a selection of products below to help you get a similar look. Happy shopping!

Theresa x

Get The Look