A room of your own - in the back garden

Do you need instant space? Alanna Gallagher checks out home offices, gazebos, treehouses and 'barbecue cabins' costing from €8,000

Space has become Ireland's final frontier. As property prices spiral upwards and interiors become open plan, the only space anyone has to call their own seems to be online. Extensions are the obvious choice but try getting an architect for the job and good luck getting a builder interested in taking you on. Add time to the money issue and the proposition becomes less and less appealing.

Another alternative, one that is gaining momentum in cities like London, is to dig down and insert another floor underneath ground level. Again, no problem if time and money are no object.

With property prices up 220 per cent in the last 10 years, mere mortals in need of extra living space are presented with a dilemma. Should they stay or should they go? If they trade up from their two or three-bedroom home to a four-bedroom property there is the rather thorny business of stamp duty as well as location, amenities and aspect issues.

Lebensraum, or living space, is important. Both kids and adults need a room with a sense of phew, somewhere that offers beleaguered grown-ups a great escape from the hustle and bustle of family life or somewhere for children to let off steam. For some the answer has been staring at them from the back of their houses.

"The threshold between indoors and the outdoors is blurring," says Maxim Laroussi, MD of MML Architects and former president of the Architects Association of Ireland. "People are learning to maximise their outdoor space," says Sean Copeland, sales and marketing manager of Shomera. "People no longer think in terms of the worth of their house but the worth of their entire property, and make use of what is often considered dead space outdoors."

The original of the outdoor room creators, Shomera, offers a range of styles designed to suit these dead space sites. Prices range from €17,000-€28,000 and include labour, making them cheaper than a new extension. Made from Douglas fir with a foundation, timber-frame construction and a five-to-eight layer wall system that offers excellent insulation, these blank spaces can be plumbed to include a bathroom and/or kitchen. Design-wise there is a growing trend towards the contemporary with floor-to-ceiling glass panels lending a modernist touch to some of the styles.

Seventy to 75 per cent of the company's business is still office space. Other popular uses include a teenage room, recreation room or children's play room. "We even have some clients using them as recording studios or to do radio voiceovers and in those instances we've provided them with extra sound dampening to lessen the noise coming in and out of the space," adds Copeland.

The Deck Centre has storage-savvy beach houses with French windows to the front and a tool shed at the rear as well as appealing interiors. The prices are also competitive, ranging from €10,000 for a Nantucket-style cabin with verandah to €11,500 for the beach house.

The company offers three build approaches: flat-pack, supply and fit and a deluxe supply and fit that includes all electric and plumbing requirements as well as plaster finishes on walls, says director Mark Finnegan. While the rooms offer many uses - office, sauna, gym, World Cup bar, games room, extra bedroom and playroom - the most unusual request The Deck Centre had was for a reptile house for teenagers interested in breeding snakes and lizards.

Abwood Homes offers a variety of outdoor rooms in wood finishes that can be painted. Their romantic Rosendal 26 summerhouse offers a verandah as well as 26 sq m (279sq ft) of accommodation. It costs €17,600 including fit. Prices are significantly less if you choose to install the accommodation yourself.

"People definitely want special features for their gardens, often designed-to-order to suit the style and size of their open space," says Shirley O'Kelly of O'Kelly Sawmills, whose playground clients include Dublin Zoo, Photo Wildlife Park and Bunratty Castle. Their log tree-house is the perfect place to escape the grown-ups.

"While log cabins are big business in Ireland," says Alan Kelly of Kelly Barna, "Irish people are really only beginning to explore their outdoor room possibilities." The cabins remain his bread and butter business but Kelly also offers the barbecue master something different by way of a hexagonal-shaped house. Estonian in origin, the house comes complete with grill stove and chimney pipe and can seat 12 to 14 people for dinner. It costs €8,500, including installation, and Kelly advises fitting a fan into the chimney to eradicate fumes and smoke. Now you can plan a barbecue no matter what the weather.

But what of the common or garden shed? Is its place in your back yard now redundant? Not if you're clever about concealing it, says Dominic Loughran, garden designer with Dream Gardens. He fitted his with a climbing jasminoides salaman (alba) which is heavenly scented when in bloom. The golden gravel and use of potted plants such as rhododendron as well as raised sleeper beds help create an enclosed sense of space. His two children, Domhnhnall and Katie also help water the plants.

"An outdoor room has to have a specific feel to it," adds Jane Reddy of Jane Reddy Interiors. "It should have soft lighting by way of electric or clever use of candles and doesn't necessarily have to have a canopy. It can be a space within a garden, and not necessarily a large space surrounded by shrubs to create a sense of enclosure. It should be a private space you can walk out into in your nightdress," surmises Reddy.

Lighting is important. The battery-operated Mexican balls of fun will brighten up any exterior while railroad lanterns are breeze-resistant and portable, €12.95, all from Meadows & Byrne.

Simplicity also works. A sunny terrace or roof can work as an outdoor room with a view. Modernists will love the low walls that enclose the Sandy Lane furnishings, also from Meadows & Byrne, sofa €1,090, armchairs, €550 each and coffee table, €375.

Most outdoor rooms are sold as conforming to planning regulations but this is as long as you elect not to live or work in them. "You need planning permission to use your outside room for human habitation. Before you buy have an architect or engineer inspect your site," advises Rory O'Byrne, planning enforcement manager with Dublin city council.

Most importantly, does an outside room add value to your property? "Definitely," says Jill O'Neill, communications director with Sherry FitzGerald. "We find a lot of people using them as home offices and for au pairs. Apart from adding value it offers a lifestyle loophole for people happy living where they are, who need an extra room."

Contacts

Shomera: 01 8258288. www.shomera.ie

The Deck Centre: 01 8443598/01 4195788 www.thedeckcentre.com

Abwood Homes: 01 2810109 www.abwood.ie

O'Kelly Sawmills: 01 4931034 www.theshedman.com

Kelly Barna: 01 2959677/1890 252326 www.kellybarna.ie

Dream Gardens: 087 2854602 www.dreamgardens.ie

Jane Reddy Interiors: 01 2842947 www.janereddyinteriors.com

Meadows & Byrne: 01 2804554/021 4272324/091 567776 www.meadowsandbyrne.com

English Heritage: 01 4019030. www.ehbp.com