Having a She Shed has made me a better human

Towards the end of last year, my husband Jules and I began to discuss how to make our house work better for our family, or if it was time to move.

We have two boys (currently aged three and nine) and a good size three-bedroom home. We have a small granny flat under the house with a teeny second bathroom and living space, which works well when we have guests or my eldest son wants to watch something loud on Netflix.

The main issue, aside from the fact we don’t have an en suite or walk-in-closet space (#firstworldproblems), was that with two kids and a job that requires me to work from home, I felt a bit cramped.

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The kids each have their own bedroom and my husband, an outdoor nature lover, has a large garage to store his man-toys in and the backyard where he can often be found nurturing fruit trees, while holding a coffee and pondering life’s big questions.

Yes, we share a lovely main bedroom but unless I am looking for a lie down, there isn’t much room to simply “be”. As the only woman in a small unit of males (even our cat is a boy), I began searching online for a house where I could take over just one small room for myself.

Initially when I voiced my need for some sort of lady sanctuary, I was met with odd looks and statements along the lines of, “But you have the whole house”.

And yes, I do live in the whole house but as I rarely get to leave it, and I am constantly tidying it and everyone else’s things, the idea of having a neat little room just for me became more and more appealing.

I get that it seems like an over-the-top requirement when we are hardly living in a cardboard box. But men have been allowing themselves “Man Caves” filled with manly paraphernalia such as wall-mounted singing trout or ugly black leather sofas since we lived in actual caves.

I was beginning to get sick of perving over all the slightly bigger but not better homes in our suburb, when one day I drove past a trailer tiny home parked on the side of the road.

Our yard, while not large, had a dead space behind the garage where nothing grew. The only thing there was my husband’s wheelbarrow and an overly large township of fat garden spiders.

I looked at the costs of purchasing my very own tiny room before contacting our builder Jon Keena, who came over to give us a quote.

For a similar price, Keena drew up a room that was actually nicer looking than a trailer and far more practical. With insulation and airconditioning, it could be used in the future as an extra space for the kids to play in or teenager’s retreat. But for now, it was to be known as mum’s She Shed.

As recommended by Keena, I chose a faux wood cladding, dark grey Colorbond roof and window frames to match our existing house. I kept the interior paint colour white and I chose a hybrid laminate timber-look flooring.

Once it was ready, I couldn’t wait to pick out some non-kid friendly furniture that included a blue velvet couch and a berry pink storage locker. I installed a desk, my yoga mat and an all-important rose-gold drinks trolley.

Now the She Shed has been in place for a few weeks, I can safely say it is my favourite room the world.

I slide open the door, cup of tea in hand and breathe in my scented candle and relax.

Obviously, I have a house to run and kids to look after, so I don’t get as long as I would like in the shed, but the knowledge I have access to my very own space to read, write or simply “be” in, gives me so much joy and possibly makes me a better mother and human.

As Virginia Woolf wrote in 1929, a woman is entitled to a quiet “room of one’s own”, even when she is a wife and a mother. In fact, I would say this is when she needs it most. I know not everyone has the space or budget to install a shed in their backyard but if you do, I say do it and if you don’t, come over to mine and enjoy the serenity with me.