When I first started thinking about working from home I wasn’t sure how to go about it. The idea of not having to commute to work and being able to spend more quality time with family sounds great, but just how do you make it work without breaking the bank?
In order to create a backyard office shed on a tight budget you can use any existing structure you already have in your yard and modify it to suit your needs. You don’t need to build from scratch — you just need to get creative.
What You’ll Need in a Backyard office?
If you don’t have the room for an office in your home, your backyard can be the answer. It’s a quiet place to work, close to nature and you’re out of everyone’s way. So what do you need to make a backyard office work and can you do it without splashing out thousands of dollars that just doesn’t fit in your budget?
It can be done and the best place to start is by figuring out just what you need in your new garden office. Every office has some basic requirements whether it’s in your backyard, your home or in the corporate world. Here’s a quick roundup of what you’ll need at a minimum for your backyard workspace:
- A solid building or structure
- Available power
- Reliable Wi-Fi
- Climate control options
- Office Furniture
Can You Use an Existing Wooden Shed for a Home Office?
If you think you can find a new home in your garage for all the tools and other items in your existing shed then you may be able to convert it to a home office. We go into more detail on all of the benefits of moving your home office into the backyard in our article Can I Convert a Shed into a Home Office? if you want to learn more about why you might want to consider this.
The short answer is yes, you can use an existing shed for a home office. That doesn’t always mean you should. First you’ll want to answer a few questions:
- Are the walls and roof waterproof?
- Can you keep it sealed from insects and animals?
- Are there existing windows for natural light?
- Can the shed be locked securely?
- Do I have access to power and the internet in my shed?
- Can I control the Climate?
- Can it be insulated easily?
If the answer to the questions above are yes then you can convert your existing backyard shed into an office on a tight budget. You can make a lot of modifications to your shed to turn it into a cozy professional space, but the more changes you make the more you’ll have to spend.
We’re going to look at the minimum you need to do to turn your shed into a workable office that can be used year round below. Before we do that a word or two on plastic sheds.
Can I Use a Prefab Plastic or Resin Shed for a Backyard Office?
A wooden shed is ideal for a home office, but what about those prefab sheds you buy from your local hardware store? Can you use one of them to create your backyard office?
This one’s a little tougher to answer, but we’ll answer this question before we get into how you transform a shed into an office for just a few hundred dollars.
Prefab plastic sheds come in all different shapes and sizes. If you have one of these in your backyard and you want to use it as an office shed you’ll need one that’s at least 8×10 to be sure you have enough room for some office furniture.
Even if your prefab shed is big enough to use as an office shed you have some major hurdles to overcome. Here are some common issues with trying to convert a prefab plastic shed into a backyard home office:
- Difficult to add power
- Controlling the interior temperature can be hard
- It’s a challenge to add shelving
- Windows may not open
- Lighting can be an issue
With all of these problems to worry about it’s easy to dismiss the idea of trying to convert your plastic or resin shed to an office. It can be done though with a little creative thinking. You don’t have to hardwire power to your shed and we’ll talk about a cheaper option shortly.
Also, you don’t have to attach shelving to the walls of your shed. There are all kinds of free standing shelving units available on Amazon that will work just as well.
Can You Make Modifications to Your Plastic Shed?
There’s a bit of a common misconception that plastic sheds aren’t very sturdy. Modern plastic sheds are quite strong, although not quite as strong as a well-built wooden shed. You can modify a plastic shed to add an ac unit or even a window that opens if your shed doesn’t have one.
If you are adding a window or AC unit to your shed it’s best to build a wooden support system anchored to the floor on the inside and outside. That way your shed isn’t bearing most of the load — the frame you just built is.
If you own a cordless drill, a measuring tape and a reciprocating saw you won’t even have to buy any tools to make your modifications. You’ll just have to buy the lumber for the frame and the screws to secure it.
How to Run Power from Your Home to Your Shed
For $200 or less you can run power to your plastic or wooden shed from your home safely. It’s worth the effort if you want to stay productive and not let your mind wander because you’re uncomfortable. There are a couple of items you’ll need that can be found on Amazon:
- A Taymac Outdoor Box
- A NOCO Power Inlet Socket
- A GFCI Outdoor extension cord
Once you have power to your shed you can solve most of the other issues we mentioned above. You have power for lighting, you can plug in a space heater with tip over shut off protection and you could potentially add air conditioning if you’re comfortable cutting a hole in the side of your shed for an AC unit.
What’s the Minimum Budget I’ll Need to Create A Budget Backyard Office?
So far we’ve talked about adding a shed window, an AC unit, a space heater, some storage shelving and running power from your home to your shed. You can do all of these things for between $1500 and $2000.
There isn’t much more you need to do to turn your existing shed into a usable backyard office. You may need to install some flooring, but that won’t add more than $200 or $300 to your budget. There’s no need to over extend yourself to get this done.
How to Use Items You Already Have for A Budget Backyard Office
The only thing you have left to do now is fill your new outdoor office space with some furniture. For this we recommend using whatever you already own — at least initially. You can always customize your space later as your budget allows.
If you have a decent desk and office chair in your bedroom, move them out to your new shed office. It will give you more space in the house and finish off your office space nicely. Add some finishing touches such as planters and pictures if you want to.
We’ve talked about the importance of comfort in a previous artile and it’s something that shouldn’t be an after thought. If that office furniture in your bedroom is a little worn out consider stretching your budget a bit to replace these items.
That’s it. Now you have a dedicated backyard office space to work from that will allow you to be more productive without distractions when working from home.
