We recently completed a project for a great customer who had saved a variety of cypress boards that she wanted incorporated in her new home office shed. We used the wide cypress planks to build the desk and shelves, and installed the random width pecky cypress on the ceiling of the 12'x14' shed. Pecky cypress is created when a tree is attacked by fungus, resulting in lens-shaped pockets throughout the wood. Studies have not revealed the exact origin of the fungus or why it attacks only certain trees. The resulting boards have a unique texture that creates a rustic but elegant look.

At the owner's request, we coated the cypress with shellac which brought out the grain of the wood, giving it a richer finish. While we have used shellac on other projects, this was our first opportunity to use the product in one of our sheds and we couldn't be more pleased with the results (and the customer was pretty happy too).

You can see the difference the shellac makes on the raw wood in one coat

The finished ceiling

Shellac is a natural, organic resin that is secreted by the small Lac bug (Laccifera lacca). This bug lives on certain trees indigenous to India and Thailand, feeding on the sap that it sucks from the twigs of these trees. The bug creates an amber colored resinous substance that forms a cocoon to incubate the eggs she lays. This cocoon is the raw material for shellac and is called "sticklac", because it contains resin, parts of the twig and bug remains. The sticklac is washed and then refined either chemically or by hand, to produce the raw material available for sale to commerce. The raw material consists of dry flakes that are then dissolved in denatured alcohol. Once dissolved, the liquid shellac has a limited shelf life.

Shellac was the preferred wood finish for wood floors, and wood paneling up to the mid 20th century. It comes in many warm colours, ranging from a very light blond ("platina") to a very dark brown ("garnet"), with all shades of brown and yellow and orange and red in between. The colour is influenced by the sap of the tree the lac bug is living on, as well as the time of harvest. Historically, the most commonly-sold shellac is called "orange shellac", and was used extensively as a combination stain and protectant.

An interesting feature of shellac is that it resists water-vapor very well. In tests done by the United States Forest Products Laboratory on the moisture-excluding effectiveness of wood finishes (the ability of a finish to prevent moisture vapor from entering the cellular structure of the wood – called MEE), shellac rated above polyurethane, alkyd and phenolic varnish and cellulose-nitrate based lacquers.

Some facts on shellac:

• It takes about 100,000 lac bugs to make 500 g of shellac flakes.

• Shellac is UV-resistant, and does not darken as it ages (though the wood under it may do so on its own, as in the case of pine)

• Shellac scratches less easily than most usual lacquers, and damaged areas can easily be touched-up with another coat of shellac (unlike with polyurethane) because the new coat merges with and bonds to the existing coat.

• Shellac is FDA approved -- safe for food utensils and children's toys

• Shellac has low toxicity/ fumes.

• Shellac is used to provide protective candy coatings or glazes on candies like Reese's Pieces.

• Shellac mixed with marble dust is used by lamp manufacturers to glue the metal base to glass incandescent bulbs.

• Shellac is used to stiffen felt used to make hats.

Bungalows typically have great curb appeal, but when set amid entire neighborhoods of historic bungalows they are even better. The shed featured in this Bungalow Shed post is located in a great tree-lined, National Register-listed, Florida neighborhood with 325 contributing buildings, the majority of which are bungalow residences. Like many areas we get the pleasure of working in, the attractive neighborhood is very walkable, neighbors are friendly, and the dogs are spoiled.

We designed what I consider our cutest shed to date (it is pink, after all) for a 1920s jerkinhead Florida bungalow with Craftsman and Tudor influences. The stucco house has a prominent chimney on the front elevation, rounded rafter tails, wonderful arched brackets supporting broad eaves, and decorative cut outriggers on the clipped gable ends. The owners contacted Historic Shed for a series of home improvement projects including building a new fence and custom gate, installing new carriage house style doors on the historic garage, and constructing a new jerkinhead shed.

With the exception of replacement windows at the sunporch, this romantic bungalow remains largely unaltered with many great architectural details

Decorative elements on the main elevation

The first project we undertook at the bungalow was to relocate the side fence towards the front of the property in order to increase the backyard size. As part of the fence relocation, we installed a custom cypress gate with a speakeasy door with metal grill. The arch of the gate door was designed to reflect the arched front door of the home.

Arched garden gate

Speakeasy door detail

The historic garage on the property was largely intact, complete with a historic screened addition on one side, but with a 1950s-era metal garage door that looked out of character on the building. Historic Shed built and installed new carriage house type doors made of cypress bead board hung with heave duty strap hinges for a more compatible historic appearance.

Garage with new carriage house style doors installed

The new outbuilding project that we constructed at the home was an 8'x10' jerkinhead shed that incorporated design elements from both the main house and historic garage. The owners were exploring ideas to hide the pool pump in the backyard and had considered several options before finding our HistoricShed.com ad in a historic neighborhood newsletter. They decided that our shed styles were the perfect solution for maintaining the historic look of their property, gaining useful space, and hiding the pool pump.

The yard with pool equipment visible

While definitions of what constitutes a bungalow home vary, the common ingredients generally include one to one-and-a-half stories, a full or nearly full-width front porch, and a low slope roof. Examples can exhibit a variety of architectural styles including Craftsman, Mission and vernacular. We have designed sheds to complement a variety of bungalow homes, most with Craftsman detailing such as eave brackets and exposed rafter tails.

Bungalow "Before"

Bungalow "After" New Breakfast Nook

Framing the home office Historic Shed on site

The home office shed nestled into the landscaping

The shed is accessed via a bridge over a koi pond and has a reclaimed brick patio - not a bad commute!

About a month ago we wrote about an 8'x8' shed we built to complement an American Foursquare home in the Tampa Bay area. Shortly after posting, we designed and built a slightly larger hipped roof shed to complement another American Foursquare home, this time in central Florida.  The second shed was similar to the first in many ways due to the similarity between the two Prairie style-influenced homes; both sheds have low pitched hipped roofs with beadboard boxed eaves that define the overall form, lap siding with cornerboards, and both are painted in similar color schemes to complement the main house. 

We design each shed to complement individual historic homes. Our most recent installation was for a storage shed behind an American Foursquare residence with a great wrap around porch.

The American Foursquare is a common house form built from the 1890s through the 1930s. The homes feature a compact plan that fit on suburban lots. Able to have a variety of styles applied, most examples in Florida exhibit Craftsman, Prairie or Mission styling or details. The American Foursquare house type has a roughly square footprint, is typically two or  two and a half stories high and has a hipped roof, often with a center dormer. Porches can range from a small portico to wide wrap around porches such as seen on this example. The house layout usually consists of four equal-sized rooms to a floor. The house form was popular due to its efficient layout and economical shape and can be seen in historic districts throughout the United States.


Historic Shed designed a simple storage shed that mimicked the square shape and low sloping hipped roof of the main house. The shed also features wide boxed beadboard eaves and traditional window and door surrounds. Paired carriage house style doors built out of beadboard add an additional degree of historic character.

Last night I was honored to be the guest speaker at the Temple Terrace Preservation Society monthly meeting. Initially developed during the 1920s, Temple Terrace has an impressive collection of Mediterranean Revival style homes and community buildings built during it's initial planning. However, like many 1920s Florida developments, the Depression stopped the realization of the entire planned community, leaving numerous vacant lots ready for building during the next Florida development era that occurred after World War II. During this time, many Mid-century Modern style homes were built in Temple Terrace, including some designed by members of the renowned Sarasota School of Architecture.

Mid-century Modern style is generally defined as a design language with emphases on form rather than ornament, structure and materials rather than picturesque constructions, and the rational and efficient use of space. The Modern movement in architecture in the United States flourished beginning in the 1930s, and embraced technical innovation, experimentation, and rethinking the way humans lived in and used the designed environment. The Sarasota Architectural Foundation describes the implementation of the style in Florida as the following:

While the Sarasota School found its inspiration in part from the philosophies of the Bauhaus, it incorporated forms of regional Southern architecture, using patios, verandas, modular construction and raised floors to open up its buildings for greater ventilation in pre-air-conditioning days. The style added a play of light and shadow, and the color and texture of indigenous low maintenance materials, softening the cold machine aesthetic of the Bauhaus. This approach to design strengthened the connection between architecture and environment, allowing Sarasota School buildings to respect and blend well into their sites. The result was a regional modernism which blurred the distinction between the indoors and outdoors and accommodated the lifestyle and climate of southern Florida.

Homes is this style often have open floors plans, flat roofs with wide cantilevered eaves, and ample rows of windows. Many Mid-century Modern houses utilized then-groundbreaking post and beam architectural design that eliminated bulky support walls in favor of walls seemingly made of glass. In some ways, designing a shed to complement this type of home requires a different mindset than for 1920s homes; however, the basic ideas of complementing the form, proportions, window and door design, and details of the main home as described in previous posts still holds true. You can also find design inspiration in home magazines from this time period, which can be found at garage sales, on e-bay and on-line. For example, the plans for the shed shown above are available on Flickr. The additional pages with links are posted below (click on the image to see it large enough to read). For more design help, please call us at (813) 333-2249 to discuss your Mid-century Modern shed design.