Historic Shed recently completed the installation of a custom garden shed in the VM Ybor Community Garden. Funded by a community grant from Hillsborough County, the small shed was designed in the Ybor City architectural vernacular; the shed features a gable roof design, lap siding, metal roof and other architectural elements common in the area. Area residents will use the shed to store communal gardening tools to tend the sixteen individual plots to grow vegetables and herbs. The garden plots are available free to area residents to plant as they please.

Small storage shed in Ybor City, Tampa, FL

At 3'x5'-8", this shed makes up for its size with character.

The grant requires that the community members participate in the grant project; residents will paint the shed and install the foundation tie downs.

Custom utility shed

Ybor City garden shed

 

Not all sheds have to be freestanding in the backyard. Side yards can provide much needed storage areas and go from barely used to extremely useful with the proper shed set next to the side of a house. Sheds can range in size from large to small, depending on your storage needs and allowable space.

Custom garden shed

6'x12' Historic Shed garden shed set adjacent to the house, making use of the sideyard for storage.

potting shed

The shed roof design allows the garden shed to be placed adjacent to the house.

Potting shed doors

The bead board doors provide an attractive detail on the shed, enhancing the yard.

Narrower yards may not be able to accommodate a shed quite this large, but you still can usually add some significant storage space. The Historic Shed Thin Storage Shed and Thin Gable Shed fit nicely in tight side yards while still allowing a walkable path. Historic Shed outbuildings and storage units can be customized for nearly any size space.

Side Yard Potting Shed

This narrow storage shed by Historic Shed can add much needed space along the side of a house, even on narrow lots.

Small garden shed

This thin gable roof shed by Historic Shed can be placed in a side yard as well.

For more tight space storage ideas, see the small storage page on our website.

Historic Shed recently completed this 10'x14' custom  garden shed to complement a 1920s residence in the Hyde Park historic neighborhood in Tampa. The storage shed features a gable roof with exposed rafter tails and eave brackets similar to the main house.

Wood storage shed in Hyde Park Historic District, Tampa, FL

The 10'x14' shed replaced a non-historic shed that had fallen into disrepair. Most likely, the spot originally was the location of a one-car garage, not much larger than this new shed.

Custom wood storage shed in Florida

The shed is simple in design, but rich in details such as the gable end brackets, custom gable louvered vent and cypress bead board double doors.

Bungalow garage gable end

The gable end vent was built out of cypress to complement one on the main house.

Custom windows and flower boxes for a bungalow shed in Tampa

A pair of 3-lite salvaged wood windows are located on the right side of the shed with cypress flower boxes supported by brackets for a finished look.

Most of our Historic Shed ™ garden shed installations are located behind historic homes on fairly small lots, but recently we did a project that was located on a roomy farm with a modern dome house. It was definitely different than a traditional bungalow and had lots more room.

The owner needed to replace a rusty metal shed that came with the property and liked the traditional nature of our designs. Historic Shed built an 8'x12' board and batten shed with a 3'-6" wide door and two salvaged wood windows and set it on the existing concrete slab. The site came with an added bonus that we've never had in any historic district: miniature donkeys! They were very cute and very curious, spending most of the day wandering in and out of the shed and hovering very closely behind Craig as he worked.

8'x12' Board and Batten Shed with Red Door

Miniature donkey wandering near the shed under construction

 

Donkey up close and personal

Pegboard garden tool hanger in the shed

If the colors of this shed look familiar, it's because they are the same as the ones we used for a two-car garage project recently. Every shed is custom painted, typically to match the existing home, but in this case the owner liked the colors of the garage, making it easy for us to pull the garage records and paint away.

We have a lot of people in love with our shed designs, but because we use high-end materials, they don't always fit into everyone's budget. So, we've spent some serious time discussing how we can create a more economical design without compromising the charm, detailing and longevity of our product. A shed with faux board and batten siding was one of our design solutions, using pressure treated plywood to simulate the board siding and then applying cypress battens for a finished look. This would reduce both material and labor costs, but when detailed properly, still looks appropriate behind historic homes.

Board and batten is a traditional historic siding that originated in Norway and Sweden. It was popularized in the United States by Andrew Jackson Downing in the mid 1800s in his picturesque residential designs.  The siding was commonly used in Florida for outbuildings, including barns and garages, making it an appropriate material for use on sheds in historic districts. (See a Florida property built in the 1880s with board and batten outbuildings and the shed we built to complement it.)

We'd been discussing building a prototype of the board and batten economy shed for a while, but hadn't managed to find the time. Then we were contacted by a Clearwater couple who wanted an 8'x10'  shed that complemented their 1920s bungalow with a stucco exterior. Since they did not need cypress lap siding to match their house, we suggested trying the board and batten shed. They jumped at the chance since the interior of their home features board and batten on their built-in cabinets and as their bath interior finish.

Historic Shed Economy Shed

8'x10' Board and Batten Shed

We customized the shed to reflect elements from the main house; we installed a checkerboard gable vent, angle cut the rafter tails, and installed brackets that mimicked the ones on the main house. The end result created a very pleasing shed design that was less expensive to build, yet that maintained historic character and still uses durable materials. We are now pleased to offer the Historic Shed™  Board and Batten Shed line. We think you'll like it.

Historic Shed Attractive Shed

As attractive as it's useful

 

Historic Shed recently completed this custom 8'x12' hipped roof wood garden shed for an avid gardener in the historic Kenwood neighborhood in St. Petersburg, Florida. Located on a heavily treed lot with a 1940s Ranch home, the shed nestles between two palm trees and features a salvaged wood window, 15 light French door, metal roof, and bead board soffits.

 

Historic Shed custom designed and built a new 20’x22’ two-car garage with a 6’x12’ shed workshop to complement a historic bungalow in the Old Northeast neighborhood in St. Petersburg, Florida recently. The garage design uses elements from the main residence such as the roof slope, gable end vent, roof brackets and window casings.

View of the new garage on the alley side

The new pre-fabricated garage is constructed of pressure treated and dense southern yellow pine framing, 1x6 cypress roof sheathing, cypress siding, a cypress beadboard human-scaled door, and incorporates salvaged wood windows with traditional surrounds. The interior is sheathed in ½” plywood for additional shear strength and the building meets or exceeds Florida Building Code wind load requirements. The only non-traditional item in the garage design is the use of modern overhead garage doors, overlaid to look like traditional carriage house doors.

The garage was completely assembled in the shop, then broken down into components for delivery
Reassembling the pre-painted shed at the customer's property
Tie-downs and straps for wind load resistance
The completed garage as seen from the house, ready for landscaping
The completed garage with workshop bump-out

Outbuildings are a significant portion of the historic fabric of the historic Old Northeast neighborhood, adding a tangible layer to the history of the neighborhood’s development. Garages located on historic alleys tell the rising story of the automobile; early cottages reflect the use of live-in help; and storage sheds were often built for home business uses. This garage replaced a historic garage that had fallen into extreme disrepair and was awkwardly placed on the lot. The owners are very pleased with the new garage and workshop, with plans to add AC and a utility sink to the workshop to fully realize its potential.

I want to tell you again how very pleased we are with everything and how well the whole process worked. You are both great to work with and I hope we were okay for you. The garage is beautiful and I even had a note on my door the other night from someone saying "I want to see your garage! Call me...her phone # and name." - customer email

Human sized door leading to the workshop
Salvaged wood casement windows with traditional surrounds
The roof is sheathed with 1x6 cypress
Overhead garage doors faced to look like carriage house doors

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:

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.

One of our earliest Historic Shed designs complemented a 1923 Craftsman bungalow within the historic Hyde Park neighborhood in Tampa. The bungalow featured a cross-gable roof with a small front gable vent dormer, a full width integral front porch with brick piers and round spool columns, integral carport, exposed rafter tails and eave brackets. We fully renovated the house, inside and out, including reopening the front porch that had been enclosed with jalousie windows and installing a period-inspired breakfast nook.
Bungalow "Before"
Bungalow "After"

New Breakfast Nook

As the renovations came to a close, the room that had been designated a home office was reallocated as a nursery for a second child. To replace the lost office space, we built a 10'x14' shed in the rear yard to complement the main house, complete with finished interior, electrical service, internet, cable TV and a wall unit AC. The new shed was designed and built with the same roof slope, gable end vents, exposed rafter tails, eave brackets, siding, etc. as the main house. The interior had wood flooring, beadboard-covered raised ceiling and board and batten interior walls. Because of site constraints, the shed was site-built.
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!

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