Some home details are just so lovely they just have to be replicated. For this 10'x12' shed that Historic Shed built in the historic Duckpond Neighborhood in Gainesville, Florida, the eave brackets and unique gable vents were replicated to create a one of a kind shed. The result is a main house and shed that harmonize very well. The shed design was reviewed and approved by the local historic preservation office.

Gainesville custom storage shed with eave brackets

10'x12' custom shed with French doors and interesting eave brackets

Historic Shed Vent detail

Shed vent detail complements the main house

Craftsman eave brackets

Craftsman eave brackets being prepped for for a Historic Shed storage shed

Historic Shed installation Gainesville Florida

Historic Shed installation

Craftsman Bracket Detail on Historic House

The original Craftsman bracket detail on the historic Duckpond house

Craftsman Gable Vent

The existing gable vent on the historic home - note the different outrigger detail on this side of the house

Every time we are approached by an artist in need of a studio, we end up with a unique shed design that is worthy of showing off. In this case, a local artist in Citrus County requested a fairly large 14'x16' shed with lots of windows. The design has great balance, is filled with light and looks lovely with a great set of accent French doors. It will serve as a great "She Shed" for the owner.

Historic Shed 14x16 custom shed

This clasic shed is accented nicely with a fun colored set of French doors.

Historic Shed 14x16 Front Facade

The front elevation has nice symmetry.

14x16 Historic Shed with multi-pane windows

The shed has a nice bank of three windows on the left side.

Rear of 14'x16' Artists Shed

The rear of the shed has two operable transom windows, allowing light, but also wall space inside.

Historic Shed with Retractable Screen Door

Retractable screen doors were installed behind the French doors to give protection from bugs but not taking up interior floor space.

Historic Shed Interior

The interior walls were insulated and tongue and groove pine installed.

Historic Shed Finished Interior

The finished interior has exposed roof framing with board sheathing and pine T & G walls with simple trim.

Historic Shed Finished Interior

The finished interior looking out.

Finished Shed Interior

The interior after some fun creative moments - photo courtesy the Owner.

Shed Interior

Ready to move in - photo courtesy the Owner.

Shed by a Pool

And a beautiful view of the shed in the yard, courtesy the Owner.

We have found that Florida artists love our Historic Shed outbuildings for studios. Inspired by the Sunny Artist Studio Shed, an artist in Sarasota contacted us to build a similarly styled shed for their back yard painting studio.

Studio Shed

Their gable studio shed is 12'x12' and has a 4' front porch extension supported by large brackets. As always, artists pick great and unique color schemes that enhance our sheds. These colors look spectacular in person!

The shed features a double set of wood 10 light French doors and double hung wood windows on each side. The angled placement of the shed in the corner of the yard makes it a focal point in the landscape.

The shed features a double set of wood 10-light French doors and Jeld Wen double-hung wood windows on each side. The angled placement of the shed in the corner of the yard makes it a focal point from all vantage points.

Concrete inscription

The owners placed wooden letters in the wet concrete for a fun entrance into the shed.

Artists shed interior

Wood planks were installed over insulation to finish off the walls. The roof framing and sheathing were left exposed for a rustic look with extra height.

Artists shed interior through French doors

Looking into the empty shed, ready to move in.

Artist Studio Shed Landscaped

After Historic Shed completed their installation, the owners installed landscaping. (Photo courtesy of the owner)

Studio Shed with doors open

Double French doors at the end of the new path make for an inviting studio full of light and fresh air. (Photo courtesy of the owner)

Artists Studio Shed interior

The shed interior finished and ready for inspiration. (Photo courtesy of the owner)

When a local artist called Historic Shed for her new art studio, she knew exactly what she wanted. She'd been saving our ad from a magazine for several years and had sketched up all her ideas in her notebook. We built her a 12' x 12'  shed with paired French doors on three sides. A 4' roof extension on the front is supported by large brackets, providing shelter for her doors and a seating area. The shed has a metal roof and cypress siding.

Historic Shed Custom Shed

The owner says she opens the doors on all three sides to get a nice breeze and lots of light.

The owner installed shelves along the back wall (the only one with no doors or windows). A mini-split AC system is located at the peak of the wall, allowing lots of storage below. A sink was installed at the right end of the counter after these photos were taken.

The owner installed shelves along the back wall (the only one with no doors or windows). A mini-split AC system is located at the peak of the wall, allowing lots of storage below. A sink was installed at the right end of the counter after these photos were taken.

Artist Studio Shed Doors

The interior was finished with drywall but the roof framing and sheathing were left exposed.

Artist studio shed

The three pairs of French doors allow ample light in the room.

Custom garden shed art studio

The lovely landscaping provides a nice view from inside the shed.

table on wheels

A set of wheels make a mobile surface from her work table.

A flash back to construction below: the exterior shell took 3 days to put up. After the electrical and AC unit was installed, Historic Shed finished out the shed interior with drywall and cypress trim. The roof framing and sheathing was left exposed for and open look.

Shed foundation

The concrete slab ready for the shed delivery.

Concrete slab design

The owner had etched the slab entry porch as it was setting up to create a really special detail.

Bright shed

The shed starting to come together.

Shed fans

We had a crowd excited to see the shed go up.

Custom shed building
The shed exterior nearing completion
Bright colored shed

Isn't it cute?

Nice shed

Ready for creativity.

Historic Shed was contacted by an artist in Ormond Beach, Florida to design and build a unique shed to be used as an art studio.  The studio shed incorporates a salvaged wood door with sidelights, a dutch door and lots of windows. To top it off, it has a fun color scheme, perfect for the beach location.

Artist's Studio Shed

 

While every historic house that we design a shed for is unique, some places have an exceptional story that sets them apart from the rest. This is true of a property settled in the 1880s Florida wilderness where we installed a 12'x14' shed in November that will serve as archives storage. The site is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The house is located in what was founded as the the town of Limona in 1876 by Joseph Gillette Knapp, a retired judge from Wisconsin. Knapp actively promoted the area and soon convinced E. E. Pratt of the Illinois-based Elgin Watch Company to settle in Limona and to establish a retirement community for employees. Among the Illinois settlers was a talented watch maker, Charles Scott Moseley, his artist wife Julia Moseley, and their young children. Arriving in 1883, the Moseleys at first moved into a cabin that already existed on the lake-front property, but after a fire in 1885, they built the current house. Designed around a central porch to capture breezes on all sides, the house remains largely unaltered since initial construction. A well, bathhouse, shed and a two-story outbuilding constructed in the 1920s are also located on the site.

The main house
A still-functioning well
A storage shed with the bathhouse visible to the right
The two-story carport/ studio

The current owner, a direct descendant of Scott and Julia Moseley, has an extensive collection of letters written by Julia to her husband during his frequent business trips describing life in the Florida wilderness, along with photographs, artwork and other artifacts from early Florida life. The archives shed was designed to store these items in a climate controlled environment as well as provide a work space for visiting scholars. Historic Shed was hired to design and build the shed in a manner that would complement the existing historic site.

Built on tapered concrete piers to match the main house foundation, the shed incorporates cypress board and batten siding, exposed rafter tails, a custom dutch door and gable-end lattice details drawn from the various buildings on the property. Salvaged historic windows for the shed were provided by the owner and still have all their wavy glass panes. The windows are protected by batten shutters which can be fastened during storms to protect the fragile collection. The interior was finished with plywood walls, a pecky cypress ceiling, and cypress flooring. Cypress shelves and a desk constructed out of large cypress planks provided by the owner provide workspace for historians. The shed was insulated with open cell foam and a split mini system air conditioning system provides climate control. The paint scheme was used on the other historic outbuildings originally, using Julia Moseley's favorite colors.

Wood shake roof
Cypress dutch door that mimics one on the main house
Batten shutters for storm protection and shading the interior from direct light
Salvaged historic wood windows
Desk constructed of cypress planks provided by the owner
Pecky cypress ceiling with shellac finish

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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