Garden sheds are typically bland, identikit structures that offer very little in the way of style. Unless you've splashed out on a bespoke one, I can probably accurately describe yours right now — a small weathered hut of timber cladding and roofing felt that's likely looking a bit worse for wear. Well, I'm here to tell you that there's a better solution to annually staining your shed in a desperate (read: futile) attempt to give it a facelift, and it's hiding in plain sight (literally).
Unless you're branching out with a custom design, garden shed ideas don't generally turn heads. If you want to avoid disturbing your beautiful garden landscape with a wall of unsightly shed siding, disguising it is a maintenance-free way to achieve a seamless space where your outdoor storage doesn't dominate. It's a trick landscapers love to use for gardens that look more polished and put-together, and there are plenty of methods that you can do yourself (even if you don't have a green thumb).
Ready to put an end to unsightly garden storage? From concealing the structure with foliage to blending your shed in with your surrounding garden fencing, here are five inventive ways to disguise your garden shed that are easier than they look.
1. Train Climbing Plants Up a Trellis
Climbing plants turn this shed into a living, breathing structure that blends seamlessly into the corner of this garden.
In most cases, a garden shed is set against a backdrop of garden borders bursting with luscious foliage. If your wooden structure looks incongruous alongside the surrounding green, leafy shrubbery, concealing it with climbing plants allows your garden to "reclaim" your shed so that it blends in.
That's exactly what the team at Scott Lewis Landscape Architecture (SLLA) decided to do in this San Francisco garden pictured. "The structure was previously a run-down shed," says principal and founder Scott Lewis. "It was renovated and sided with a custom dark steel frame, which was eventually covered with ivy. This reuse gave the creative client family a detached art studio with space to make and store drawings and paintings. The 'green cube' studio now blends seamlessly with its verdant surroundings."
To recreate this landscaping idea, attach trellises to the surface of your shed and train climbing plants like ivy, clematis, or star jasmine to grow up them. The result is a living wall of foliage that turns your shed into a living, breathing structure (just be wary of using plants with robust clinging roots that could damage your shed's foundations).
Type of Plant: Star Jasmine
The low-maintenance, heavenly scent of this flourishing flower makes Star Jasmine the ideal climbing plant to disguise your garden shed.
Material: Metal
Create an outdoor living wall with this metal wall trellis, noted by customers for its good quality, which is available in two sizes.
Material: Wood
The bottom planter of this modern design has a capacity of 134L ensuring there is plenty of space for deep roots for your climbing plants to grow like champions.
2. Make it Sustainable With a "Green Roof"
Blend the edges of your shed into its surroundings by turning the top into a living roof.
When you gaze out of your bedroom window, do you admire a beautifully kept modern garden, or are you distracted by the peeling, sun-bleached shed roof strewn with long-lost kids' toys? The latter is, undeniably, an eyesore, but one that so many of us put up with. If the top of your shed is ruining your otherwise well-kept garden, consider creating a more verdant birds-eye-view with a green roof.
It's something the architects at Tulip Landscapes decided to introduce to the company's bulb shed. "We wanted to ensure that the roof was green and were excited by the opportunity to gain more planting space," explains landscape architect Henrietta Norman, founder and creative director of Tulip Landscapes. "We ensured that the depth of soil was just enough for shallow-rooted plants without being too heavy for the structure, and planted it with a mix of perennials and tough Mediterranean shrubs plus some bulbs and the odd recycled window box geranium for color."
Besides helping to soften the visual threshold between the shed and the neighboring hedgerow, the living roof is an eco-conscious planting idea that provides an additional source of nectar for insects and winter seeds for birds.
This GardenersDream mix of five outdoor fern plants available on Amazon would be a great place to start.
After an initial career in television, Henrietta Norman retrained in horticulture, planting and design and finally Landscape Architecture at Birmingham University. Parallel years of volunteering under Fergus Garrett at Great Dixter in East Sussex engendered a love of plants and influenced and inspired the company’s signature intuitive planting combinations.
3. Use Mirrored Panels to Hide Your Shed in Plain Sight
Harness the illusory effect of mirrors and play around with optics on the surface of your shed.
Concealing your shed can be as easy as reflecting your garden's surrounding beauty back at you. The answer to that is, of course, mirrors. If your wooden shed stands out and seems a little too harsh, cladding it with a few reflective panels is a creative way to soften the landscape.
The beauty of this trick is that it works instantly (no need for patience or a green thumb — just a few power tools and some mirrored panels). Use gothic, window-style garden mirrors for a traditional look, or take inspiration from the space above and use rows of panels for a more modern edge.
This clever design comes courtesy of Sandra Duran Wilson, an abstract visual creator based in Santa Fe, New Mexico, who had been considering ways to disguise her garden shed for years. "I first painted it to match the adobe wall behind it, but I wanted something more interesting," she says. "I had some mirrored Plexiglas pieces leftover from a project, and it spurred the idea to cover the shed. It reflects both the garden and another installation."
Size: 60x40cm
This indoor/outdoor black iron-framed window-pane mirror will not only reflect more light into your space, but it will also create interest and the illusion of more space; plus, it has a 4.4/5 star rating — and it's such a great price, too.
Size: 180x80cm
Waterproof and powder-coated, this arched metal mirror will reflect the beauty of your garden come rain or shine.
Size: 90x90cm
Reflect your garden greenery and, in turn, disguise your garden shed, with this window pane design made from powder-coated steel.
Scott is the founder and principal of Scott Lewis Landscape Architecture (SLLA), a practice founded on a distinct appreciation for each site’s unique characteristics. The firm’s philosophy is to combine an emphasis on site sensitivity with a clear understanding of client objectives, an appreciation of architectural intent and an interest in progressive materials.
4. Integrate Your Shed into Your Wall
A shed that no one else knows is there? This front wall doubles up as excellent storage.
Instead of relying on greenery or optical illusions to disguise your shed, you could consider blending it in with your garden's hardscape instead.
With a bit of thoughtful planning, you could also integrate your garden shed into your fencing or wall. In the modern front yard pictured above, the oxidized steel wall is home to a small bike shed. This genius hidden storage idea was brought to life by London-based company Bikebox Works and combines a planter above with compact storage below for the homeowners' bikes and tools.
"We find space where no one believed there was any and we are very proud of some of those projects that look the simplest but were actually the most complex to resolve," says the company's director, Tracey Bendrien. "We will always eye up a front garden wall because most are unworthy of protecting — they're not original features to the streetscape, poorly maintained, and taking up much valued space." As hinted at by Tracey, integrating your garden storage into a wall can be especially useful when space is already at a premium.
5. Blend Your Shed With Your Fence
The clean, sleek lines of this shed's paneling echo those seen in the fence beyond.
If you plan on re-landscaping your entire garden, consider ways to assimilate your shed with its surroundings. If you have a fence made up of horizontal slatted panels, for example, choose the same panel design for your garden shed to blur the boundaries.
That's exactly what Prentis Hale, a principal at SHED Architecture and Design, decided to do in the garden of the Seattle home pictured above. "In its previous state, the backyard was dilapidated and unpleasant to occupy," says Prentis. "The east/north property line is now defined by a fence made from steel tube and Ipe, and culminates in a garden/storage shed made of the same material. Together, the fences, storage shed, and concrete retaining wall give shape to the yard and create one usable space that visually connects to the house."
The shed's blueprint is S-shaped in plan and contains space for a bike and kayak storage area that faces the street, as well as a potting shed that faces the garden pool. "Large sliding doors open and close these functional spaces, and a green rooftop can be viewed from the upper-story windows," says Prentis. It makes for a sleek garden storage idea that coalesces with the perimeter fence for a visually streamlined space.
FAQs
How Do I Make a Garden Shed Look Pretty?
No one wants their garden storage to become an eyesore. The easiest way to make your garden shed look pretty is by painting or staining it regularly and keeping up with general maintenance.
To successfully disguise it, "rewilding" your shed with climbing plants and flowers is a particularly striking landscape idea, or you can create a living roof by adding a waterproof membrane followed by a growing medium and your chosen plants.
One of the worst garden shed mistakes you can make is allowing it to visually dominate your garden design. To soften your landscape and make your structure blend seamlessly into your outdoor space, borrow one of these inventive ways to disguise your shed. You'll still have practical garden storage but with a more subtle, harmonious aesthetic that allows your surrounding landscape design to really sing.
