My garden is small. Where shall i put my office or granny annexe?

In a small garden the most visually appealing option is to put the office as far away from the house as possible, leaving a breathing space of lawn or patio between the two. This area doesn't need to be big, but if it contains plants and grasses it softens the impact of the garden building.

You can’t hide a building in a small garden so choose one that you will enjoy looking at! Grow climbing plants up it to soften the impact.

Avoid too much glass as this will glint and reflect back at the house and will make whoever is in the building feel as if they are in a goldfish bowl. Too much glass means the building will be too hot in summer, too cold in winter and use too much electricity.

Position the office so that the roof slopes away from the house – see photo opposite as this will give a feeling of additional space.

It is not practical to build an office hard up against a fence because both you and the building team need access around the building. If you build right next to the fence the roof will overhang into your neighbour’s garden. Leave a minimum of 60cm between the outside wall and the garden boundary. The building will look better if it has  a small amount of breathing space around it.

Buildings with an internal floor space of more than 15sq metres need a building regulations application if they are built less than a metre from the garden boundary. Do you know the difference between building regs and planning permission? Building regs explained.

Building height – in a very small garden or a garden that is higher than the house a lower building will be preferable to a higher buildings. We can vary the height of our buildings down to just over 3m tall.