Shed Transformations a Rising Trend

Many homeowners use their backyard sheds as extensions of their garage, where they stash all the lawn and garden items they can’t fit anywhere else. While some use every square inch of this space, owners leave many sheds all but abandoned and in disarray.

Thanks to the World Wide Web, a trend from the U.K. is making its way stateside, bringing a new project for you to sell to your customers—unique and customized sheds.

There’s more information about the customized shed trend in the June issue of Hardware Retailing. What’s interesting is that this trend expands into many variations, including garden sheds, pub sheds, 1950s diners and more.

While this trend is popping up all over popular sites like Pinterest, it has its own location for true shed enthusiasts, known as “sheddies,” on readersheds.co.uk. This site allows other DIYers to post photos of their shed transformation, share details on how long the project took, what they needed to complete the project and meet others with similar interests. They can even earn accolades by winning the “Shed of the Year” award.

Below are a few different sheds that have been created by sheddies. Think about the ways your business could support your customers’ shed projects. From lumber to tools, paint to fixtures and much more, a standard shed can become its own mini-building project, and your customers can find all of the items they need in your operation.

How to Sell: Consider sharing links to readersheds.co.uk on your social media platforms with your customers. If you or one of your customers tackles this project, ask them to provide photos to share as well.

To promote this project in your store, print example photographs and add them to endcaps with related products to provide examples of how to create a backyard shed they can use for purposes other than storage.