4 Shed Construction Tips for Cohesive Design Across Your Property

When constructing your shed, it’s easy enough to install a roof on four walls, put up some shelves, and call it a day. This is perfectly suitable for a practical mind. But there’s also no reason you can’t create a shed that holds its own in terms of aesthetics, design and practicality. It takes a little more thought and effort, but the payoff is a huge return on investment, increasing the value of your property and making your home a better place to live.

There are many approaches to shed visual design. But one of the most manageable and effective approaches is finding ways to blend the shed into the rest of your property to create a holistic and cohesive design. Below, we provide four key shed construction considerations to achieve this cohesion.

1. Be strategic about the colour of your shed

The walls and roof of your shed are basically everything the viewer experiences from the outside, which means the colour of your shed plays the biggest role in its appearance. Depending on the material and brand used for your shed construction material, you might have the option to select from a range of colours. If you opt for Australia’s most popular shed materials, Colorbond steel fence panels, for example, you have the option to choose between 22 different colours.

When aiming for a cohesive design across your property, you don’t need to totally match the dominant colours of your house, garden, fence or equipment, but you do want it to be an intentional colour choice based on those colours. Your shed is mostly a practical building, so it doesn’t need to stand out. Thankfully, Colorbond colours are mostly nature-inspired and subtle, offering endless versatility to match their environment.

One of the safest and best-looking choices is to go for a softer, more muted shade of your house colour. For example, if you have a red-bricked house and dark features, you could choose a soft brown Colorbond panel tone. If you have traditional green water tanks or fencing, a soft, muted green will work fantastically for your fence.

2. Convenience, accessibility and security in your shed location

Often, when we know we need a shed, we also know exactly where we want to put it. But it’s necessary to pause and think about all the considerations that the location of your shed involves. Firstly, convenience—this is likely the reason you landed on your initial location. You want the location of where you store all of the equipment for your house, work, farm or hobbies to be convenient for you.

However, consider accessibility too. If your shed is too close to your house, it will restrict access to your house and the shed itself, with each building blocking the other. It will also reduce how much space around your house and shed you can use for your work or leisure activities. 

With this in mind, an ideal distance from your house is anywhere between 20 to 50m, assuming you have the space. Any further than that, you begin to create security risks, because criminals may see this as an unmonitored building, leaving your expensive tools and vehicles vulnerable.

3. Work the shed into the landscaping (or vice versa)

To bring your shed to life and help it fit into your property beautifully, your approach to landscaping can go a long way. Consider paving a path, or creating a less formal one out of gravel, from your house or driveway to your shed. If you need more space because your shed is used for tractors, vehicles or storing large equipment, the same concept applies, but instead of a path, you can make a driveway.

Around this path or driveway, try to plant some native vegetation that stretches the length of the path. You can also use grass around the path for a more kid- and pet-friendly play area. This will help to integrate the shed into the rest of your property and create a holistic design across your land.

If you want a simpler option, you can plant some flora around the shed itself. This will cultivate a more natural feeling around the shed and help it become its own entity on your property and not just a stand-alone building.

4. Materials, features and finishings

Harmony and consistency are such helpful design rules that they can really be the only consideration you need to build a shed that’s cohesive with the rest of your property. But how you approach harmony and consistency is where the challenge lies. Start with the materials and finishings of your shed. If you can match the construction materials to other building features on your property, this will help to create a well-designed piece of land.

For example, if you have a corrugated iron roof on your house, do the same for your shed, either matching the colour or going with a similar shade. If limestone features in the design of your house, you could build a small limestone wall surrounding your shed. Similarly, if you have wood structures, feature walls or patios, incorporate wood into the shed, either in the framing, roof or shed door design or with decking that paves the entry to the shed.

Considering ways to create consistency across your property by incorporating previously used materials and finishings in your design will transform the shed from a standalone practical building to part of the overall aesthetic. 

More than practicality

By design, sheds already contribute to the aesthetic appeal of a property by providing a place for tools, equipment and vehicles to live without cluttering land. With a little more effort, though, you can transform your shed from a practical storage area to a design that works cohesively with your property and is more than just a tool for convenience.

Start by brainstorming and refining the colour palette. Colorbond has so many great colour options, you’re bound to find the perfect choice. Next, choose a location that doesn’t restrict freedom and flexibility while also not posing security risks in a place where the shed can go unmonitored. Think about how you can develop landscaping on your property and around your shed to connect the buildings, and finally, incorporate materials and finishes from your house into the shed design. Following one or all of these tips will help you create a dream shed that perfectly fits into its environment and boosts the overall aesthetics of your property.