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Garages/Workshops Design Dilemma Garden

Shed colour for older brick house

2 years ago

Hi,

We've just purchased a great older brick house in melbourne and we want to have a shed in the yard to be a garage / workshop / home gym area. Our biggest problem is coming up with a colour scheme that will be sympathetic to the existing style of the main house.

When looking at the front of the property, we want the shed to be on the right hand side against the fence line and towards the front of the yard. We're thinking it'd be about 4-5 meters wide and 10-12 meters long. This would leave 5-6 meters behind and beside the shed for further landscaping.

We're currently leaning towards a colorbond shed with a shale gray weatherbord look cladding and surfmist gutters & doors. The lighter colours are to keep the heat down as much as possible (it will be insulated as well). I'm struggling to visualise this in a way where it would look well integrated with the red brick of the main house and I'm worried that it would look well out of place.

Any thoughts would be appreciated! Perhaps some clever mix of materials and landscaping could help break things up a bit.

Thanks in advance!

Jase

(This photo is old, but shows the garden space a bit better)

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Comments (5)

bigreader
2 years ago
Lovely house but is a really tricky one to get a shed that will look cohesive. Do you have council permission to build it in the position and at the size you’re planning. That would be the first thing to finalise. To minimise how much it sticks out you need to try and relate ot to something about the existing house. For example are you planning a new front fence? That could be the same colour as the shed and provide a relationship. Definitely do the shed all one colour and do plan some landscaping. The best design option is probably Monument to work with the side fence but if you’re concerned with heat then Surfmist is the best option (although you may get concerns from the neighbours in regard to glare).
Jason Gilholme
Original Author
2 years ago
Thanks for the input @bigreader. I started to throw together sections of photos onto a mood board to get an idea of what would work. I think the best strategy here is to try and break up the big masses of colour as much as possible - trying to add variety without going too far and making it a noisy mess.

One of the best ideas we came across so far was to do a brick facade on the front so it looks more cohesive from the street, and then have the colorbond from there back using some landscaping and trim color changes to break it up. See attached the mood board and some terrible photo chops to try and get a sense of things.

Regarding positioning and approval - I talked in depth with the council prior to bidding and the lovely lady there said that she doesn't foresee any issues. The neighbouring property is a mirror image of ours and they have a very similar solution with a brick facade in front of a fibre cement shed.
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I'd be different , and wouldn't go too dark -- I'd almost consider a light grey or a sandstone or even a very light green/grey as the main colour , with the windows and shutters in the crisp white . Boring eh ? THEN though , I'd do the gutters and garage door in the brightest red or orange or yellow -- that balances out the crisp white features . And then , I'd do a largish sloping pergola about twice the width of the front veranda entrance( basically about as wide as the edge of the windows -- maybe 4-5metres , and coming out around 2 metres . The higher edge would be above that 'break' line , and therefore camoflauge that . Personally , I'd do it in a nice mid red type stain ( or use a rich timber and varnish it ) , but charcoal would work and contrast too . I'd levae the bricks , waterblast the drive , add a couple of big glossy terracotta pots ( maybe 1metre or more tall ) in the same colour as your gutterings , with cactus or similar -- these can even be added later as budget permits . Depending on your skills , it would be pretty budget ( maybe under $10K ? ) but it would really lift the look . Just an idea .
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User
2 years ago
Can you closely match the bricks ? That would be the first question I'd ask .

Your house basically has two brick tones -- one is a redder orange , one is more orange . Personally , I'd try for the orange , brick would be great but if you can get a close match with colourbond ( or plasterboard and paint , but I suspect colourbond would be less hassles ? ) , colourbond would presumably be the cheaper option , although with any of them , if you don't match it too well , it will show -- even a 'new' look as opposed to aged will 'jar' until it fades and gets some age .

Rather than your greeny grey garage door , I'd go white though . The other option would be to try and do the garage door the same as your roof , but that would need a pretty good painter who can do a decorative effect -- some swirls and different tones to reference the roof .

Just one other thing -- the house and garden is really nice , but that natural timber front garden looks out of era and out of place to me -- do the wood charcoal the same as the fences , and it will blend in ; or white the same as your trim , to make it a feature . But at present it just detracts IMO .
Kate
2 years ago
Can the shed be turned 90 degrees and run along the back fence? Or split in two so it is not so wide? Or have a narrower roller door and a single pedestrian door
Kate
2 years ago
With flat roof to echo pergola

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