A few years back I decided to make myself a little shop down at the back corner of the garden. At the time, the only thing going on there was an overgrown compost pile and an out of control bush that sent branches off in all directions and was in the process of falling over under its own weight.After clearing an 8 foot by 12 foot space, I decided that my new shop would be a 'tiny shop'. Having been used to doing my woodwork in spacious, warehouse-sized shops, this was my way of paring everything down to a bare minimum.
All I needed was space for a carving desk, some drawers for tool storage, a rack for my wood billets and an area that could house a small bandsaw and my trusty Delta Q3 scroll saw. There was no need for table saws, jointers and huge vacuum systems and no space for them even if I wanted to cram them in!
I built the shop structure itself from a pile of old 2X4's I had laying around from previous jobs, and clad it with cheap OSB board. My one luxury was to try out the Hardiplank cellulose/cement siding, which is great stuff!!
I finished the interior with a mix of painted OSB board and planking which I had salvaged from an old reno on my house. The salvage planking gave me a nice 'old school' floor and a cute T&G ceiling which give the little place a nice vintage feel.
The cabinetry was largely cobbled together from offcuts of melamine board and cheap plywood rescued from various jobsites.
In all, the shop took me about 3 months of on-and-off work and cost somewhere between a 1000 and 1500 dollars! Not bad considering it is fully insulated, trimmed and painted.
I could have wired it up and run a line back to my house, but I opted to just run a heavy duty extension cord whenever I happen to need power...which isn't all that often.
It's a pretty sweet little shop and I hope that over the next few years I can spend more and more time in it!
Here's the view as you come in through the door. Yes, it is unnaturally clean!! I'm showing off.
