Nature has always been a place that’s connected with our inner peace and well-being. On the other hand, our work can often be quite stressful. Can we combine these two to achieve perfect balance? if you’re working from home you’re probably aware that this can add some additional stress and ruin your concentration for various reasons – noisy kids, electric appliances, crowded place, demanding pets, etc. Maybe it’s time to move your work from that ‛mess’ and the most suitable place can be found just a few steps away – inside your garden. Of course, you’ll need to spend a part of your budget to fully establish a garden office, but, on the other hand, it’s still a better option than renting an office space and paying for the commute. If you still have doubts take a look at these advantages and how to achieve them on a budget.
Window as a canvas
When it comes to working place demands, artists are probably the ones who are the most ‛spoiled’. Nonetheless, they have a very good reason. The main ingredients for the perfect work of art are a lot of interrupted time and the ability to act instantly. We don’t have to explain that inside the house surrounded by your family members it’s impossible to have even an hour that’s not interrupted in some way. That is the reason why most of the artist have their own studios. But creating art is a spontaneous act, and going to the studio every day doesn’t have anything spontaneous in it (you might start to sleep there, but that can’t be good for your family life). It would be perfect if you could find some peace and quiet inside your home, being able to instantly catch any spark of inspiration that comes your way. With a garden office (or, should we say, studio) this is exactly what you’ll get.
Of course, as an artist, you need to ‛feel the freedom’ so you’ll probably require a spacious and light garden studio that will get your creativity going. If you think this kind of thing sounds like a distant dream, you’re wrong – you can get it for around 14000 bucks. Maybe this sounds like a lot of money thrown at once (although you would spend that amount on average car), but if you stop to calculate the monthly rent for some studio (which is almost always a vast, highly lit space) you won’t’ even need to do the math to see you’re already in plus. You can also go for cheaper ones that go from 600 to 7000 bucks, but they will be smaller and have fewer features. This means that you won’t be able to do what artists need the most – to customize. If you’re inside your garden you’re probably want to keep an inspirational view (maybe one floor-to-ceiling glass that will also bring plenty of natural light and lower the cost of power), instead of being trapped in the semi-improvised barn.
Your garden can be a huge inspiration, making the windows your canvas, but that inspiration needs to be maintained. Your plants and flowers need their sun and water and they can easily become an additional chore. Unless you have a group of slaves you’ll need to take care of it yourself. Nature will take care of the sun rays, but watering the whole garden can take a while. But in Hoselink reels, you can find a perfect ally that will allow you to do it in a couple of minutes, without missing on that unique inspirational moment.
The practical side
And what about the rest of us with the ‛regular, serious jobs’? When you work from home it’s not just that your family members can distract you – it can also be the other way around. What about all those disturbing calls at odd times of day? Having your separate workplace inside the garden is as much less stressful for them as it’s for you. It will make your job much more balanced and since you’re not the art type you probably won’t need floor-to-ceiling glass walls. But does the fact that the rest of us don’t have artistic souls means that we must be satisfied with some small shed? Of course not – we started working from home in a first place to escape from those claustrophobic cubicles and we’re not coming back! Every job is a creative one if you make it that way, so you need to choose the right garden office style that will boost your creativity. We already proved that the budget is not a limitation in long-term point of view, and only other limitation can be the space you have in your garden. Smaller is cheaper, but keep in mind that small doesn’t mean less quality.
Magnum opus
We have a tendency to think that people in retirement seize to work. But the truth can’t be further away – now they finally have time to do the work they always wanted to do, to create their ‛Magnum opus’. If you’re a senior citizen you know what I’m talking about. You also know that this ‛crown’ of your work needs complete peace and quiet. You can get it in just two days of construction in your garden. The wisdom you’ve gathered through life has taught you it doesn’t need to be big and luxurious. You can go with pretty cheap, but not too cheap – your ‛new paradise’ needs to stand up to the weather. The fact that you’ve been saving up for rainy days doesn’t mean that you’re looking forward to actually experiencing them.
To answer the question posed at the beginning – yes, it is worth. It will bring the balance between your work and family life, boost your creativity and bring you a place of haven you deserved.