Last summer, in the midst of the first lockdown, Mike and I decided that after nine years of working off dining room tables or on desks shoe-horned into our teeny, tiny spare bedroom, it was time to try and create a bigger space to work from.
Mike is on the phone ALOT for work and my non-floristry work is (very quiet) research and writing based. It was often difficult to concentrate while Mike talked to clients for a huge part of the day. He’d probably say the same about his inability to concentrate while I listened to endless repeats of my current music obsession.
When the whole world became obsessed with Zoom when lockdown hit, Mike spent so much of his day talking – re-working and re-jigging projects that the pandemic had slightly scuppered. I wore headphones a lot of the time.
We’ve also both hankered for a space forever where we could be creative – me for my floristry and gardening things (then just a hobby and not a real job) and Mike for his music and printmaking. Mike wanted a studio. I wanted a shed a floral dreams.
Over the last six months our good friend Toby has created our exciting space at the bottom of our garden. He even gave us our much desired dividing wall and door. My space is filled with flowers and plants, old furniture and books. It’s the perfect place to run my fledgling Bude Botanical business from. Mike’s half is filled with music paraphernalia and printmaking equipment. Neither of us has worn headphones since we moved in. It’s the stuff that good marriages are made of.
Here’s how it took shape:
Clearing the old shed before it got dismantled. So much crap.
Taking a moment after we cleared the bottom of the garden. 
Bye old shed. Thanks for looking after all our crap for us.
So much space now that the shed has gone. 
Time for a digger I think!
We still have no idea how he got the digger in.
Toby worked through such a grim winter. A frame appeared on a snowy day. 
And it was clad in corrugated iron.
The windows and doors arrived eventually.
Time for our friend Chris to sort the garden out. 
It looked a little bit like The Somme when he took the project on.
Patio and path in. Site cleared and ready for turf. 
It might be raining but OMG, I love it. Raised beds ready to be filled with ALL THE FLOWERS.
And inside…I still need to paint the ceiling and get a sink fitted and a bigger work bench…but this is the stuff that floral dreams are made of. I present you Bude Botanical HQ x