What is a She Shed?

Whether I'm driving my car, riding a bike or on foot, I'm always drawn to the sheds and small outbuildings that can be found on urban main streets and off the beaten path.

I've fallen in love with many of them...potting sheds, art studios, playhouses and greenhouses...even a converted chicken coop. Old, new, fashion-forward or ram-shackled, sheds beg me to explore, to be creative and two years ago, to build one of my own.  Measuring less than a meter deep, my shed is a tiny space reminiscent of the rural school bus shelters of my childhood. Small and humble, it is lit by a couple of old windows found on Kijiji, a hand-laid stone floor and on it's roof sits a cast iron crow bought at HOME in downtown St. John's, Newfoundland (where there are some of the most beautiful sheds in Canada).  

While sheds have been around forever, sheds that are designed to a woman's style and purpose have gained in popularity in the media in recent years.  Dubbed "She Sheds", they are an offset to the "man cave".  I have found that they are as diverse and interesting as the women that own them.  If you "google" the term "she shed" you'll see for yourself that they range from over-the-top fancy to rustic and soulful.  

Author Virginia Woolf once said that women who write fiction need "a room of one's own". Women with She Sheds have gone one step further; beyond the bounds of home and outside to the back of the garden to their own personal space. She Sheds may be used to write...or to paint, create, sculpt, whittle wood, clean fish, house hens, farm, grow, store stuff or even to live!  

The She Shed Home & Garden was conceived after speaking with hundreds of homeowners about their hopes and challenges with their gardens.  I observed that the majority of them were women and I was struck by how many of them were like me; homebodies for whom the home and garden is a welcome reprieve from the busyness of modern living.  

"The She Shed" seemed to fit as a name for this business.  While we generally employ women (with occasional deliveries and chain saw work by our go-to guy Daren and hardscapes by Omar and his crew), our home and garden products, services and resources are intended to bring greater satisfaction, relaxation and enjoyment to all.