Building a Little Garden House on a Patio Platform

Sometimes one thing leads to another. Architect Bari Thompson of Lake Oswego, Oregon, first created a level terrace on an unusable slope, then installed a patio, then used the patio as a platform to build the little garden house shown.

Instead of a prefabricated shed, Thompson designed a structure matching his home's architecture. At 8 feet square, it used standard 8-foot materials; the door was cut to 6 feet. All materials came from a local home supply center.

For longevity, Thompson chose rot-resistant materials: ½-inch cement backerboard for walls (instead of plywood), concrete patio blocks for the floor. Standard framing rests on pressure-treated 4-by-6 beams as footings. The roof is composition shingles. Gutters channel rainwater into a 44-gallon plastic trash container serving as a cistern for an interior sink—an inexpensive plastic storage bin with a drain hole. Flower-filled window boxes, irrigated with rainwater, are made from ¼-inch backerboard on a cedar frame.

Painted with masonry paint, the little house holds tools and garden art. It's a place for potting annuals, retreating from spring showers, and drying flowers in autumn.