A Charming Cottage Garden and Little Amish Shed

This week I can’t wait to share with you the story of our charming cottage garden and little Amish shed, and how it came to be. The little garden and shed is at our cottage in Northern Michigan and has really enhanced our outdoor space there. But it all didn’t happen the easy way. So let’s start at the beginning.

Dreams of the perfect shed

Back in 2003, we had just moved back to Michigan from California. We purchased a lovely home in a boujee neighborhood. The homes were lovely and all custom built. We had purchased a spec home and I was anxious to make it “ours”.

I had been looking through magazines and books at charming cottage style sheds and decided that our backyard needed one. The neighborhood had no fences, and I was looking to make a statement for our almost half acre lot. 

We had a large, raised flagstone patio that had been built, along with a deck. As I looked down the yards of grass to my neighbors in either direction, some had wooden play structures. But most were open spaces backing up to a wooded area.

I was seeing that our yard needed a charming cottage garden, with a beautiful garden shed. It would be just the right start to my dream garden. Or so I thought.

How our cottage shed came to be

I searched the internet and found an Amish company located in Pennsylvania that would build the type of shed that I was looking for. Luckily they delivered to Michigan.

I didn’t just want any structure, as I could certainly just go to Home Depot and order a new shed. It had to be something special. I pictured double doors made of glass, so you could peek into a cute space that wouldn’t just house garden tools. It would serve as a potting shed, but also could be a special place to hang out.

Of course, it needed to match the style of our main house and be appropriate for the neighborhood. I wanted to choose something that would be a long lasting investment as well. A concrete pad wasn’t necessary, as I wanted wood all throughout that would age well. So with cedar shingles, cedar wood groove boards and floor joists, French doors for natural light to stream in, and a cupola, our little wooden shed was ordered.

The shed that moved

Here’s where the story goes awry. It didn’t matter that this structure was a more than appealing model of a garden shed. It wasn’t considered that it was made with the finest of building materials, and cost more than five times the amount of anyone else’s play system around me and was obviously cuter.

We hadn’t asked the builder (who was in control of the Homeowners Association still) for “permission. Even though they had just installed a gazebo in the exact same styling as our shed at a spec home a few houses away for the upcoming Parade of Homes, it didn’t matter. No amount of cajoling would convince him, and they contacted their attorney to make us move it. Seriously?

Looking back, this was probably the beginning of me being annoyed with that house. Luckily, we had purchased a cottage up north on a lake that spring and decided that we would have it moved there.

I am grateful we had the perfect spot for it up there, and was not beholden to a strict homeowner’s association that was still controlled by the builder and not the homeowners as is the normal situation.

So the little shed was loaded on a flat bed trailer, and away it went. Once I saw it in it’s resting spot at the cottage, I realized that it was in the right place all along.

The perfect storm

For a few years the shed was used primarily as extra storage space for all the things in the off season. Meanwhile, I began daydreaming of taking our classic cottage shed and creating a charming cottage garden around it.

The front yard was not currently landscaped and I was still designing the front and backyard spaces in my mind. Then one spring, the huge maple tree in the front yard split in half in a storm (I think it was actually struck by lightning, yikes!) and tore up the whole front yard. 

My landscaping plans had just gotten fast-tracked. So we interviewed landscape companies, figured out who was understanding my vision, got a final price and pulled the trigger! 

Creating a charming garden

The main elements that say “charming cottage garden” to me that we wanted were: a white picket fence, meandering stone paths that lead to the front porch and garage, a flower bed brimming with blooms, little surprises here and there, flower boxes or pots for annuals, and some birdhouses to add a bit of rustic charm.

In the future, I would have plans to add a large vegetable garden but lately, a small container garden works for herbs and tomatoes.

The shed also became a charming focal point and I love how it blends with our batten siding.

Classic style garden sheds can be anything that you need them to be. Whether it is used for storage, as a she shed, garden home office, potting shed, or classic style workshop or artist studio, they will provide years of enjoyment!

Things to consider when looking for a cottage garden shed

Since that time, we have had three more sheds come into our life, in three different houses. In our first empty nest house, we had our contractor do a custom build for a shed in the backyard.

We looked at many shed kits, and found it ended up being almost the same price and we could get exactly what we wanted. If you have a certain skill level, the kits aren’t hard to put together, just time consuming.

Since we had downsized considerably, I was looking for this one to provide extra storage. I found some inspiration on Pinterest, drew what I wanted, and had it built. It ended up providing a lot of storage, had wide doors, and small windows in the front with window boxes for flowers. 

In the next house, I looked at many a garden shed idea on Pinterest again. I decided I would build one out of vintage materials. Using old transom windows, corrugated metal, peely chippy barn wood and other timber products, I set out building my own design.

We owned that house a short 2-1/2 years. I was sad to say goodbye to it when I left. But our current home came up for sale at a time that I wasn’t expecting, and we had to go for it.

This time, I opted for a greenhouse kit from Costco that I put together. It is built but creatively, still a work in progress. At some point, I will try to make this look more like me, and less like Costco.

Tips for getting the shed you’ve always wanted

Planning the perfect backyard building won’t take forever, but there are definitely things to consider. Whatever your needs, there is a garden shed that can be built for them.

If you’d like to get inspired about more stuff for your home, let’s hang out more. Follow along on these platforms.

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