The Design Survey: the first step towards your dream garden room

26th February 2026

A garden room is a significant investment, and if you are to get your money’s worth, you need to ensure it suits your lifestyle, enhances your garden and complements your existing house.

We don’t think that choosing your garden room from a website and hoping for the best is good enough.

We offer all our clients a personal design survey to ensure you get a garden room that is everything you dreamed of.

What is a Design Survey?

A Smart Spaces design survey is a combination of design consultation and site survey.

The survey will be conducted by one of our friendly team members, who will visit your home to discuss the project with you.

We have extensive experience installing fantastic garden rooms for our clients, so we can advise you on all the design and construction issues to ensure your garden room installation goes smoothly, and your new garden building gives you years of pleasure.

Advice on Practical Considerations

It is exciting to choose a new garden room, but there are also practical considerations we always discuss with clients during the design survey.

Groundworks

Your garden room will need a robust concrete foundation.

You may already have a shed or outbuilding that is due to be demolished, which will provide an appropriate footing. If not, we can advise on creating the perfect base for your new garden room.

Access

The components of our garden rooms are light and easy to manoeuvre, but we will need access to your garden to deliver them.

We’ll assess the site when we visit to ensure your garden room can be delivered easily.

We may need to ask you to park elsewhere on the delivery day or to move your bins so the garden room can be carried straight to the installation area.

Planning permission

Most garden rooms fall within your permitted development rights and can be installed without applying for planning permission.

However, your rights are affected by the size and height of your garden room, its proximity to boundaries and its intended purpose.

If your plans could raise any issues, we can highlight them during your design survey.

Size

The practised eye of one of our survey team and a good tape measure will help you decide the appropriate size of a garden room for your outdoor space.

You will probably have a good idea of the size of the garden room you need to accommodate your home office, gym equipment, or whatever you plan to put in it.

However, if your garden can accommodate a larger model, then why not take the opportunity to maximise your space?

Creating balance and harmony between your house and your garden room

Your design survey may include a bit of garden feng shui.

We can’t promise that the placement of your garden building will bring you peace and prosperity, but the Smart Spaces team can help to ensure that the positioning of your garden room brings harmony and balance to your garden.

It seems like a simple equation: a beautiful house plus a beautiful garden room equals happiness, but our experience has highlighted many subtle issues that can become annoying over time.

For example, the views from the garden room to the house, and vice versa, need to be carefully considered, especially when privacy is required.

If you plan to run a yoga class from your garden room, do your clients want to be performing downward dog in full view of the kitchen window where your partner is making coffee?

Probably not.

Privacy may also be vital if you are working from home and trying to shut out other distractions.

Equally, it would be a shame if the fabulous glazed panels of your garden office looked out onto the bin area rather than onto your glorious magnolia tree or neat flowerbeds.

As first-time garden room owners, you may not think of these issues, but we have seen it all before and can offer the benefit of our experience at your design survey.

Designing a multi-functional space

Over the years, we have noticed that many of our clients use their garden room for more than one purpose.

A garden room is a substantial investment, so it needs to offer great value for money, and providing space for different activities is one way to ensure this.

Your home office could double as a music room, or your yoga studio could have another function as a relaxed space for entertaining guests.

Creating a multifunctional space will also future-proof your garden room.

What happens to your garden office if you retire or take a job that is office-based?

What becomes of the teen chillout place when the children move out?

We can advise on features, extra storage, and dimensions to help you extend the functionality of your garden room, making it central to your lifestyle for many years to come.

Next steps

You can talk to our friendly team about booking a design survey if you call tel:08081341345

You can also book a survey online here.

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