Amazing Makeover Ideas for Your Garden Shed

Chic She Shed

Turn a basic storage shed into a relaxing getaway with bright paint, rich fabrics, and brilliant storage solutions. Similar to a man cave, a she shed is the perfect space to pursue a hobby, work from home, or just relax. Our she shed can be customized to fit your individual needs, and all aspects (including the shed itself!) can be DIYed.

Do-It-All Bar Cart

Whether you prefer roses or rosé, a chic bar cart is a must-have for your garden shed. Sleek baskets corral bottles, garnishes, and potted plants, while glassware finds a home on the second shelf. Start with a basic cart—like this brown and black version—then let your accessories bring the style.

Built-In Bookshelves

If you're building a shed from scratch, make custom bookshelves part of the plan. But if you're revamping an existing space, use vertical floating shelves to store books, garden tools, and more. Position one shelf on each side of the entrance, and paint them the same color as the walls. This placement—paired with sheer curtains swept aside—gives the shelves the appearance of being built-in.

• See Our Gorgeous She Shed Makeover

Lift and Lower

For a budget-friendly outdoor work space, mount a piece of plywood to the wall of your garden shed with metal brackets. The setup makes for a perfect desk, potting station, or space to store bulky items. Small canisters hold pencils, brushes, and other tools.

Behind Closed Doors

When working with a small space, every nook and cranny counts. That's why the inside of garden shed doors can be the perfect spot to stash little items, such as seed packets, notebooks, and hand tools. Keep items secure with a wooden dowel. Metal backing adhered to the back of shed doors provides a magnetic surface for notes and reminders.

Design with Storage in Mind

Designer Annette Joseph took a simple outdoor storage unit and worked it into a pretty and functional garden room. Splashy yellow and red paint—found in the clearance bin—jazz up the exterior, while the interior includes storage solutions for tools, a garden hose, pots, and more. Even the inside of the doors becomes a place to hang garden necessities.

Declutter with Style

The shed's interior makeover focused on creating a garden work space, keeping tools off the floor and adding storage. The stylish facelift uses color as an organizational guide. The cheerful red paint from the exterior repeats on the inside to map designated spaces for rakes, pruners, and more. Open shelving above the pegboard offers a place to stack terra-cotta pots. A flea market chandelier lights the space with unexpected sparkle.

Helpful Work Space

Fun cherry-pattern curtain panels are mounted under a shelf turned work counter to hide rolling bins filled with potting soil and soil amendments. The same pattern frames the window as a cheery fabric valance. The deep windowsill doubles as a shelf for pots, plants, and watering cans.

Get Organized with Pegboards

The pegboard sheets are nailed to a framework attached to the studs to ensure there's enough space between the walls and boards to insert hooks and pegs. To keep the shed organized, tools used for a common purpose are given a dedicated space: Bulb planters, bulbs, and bulb food hang within easy reach of each other. Turn a tote with handles into a quick and easy way to transport soil amendments out to the garden.

• 10 Creative Uses for Pegboards

Creative Tool Storage

Turn metal bins and buckets on their sides to create deep, easy-to-see storage caddies. Brightly painted to coordinate with the shed exterior, the yellow bucket acts as an on-the-wall garden hose holder and collects all the nozzles in one place. Garden gloves are easy to find when stacked in open-front bins.

Hooked-On Organizers

Take advantage of tools with wrist straps to sort and hang them on the pegboard. Drill a hole under the lip of an old tin cup, and string a piece of twine through the opening to give it new purpose as a hanging seed-pack organizer.

On the Wall

Multiple shelves hung from pegboard triple the amount of space to stash garden boots, compost bins, watering cans, hand tools, soil amendments, and more. They also free up floor space to set down items, such as a trug packed with herbs harvested from the garden. Leaving open a section of wall next to the shelving frees vertical space to organize long-handled power tools like trimmers and edgers.

Colorful Bins and Buckets

A red-painted bucket filled with hand tools and a knee rest becomes a portable carrier for quick planting. Its cherry red color coordinates with the shed's color scheme and is easy to spot in the garden. The painted wooden bins next to the tool bucket include chalkboard insets that allow for quick labeling and re-labeling as the contents change. These wooden bins also feature built-in handles that make them easy to pull off the shelf.

Stylish Storage

This outdoor shed went from prefab to fabulous with a makeover that adds a garden potting bench and shelving to organize pots, soil, tools, and more. A soft gray-blue paint coordinates with the house, while the cheerful indigo trim gives the shed a splash of color. A blue stain was applied to the deck and the shed's floor to match the trim. Decorative trim and sconces give the exterior a custom look.

Custom Storage Ideas

To give this shed a custom look that is also hardworking, designer Brian Patrick Flynn nailed beaded-board paneling to the studs and painted it a crisp white. The ceiling is augmented with false trusses and covered with a coat of zippy green to create a cottage feel in the formerly industrial-looking building. An aluminum shelving system builds in storage for pots, planters, and garden tools.

• Top Tips for Building a Shed

Closet Shelving Goes Outdoors

An adjustable closet shelving system works as well in a shed as in the house. The multipurpose system uses metal bars that are screwed along the top of a wall. Pierced rods are suspended from the bars to hold brackets for a variety of storage components. We used wire shelves, but other options include solid shelves, baskets, and hanging rods. The system takes the clutter out of storing garden tools and planters. Each shelf can be moved around to make room elsewhere—perfect for the indecisive gardener. The open shelves also make the shed feel brighter and more spacious.

Funky Facelifts

Make over cheap bulletin boards by covering them with fabric crisscrossed with ribbons. Glue decorative buttons where the ribbons intersect. The boards are perfect for holding seed packets, photos, planting plans, and garden tips. An old chandelier—sanded then primed and painted with metal-specific paint to match the ceiling—casts extra light over the work space and creates a festive mood during outdoor parties.