Pubs may be (slowly) coming back to life, but not all of us feel ready to head out to public spaces just yet – especially with tipsy types who might not be up to social distancing.
One solution to fill the pub gap without stepping too far outside your home? Making your very own drinking hole in the back garden.
That’s exactly the project Sadie Jones and Nick Threadgold, both 45 and from Wilmslow, Cheshire, decided to take on in lockdown, turning their garden shed into a pub over the course of three days – for just £500.
Sadie, an estate agent, and Nick, an interior designer, kept costs down by sourcing materials from Facebook Marketplace and their friends.
Sadie told money-saving community LatestDeals.co.uk: ‘I came up with the idea of converting the shed to a pub as a way of getting to go somewhere with all this lockdown.
‘But when we thought about it more it just made sense to have somewhere with an inside as well as outside with the glorious British weather.
‘My partner Nick is an interior designer for Maranatha Kitchen & Bathrooms Ltd so he set to drawing up an initial plan to give us the layout and we set to work from there.
‘Virtually everything was delivered: the scaffold boards for the bar, 3”x2” timber for the frame and OSB board for the hatch.
‘We had some carpet from a bedroom, and Nick got some mirror board from his work.
‘The brick wallpaper and the tongue and groove was from B&Q.
‘We had a Beerhawk Keg dispenser which we moved into it. I picked up some old pumps and beer mats off a friend for display only.
‘A lot of the interior décor was from Amazon, like the pictures and LED lights.
‘We have some friends who own The Edge Gin so they gave us some bottles to start off the bar, along with Brisa Marina for some coloured and flavoured vodkas.
‘In all, it cost around £500 including the £80 fridge and £50 freezer we picked up on Facebook Marketplace.
‘It took around three days to complete but like all good projects, it’s still being added to!’
In addition to the end result being quite the treat, the couple enjoyed the process of working on the pub, with all the DIY giving them something to focus on to battle lockdown boredom.
‘It’s been great to get stimulated again during the lockdown with something to focus on,’ says Sadie.
‘It took some planning with ordering things for delivery but once we had it all, we started the work.
‘The only thing we really needed to sort was another shed for the garden stuff, and that’s taken about four weeks to come, but that’s the least of the problems.’
Now, the couple are making the most of having a pub at the bottom of their garden, using it as the perfect spot to relax and unwind at the end of the day.
They’ve named their establishment the Stagger Inn and plan to invite friends to enjoy it soon.
‘Since we built it, it’s had quite an effect on us,’ adds Sadie. ‘The feeling of leaving your house if only to go to the bottom of the garden is quite a relaxing feeling.
‘It sounds daft but the idea of being somewhere just for a few hours away from the house, which we have been in for the last 12 weeks, has a calming effect.
‘It’s definitely been helpful mentally and physically to do something over these last 12 weeks and we would recommend it to anyone to give it a go.’
Have you completed a DIY project in lockdown you fancy showing off?
Tell us more by emailing MetroLifestyleTeam@Metro.co.uk.
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source https://metro.co.uk/2020/06/26/couple-transform-garden-lockdown-pub-500-12905015/
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