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We Can Dream: Look at All You Can Do With an Outbuilding

A bonus living space in the backyard expands the possibilities for work, family and fun. Here are 10 ways to imagine one

Laura GaskillJuly 23, 2017

Houzz Contributor. I cover decorating ideas, Houzz tours & the monthly home maintenance checklist. My favorite pieces to write center around the emotional aspects of home and savoring life's simple pleasures. Decluttering course + discount for Houzzers: https://www.lauragaskill.com/welcome-houzzers

Whether you call it an in-law unit, a granny cottage or a studio shed, having a detached bonus living space on your property can be beneficial in more ways than one. A stand-alone structure can serve as a home office, house grandparents (or teenagers who need extra space) or be rented out to bring in income that offsets your mortgage. Here are 10 creative ways to put an outbuilding to work.

Modern-Shed

1. Gain breathing space with a backyard teen room. Have an expanding family but not an expanding house? Gain extra square feet without moving (or remodeling your home) by adding a teen cottage to the backyard. The legal particulars of adding a structure designed as living quarters varies by area, but if it is possible, this can be a wonderful way to give your family some much-needed breathing room.

Inspired ADUs

2. Welcome retired parents into your home (while preserving personal space). Compared with the long-term costs of a retirement home, sharing space with your retired parents can be a financially smart move for all involved. But sharing a home — bathroom, kitchen and all — isn’t right for everyone. An in-law cottage, on the other hand, allows both wings of the family to benefit from the closeness while maintaining the privacy of separate spaces.

Sett Studio

3. Work from home. A backyard office with a dedicated entrance keeps your work life clearly separated from your home life — especially important if you need to meet with clients in person. A fully separate home office has other advantages as well. You’ll be away from the noisy bustle of the household, and the detached space is easy to define for tax purposes, should you plan on taking a home office deduction.

See the rest of this eco-friendly home-office shed

The Painted Room

4. Earn extra income from a short- or long-term rental. With liability and privacy issues to consider — not to mention zoning, taxes, permits and other issues (such as how a rental would affect neighbors) — this option is certainly not for everyone. But for those with an entrepreneurial spirit (and a legal rental unit), renting out a cottage on your property, whether to short-term or longer-term tenants, can be a smart move financially, offsetting some of the cost of your mortgage. And if you’d like to be able to offer friends and family a place to stay while visiting, you may still be able to rent out your space to short-term guests through a site like Airbnb, leaving dates open for your own guests as needed.

Sybil Jane Barrido, FASID, CID - SJVD DESIGN

Potential issues: Whether you are looking to buy a home with an in-law unit, or are hoping to add an accessory dwelling to your current home, it’s important to know whether you will be (legally) able to use the structure for your intended purpose. An architect or designer should be able to help you navigate the ins and outs of this process in your area. Attempting to figure it out on your own will require more legwork and lots of reading of local codes.

Here are a few things that may be required:

Minimum and maximum size constraints for an accessory dwelling
Dedicated on-site parking
Limits on the number of people permitted to live in each accessory dwelling
Limits on heights and floor areas
Stylistic continuity with other homes in the area
Setback requirements for the lot as well as the structure

User

5. Provide affordable (or, ahem, free) living space to a college-age kid living at home. With education-related expenses at an all-time high, and housing costs still soaring in many areas, if your kids have the opportunity to attend a local college and live at home while doing so, you might want to consider it. An in-law cottage on your property can provide grown children with an affordable home base while still maintaining some privacy and independence. And when they do move out, you can let the space evolve into something else entirely — perhaps one of the other ideas shared here.

Corynne Pless

6. Get creative in a home art studio. If you’ve been harboring creative dreams, a backyard art studio may be just the thing to get you inspired to create. Particularly for messy crafts such as pottery, and art mediums that produce fumes (such as the solvents used by oil painters), it can be a big help to move your practice outdoors. Bonus: When you have a dedicated art space, you don’t have to worry about putting everything away between sessions.

Tour the rest of this backyard ceramics workshop

SHKS Architects

7. Set up a music practice space. Noisy instruments have members of your household complaining? Feeling too old for a (literal) garage band? A backyard music studio with soundproofed walls — and some distance from the main house — could be the ideal solution. It will also take care of the organizational problem of leaving instruments laying all over the house.

Koch Architects

8. Provide a landing spot for visiting grandparents. If you have kids, and your (or your partner’s) parents live far away, it can really help to have a built-in place for grandparents to settle in for extended visits. And while a guest room in the house is certainly one option, sharing space that closely can prove challenging, especially if the grandparents tend to stay for longer amounts of time. That bit of extra distance and space a detached in-law cottage provides can make a big difference when it comes to maintaining a positive relationship over time. And what kid wouldn’t want to have a sleepover at Grandma and Grandpa’s house — in their very own backyard?

JML Garden Rooms

9. Deck out a home gym. Filled with your favorite equipment, mats for stretching or yoga, and a TV for workout instruction (or just to zone out to while you hop on the elliptical), your home gym can be comfier than any gym you join because it’s tailored to your exact needs. Not to mention the fact that it’s located steps from your home. And if having an entire backyard studio dedicated to gym equipment feels like a waste of precious space, you could easily make this a combo: Try a desk and treadmill for a gym-office combination, or pair workout equipment with a sleeper sofa to create a guest suite.

Belluschi Consulting

10. Create a peaceful retreat in your own backyard. Craving a getaway cabin in a bucolic locale? The next best thing might be having a mini retreat right in your own yard. Use it as a writing studio, meditation hut or simply a place to sip tea and read a book in peace and quiet. Tip: To give your backyard retreat more of a “getaway” feeling, boost privacy with the strategic use of plantings or other privacy features such as trellises or fencing.

Tell us: What would you do with a backyard studio or in-law unit? Let us know in the Comments.

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