Is It Possible To Welcome Clients Into Your Home Garden Office?

2nd May 2022

A home garden office is a great place to home work, but if you clients to meet, then how can it work for you?

Not everyone wants to welcome clients directly into their workspace.

With confidential papers and – possibly – work clutter and the noise of other colleagues trying to get work done, it could give a less than positive impression and make having serious discussion tricky.

For many business owners, a dedicated meeting room is much less distracting and more professional environment to conduct business, whether this is in person or a quiet space to conduct Zoom meetings. But is it possible to create a multi-room home garden office which can provide space to work and to meet with clients?

You can welcome clients into your home garden office

The first thing to acknowledge is that when building a home garden office, you can be entirely flexible.

As long as you have the space to build it in your back garden and it is not a listed building or Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, then it is likely that you will not need planning permission unless it is taller than average, or you want to build over 50% of the area of all your garden. However, always check the government planning regulations before your commence your build.

If you have a large enough garden, then it’s entirely possible that you could build a home garden office large enough to partition into different rooms. For example, you could welcome clients into a dedicated reception area which would not only be practical, keeping clients away from the main office work area, but also look very professional. A small sofa, a coffee machine and some artwork can provide a great first impression.

Separate ‘office’ and ‘meeting room’ areas could provide you with the space you need to impress clients and get work done.

It is even possible to plumb in a home garden office

This means that you can create a small kitchen area for employees to use, and even a toilet so that you don’t have to traipse back into the house when you have to go; and more importantly one you can offer clients to use.

Plumbing in a garden room will obviously take more build time and work out significantly more expensive than a straightforward one-room home garden office, but it could be an excellent investment which would help your business go from strength to strength over a number of years.

Other things to consider

A multi-room home garden office which has been plumbed in can have many alternate uses, should the business discontinue or move to difference premises. With separate rooms providing privacy, it could become a well-used living area, or even a place for visitors to sleep occasionally and would add value to the house too. However if you’re considering moving at a point in the future, then think about how you would cope without your office during the move, especially if you have other employees to consider, as relocating the business to new premises comes with its own considerations.