Weekend: GARDENS: Put it away: Bikes and barbecues, tools and trampolines - the garden plays host to some serious clobber. Dawn Isaac offers ideas for cool outdoor storage

• Published in: The Guardian (London)
• Main Author: Isaac, Dawn
• Format: Newspaper Article
• Language: English
• Published: London (UK) Guardian News & Media Limited 12.02.2011
• ISSN: 0261-3077

If a shed is out of the question, however, look at smaller storage solutions (for example, the medium pent garden store, pounds 69.99, from greenfingers.com) or clever dual-function furniture. "We've recently built seating for a client which houses logs underneath - a real storage issue in country properties," says garden designer Ann-Marie Powell. "I also use large outdoor storage boxes, which you can dress with cushions to double up as benches or an impromptu daybed." Items such as bikes need a safer store. Off-the-shelf bike stores with strong locks are good solutions, but are rarely objects of beauty. If you choose a metal store (try Asgard bike store, pounds 450, from taylorsgardenbuildings.co.uk; 0845 006 6286), selecting one in a dark colour will at least help it be less conspicuous. Wooden versions (such as the BillyHo Pent bike store, pounds 162.90 from gardenbuildingsdirect.co.uk; 0800 1696016) can be improved with a coloured woodstain or by planting troughs on the roof. For a bespoke solution, lock your bike to brackets on a wall, then add a curved section of stainless steel or copper as a weather-proof roof. Nifty storage kit is the gardener's nirvana, as designer Mark Gregory once found out at Chelsea. He'd designed slide-out compost drawers and green-roofed bin stores, but it was the wall-mounted washing line behind a hidden door that made Chelsea-goers the most breathless. "A common problem with a neat solution is what good storage design is all about," he says.