This backyard shed office construction journey has been a PROCESS! I fault my ridiculous nature of hyper-focusing on minute details but nonetheless it was WORTH IT.
If you have been following along on the She Shed build posts, then you know by now that I decided to start this process with a Tuff Shed building (actually 2 buildings). This is the basic structure of the building I purchased:
I was able to customize the size, colors and doors & windows. Coupling that with my personal additions of a custom painted door, mini breeze block wall, outdoor light, custom deck, desert landscaping, pavers, and a literal TON of stones, here’s the final result:
Since my inspo for this backyard office was the beautiful mid-century homes of Palm Springs, I knew I need a bright door and desert inspired landscaping. Here’s the breakdown of all the outdoor projects to make this happen.
“Doors of Palm Springs” front door
I chose Valspar “Red Clay” paint for the front door and also spray painted the door hardware with Rustoleum Metallic Gold & Rustoleum Clear Matte spray paint. This is temporary until I find some sexy new door handles I like.
Deck
First thinking I would would build a deck based on pallets, my search for pallets led me to someone on Facebook Marketplace who built custom pallets. He built this deck for me based on my size in 2 pieces. Once I got it, I leveled the area underneath with sand & stones, and stained it with Behr Semi Transparent Deck Stain in Padre Brown.
Landscape
I knew I wanted that gold colored stone you see everywhere in Palm Springs around the office, but it was quite a search to find it locally and in the smaller 3/8″ size. Finally, I went to Southwest Boulder and Stone in Fullerton where they had a huge selection of landscape stone in so many colors and sizes. Although it was more than I needed, I purchased 1 TON of California Gold, 3/8” from them and they delivered it too! I also got 24″ cement pavers from them for the walkway leading up to the office.
If you need stone in Southern California I do highly recommend this company- they were easy to work with and very friendly.
For the plants I happened upon a succulent nursery one day while on Yelp and so glad I found them! 11:1 Succulent Nursery in Whittier is AMAZING. They have a huge selection of succulents and cacti, are family owned, affordable and so knowledgeful. The people that run this little oasis are so amazing I can’t recommend them enough. I thought I would end up purchasing all my plants from a big box chain, but was so happy to find this place and support a small business. I got almost all my landscape plants there: barrel cactus, cactus, Agave plants, & assorted succulents for inside too.
Breeze Block Wall
What’s a Palm Springs inspired home with out a Breeze Blocks? Nothing, that’s what. I wanted some sort of accent somewhere to give a nod to one of my fave Palm Springs hotels, The Parker.
Since breezeway and cement breeze blocks are dated and hard to come by these days, I thought I would have to have a custom screen laser cut to mimic the style. SEVERAL searches later on a quest for real concrete breeze blocks led me to Orco Block and Paving who happened to have the exact Parker inspired design I was looking for. I was able to score real 12″ cement blocks and picked up from their Stanton, CA location. This was quite a quest, but so worth it in the end.
I will post a tutorial later on my Instagram Reels on how I built this mini breeze block wall but I would have to say of everything I’ve done with this building, this is the project I’m most proud of.
So, this pretty much covers the outside of my new backyard office She Shed. Stay tuned for Part 2 of the reveal as I’m finish putting the final touches on the interior.
Let me know if you have any questions on this project in the comments!
Enjoy!
