Kevin McCloud goes off grid and builds a shed

Kevin McCloud from that Grand Designs has got the shed bug (and who hasn’t nowadays) but he’s also got a new telly series Man Made Home which starts Sun Sunday 23 Sep, 8pm on Channel 4 – which sees him build a shed.

Those Channel 4 Home presenters are loving the sheds – what with Sheddies favourite Sarah Beeny, been involved with Shed of the year since the beginning – be interesting to see if Mr Mccloud can bring some of his some posh designs theories down to earth.

From the pictures it does look a great build and the use of salvaged materials is great but is this build more like a fancy tiny house than a humble garden shed?

But it does have some quirky features that would appeal to you sheddies I think

  • Next to the shed there is a hot tub made from a jet engine air intake
  • chair made from an old tractor
  • home made oven, constructed using an old safe

I hope to see some of these in your entries for Shed of the year 2013 😉

    all photos from Channel 4

    Here is the background info – what do you self build sheddies think of it all?

    Kevin McCloud will be going off grid to build a cabin in the woods. He’ll be recycling, re-using and re-purposing to create his very own self-designed and self-built haven.

    Kevin is setting out to recapture a pleasure he believes many have lost:  making things with our own hands. His cabin will be away from the world of uniform relentless mass production and packed with ingenious design solutions. He hopes it will be a structure that is so distinctive he’ll be proud to say he built it.

    Kevin’s hand-made haven will be a shed of architectural ambition, oak framed and shingle clad, filled with incredible objects of his own making.  Its construction will be an adventure from start to finish and is destined to push him out of his comfort zone and into the “shedzone” of mad creativity.

    This project will fulfil his boyhood dream of owning a shed in the woods he can escape to, design classic pieces in, and watch the sun go down from.

    And at the end of it all, Kevin hopes to answer that nagging question: is simple better?

    Kevin McCloud said: “This is the shed of my imagination; a shedtastic opportunity to explore off-grid ways of living, meet craftspeople of all ages and disciplines and ask whether living a life where we make and do is better than one where we simply buy and consume. A life-changing

    Anyway I will have it on Sky+ to see how Kevin gets on..

    By Andrew Wilcox

    I love sheds Founder & judge of Shed of the year - Wilco writes mainly about sheds. About the blog Enter your shed into #shedoftheyear

    24 comments

    1. Loved the alpaca dressing gown which must have cost at least £2000. He could have bought a great shed for that.

    2. kevin mccloud is a prevert!

      For killing that innocent animal I hope
      He dies a slow and painful death…..

      Burn in hell… kevin mccloud ..

    4. Not so all wood from his woods the worst type of wood to line his wall look at all that ply very bad Kevin. Still like program

    6. I like the shed and all it’s amazing bits and bobs , I’m building a shed myself and now I have some new ideas to add on except mine will be a she sewn shed lol

    7. If you’re going to comment, at least have the decency to watch the programme, listen properly, and understand what you’re seeing (@KEITH HUTTON). Kevin McCloud could be leading the way with off-grid buildings, if only people got the point.

    8. I thought as always Kevin was brilliant and if I could have a dinner party with four guests dead or alive mr mccloud is now one, great guy great programme

    9. Why not get sewage farms to generate gas then we might get cheaper energy bills… sorry if the idea causes a stink…

    10. im gutted to watch kevin mclcloud kill a deer for the sake of his chair ! and then have the bollocks to say his emotions were running wild ,he then cuts with a saw the dead deers head open to use its brain to soften its skin,i hope his shed burns down with him in it ! i will never watch grand designs again ,why do presenters have this dark horrible side ? because its all an act its plastic, SHAME ON YOU KEVIN MCCLOUD !!!!!!!!

      1. I feel sorry for you. You can’t even understand that that deer was to be legally culled for the greater good of the deer and usually the skin and brains are disposed of. What a waste. Now it “lives on” as a really nice thing. It must suck to be you, and I wish you luck with your silly little life.

    12. Re ethics of getting round planning, good on him! As one who has had to deal with planners and their bizzare temprement on our self build with them using every loop hole to their end, it is nice to see Kevin flipping it back on them!

      As for the shed, I do wish more of the construction was shown and a little less repeating post advert breaks. That being said, what a fantastic idea, as kids we all make dens, for some reason as adults we dismiss these child like ideas and ‘grow up’. It is inspiring to see something like this being done, just wish more construction and detailing was shown.

      Im really looking forward to episode 2!

    14. I totally agree with Ivan Pope. It was in total contrast to last nights Grand Designs episode which although I hated the final look of the build, described as “The Icebox”, it was all precision, clean-cut stuff which was at least watchable. Last Sunday was a shed load of s***. Repeated showings of sewage wastage was both unnecessary and highly cringeworthy.
      If I were you Kevin I’d take a leaf out of minimalism and strip away the non-essentials (all those horrible earthy bits) from your own build or you’re in danger of losing some of your large legion of fans.

    15. I thought, sadly, that it was a terrible program. I’m sure there was an original germ of a great idea there, and I was really looking forward to it, but someone has ruined it by being clever. It ends up like a cross between Top Gear and Horrible Histories. The shed is sort of magicked into life in the background – we don’t really see this process. Kevin goes off on ridiculous (and disgusting) missions, like using reclaimed fat from the sewers to make fuel (how much shit in that project?). I’ll try the second installment, but so far it’s very disappointing.

      1. I thought it was very interesting, especially about the cr4p! We live in the country and are not on mains drainage so this is something that I would like to get more information about (thank you internet) and to see if it’s a feasible proposition for us.
        Grand idea.

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