Whats a Shed Pub?

A staple of any home owner’s backyard is the Shed, or a garden shed. A space that houses the lawn mowers, garden implements and the tools that just don’t fit in the garage. But no longer.

The Man Cave just grew up. In a trend out of England the back-yard Tavern or, Shed Pub, is gaining popularity in the US. Creating that perfect micro man cave space to watch the game, play a hand of cards, or enjoy a beer or two. The Shed pub can be a cleaned out shed with a plywood table with a six pack or a full-on recreation of an Irish style pub, complete with tappers of home brew. The man cave concept is nothing new. We've been cleaning out garage spaces to host the local playoff games for years. Now we have a year round space to enjoy. This is my NW Shed Pub created out of an old garden shed.

Come join me as we explore the creation of one such space. My ShedPub.

When we moved into our new house I noticed the garden shed right away. Trimmed like the main house it looked great. Solid sturdy and it was already hooked up to power. I jokingly mentioned to my wife that I was going to turn the garden shed into a ShedPub. She laughed. I distinctly recall the next words. "Babe, its your Shed, do what you want with it." Done! The Shedpub idea was born.

I knew I wanted a space where I could hang out and watch the game and have a few friends over. You know, talk fishing, hiking, enjoy a beer or three. Well, I had just the place. I started by cleaning out the garden shed. There wasnt much to do because we had just moved in and the previous owner had cleaned the shed out. So I went online looking for Pub sheds, Pub shed kits, pub shed plans, nothing. I even looked for creating a back yard bar or tavern. Nothing that was fitting the idea that I had. Then I came across a UK site that talked about their back yard taverns. Perfect. There is a whole community in England that builds back yard pubs and shares them with their friends and neighbors. That was exactly what I was looking for. However, these were not all that micro. They were complete structures with multi seating arrangements. That was a bit big for my plans, however, the idea works. I found some great ideas by searching the internet for micro pubs, and mini taverns, and came up with a lot of ideas. I then came across the micro Irish pubs of Ireland and the micro pubs of England. This is exactly what I was looking for. I found some old pictures of colonial American style taverns, and then some Irish style and that what eventually became MyShedPub.

Construction was pretty straight forward. Because the garden shed was already empty and just bare stud walls I could easily get to the wiring that was in place. I had an electrical professional friend of mine help me with extending the wiring for the over bar lights and the TV. A MYSHEDPUB NOTICE: ALWAYS CHECK YOUR LOCAL LAWS AND ORDINANCES BEFORE PREFORMING ELECTRICAL WORK. BETTER YET, HIRE A PROFESIONAL. Yeah, do not mess around with things that can kill you. I then cut the holes for the windows. There was a small window already but I wanted something a bit bigger. I found a set of leaded glass windows panes from a 100 year old house remodel. Score! They looked old, and they were. Perfect. I had to build the frames for the windows and then install into the wall. They turned out well for my first time at installing windows. Then came the sheet rock, drywall, and the bar mockup. I had to basically layout my bar idea inside the shedpub to line up the dimensions. SO the drywall went up, and then the bar. I then cut the trim boards and started to stain. Youtube is your friend for construction and staining! My brother came over and helped me with the laminate wood floor. Then off to the local store for some bar stools. I also purchased a mini fridge that can hold 2 cases of beer and installed that under the bar. I purchased a 42 inch tv and here we are. Myshedpub