• Shed of the Year 2009 - Judge Announcement - The beeny

    Sarah Beeny Laying against a shed, probablyWe are very please to announce that sheddies favourite Sarah Beeny has agreed to be a judge for next summers Shed of the year competition, which of course is held during Shed Week (Starting 6th July 2009 for nearly a whole week)

    Sarah is famous here in the UK for her skills as a property developer on shows such as Property Ladder and is the author of many best selling property related books.

    But to us Sarah is a shed fan this will be the third year that The Beeny has been a judge and we are very happy to have her back.

    In terms of judges, Shed Week 2009 is starting to take speed what with Chris Evans becoming a judge the other week.

    Iam in discussion with a couple of international judges and Iam sure Shedworking hero, Alex will gives us his take as a judge as well!

    If you are a company or organisation interested in sponsoring Shed Week 2009, get in touch with me and I will send you details once I have finalised this that and the other

    Topless Beeny caught in riptide

    The Mirror reports that sheddie favourite and shed of the year judge Sarah Beeny had a close call while on hols recently.

    TV presenter Sarah Beeny had to be rescued from the sea after being caught in a deadly rip-tide.

    The embarrassed host of Property Ladder was swept out to sea wearing “a very small G-string” during a break in Tunisia.

    Sarah said she had been sunbathing topless when she decided to move to a better spot along the beach and started to walk there along the water’s edge.

    But she got caught in the strong current and was carried out to sea.

    “I got pulled in by the rip-tide wearing a very small G-string and nothing else,” she said. “I panicked and screamed loudly.”

    The 36-year-old host of the Channel 4 property show was eventually rescued “by a gorgeous man built like an Olympic athlete.”

    “By this time a huge crowd had gathered along the beach to watch the spectacle of a man carrying an almost naked woman out of the sea,” she said. “I was massively embarrassed.”

    What our judges say about Shed week

    You may have noticed the panel on the right with some quotes in, I thought I would get them in one place.

    ‘Another exciting year for sheddies - this competition is a beautiful example of how the British are not just skilled craftsmen but have great imaginations not to mention excellent senses of humour’
    Sarah Beeny

    The beauty of a garden office is that it combines the popular yearning for a pastoral ideal with the practicalities of technological development and guards our privacy in the way that an open-plan office – even if you call it something exciting like a ‘den’ or a ‘hive’ – never can. .
    Alex from shedworking.co.uk

    It’s fantastic that beach huts are getting in on the competition this year. Unlike sheddies, beach hut owners often have to work within restrictions about size and colour yet they still manage to create some wonderfully individual seaside hideaways.’ Dr Kathryn Ferry

    ‘My shed is much more than a place to store the garden tools.’ - Tony : Shed of the year 2007 winner

    Who Will be Shed of the Year 2008? Tardis, Beach Hut or Humble Shed.

    Official Shed Partner For Shed Week 2008

    Share your shed for “Shed of the Year 2008″ and win £500 worth of prizes.

    The race is on to win the coveted Shed of the Year title which will be held this summer as part of the second National Shed Week.

    garden-buildings-direct

    We are very pleased to announce that one of the UK’s leading online garden building companies, Garden Buildings Directwill be the official sponsor and shed partner for this year’s Shed Week and will be providing the grand prize for the Shed of the Year Competition.

    The grand prize will total £500 and the winner will be able to choose products from Garden Buildings Direct or products from one of their sister websites selling extensive ranges of garden furniture, outdoor toys, fitness equipment and BBQ’s.

    Organised by the internationally famous readersheds.co.uk, National Shed Week (which runs from July 7 until July 13 2008) will celebrate one of the cornerstones of British culture, the not so humble Garden Shed.

    Can this year’s sheddies beat the wonderful and unique sheds that we showcased in the inaugural Shed Week last year, including the amazing Shed of the Year 2007 which was a Roman Temple built by Tony Rogers?

    This year’s judges are property guru Sarah Beeny, wind-up radio inventor Trevor Baylis, Professor of beach huts Kathryn Ferry and Shedworking expert Alex Johnson, Eco-architect Lloyd Alter and to give his sheddies eye view last years winner Tony Rogers.

    Sheddies are still welcome to “Share their Sheds” and can enter their buildings on the website ready for the judging in Late June.

    About the sponsor
    Garden Buildings Direct is part of a number of websites owned by Kybotech Ltd started in 2000, however the business family tree goes back to 1878. Charles & William Walton are the 5th generation of the Walton family connected with the manufacturing of garden buildings and garden related products, based in Sutton-on-Trent the centre for garden buildings since 1927.

    They are an online retailer who successfully operate a family of home, garden and leisure retail brands:

    Simply Garden Furniture

    Outdoor Toys Direct

    Flaming Barbecues

    Garden Centre Direct

    Simply Fitness Equipment

    billyoh.com

    Their main product lines go under the brand name of BillyOh.com with ranges of Wooden Sheds, Plastic Garden Sheds, Metal Garden Sheds, Summerhouses, Metal Greenhouses, Wooden Garden Storage, Plastic Garden Storage, Gazebos, Home Offices, Shed Security, Shed Electrics and Arbours as well as garden furniture and BBQ’s.

    About National Shed Week

    This is the second year we have run the competition which pits wooden sheds against TARDIS, garden offices against beach huts in a battle royal to win the title of Shed of the Year 2008.

    After the success of last year’s Shed Week and the great reaction we got from press and the public, Sarah Beeny has agreed to become a judge again, along with inventor and entrepreneur Trevor Baylis.

    They are joined by Shedworking expert Alex Johnson, Kathryn Ferry who is a beach hut expert and Treehugger and Eco-housing guru Lloyd Alter.

    Contact us

    To get access to hires images and more information on Shed week go to our press section

    Competition Terms and Conditions.

    Judge Q and A : Sarah Beeny

    Last year’s and of course one of the great 2008 judges Sarah Beeny has answered my questions.

    Sarah Beeny

    Q) With the increase in self-builds and property development moving
    into the garden space, how do you think this will effect sheddies.

    It just goes to prove that sheddies are leaders in fashion not followers!

    Q) What one bit of advice would you give to potential developers?

    Overestimate how much it will cost, overestimate how long it will take and underestimate how much you will sell it for.

    Q) Is the fashion for building downwards (ie basements and lower) especially in London really a cry for help and the need for a shed?

    Absolutely clearly if they could fit a shed in their garden they would be unlikely to be building a basement.

    Q) You are seen as the sheddies favourite but who are you inspirations?

    Dolly Parton - for being just fabulous

    Q) What would be your ultimate bolthole/shed-away-from-it-all and
    where would it be?

    Sometimes I think the perfect shed would be on a cliff top in a terrible storm but I am torn between thinking it would be horribly depressing or horribly romantic

    Q) If your shed was on fire what would be the first thing you would
    save?

    I keep old digital camera cards there - that would be number one on my list.

    Sarah is currently filming Property Ladder for Channel4, she is also founder of cult dating website www.mysinglefriend.com

    Join the forum discussion on this post - (1) Posts

    Radio 1, the Beeny and her love of sheds

    I have had lots of emails from people, to say that Sheddies favorite Sarah Beeny was on the Scott Mills show today on the National Radio 1, talking about her many assets and her love of sheds, we all know that Sarah loves here sheds, that’s why she is one of the Shed judges from this Year’s shed of the year.. but its great that she is telling the world about it as well, great publicity for Shed week and readersheds, many thanks Beeny we can’t buy publicity like that! (the shed mug is in the post!)

    The first guest and property expert, Sarah Beeny, talks about possible reasons why people watch her show, other than for building advice!

    Sarah also talked about her love of sheds

    We had had 5 new sheds since the show was aired, and hopefully we will get a lot more, it’s great that the younger sheddi are realizing that Sheds are great spaces and not just places for storing your garden tools and adult magazines.

    you can listen again using the power of the interweb here.

    Win Sarah Beeny….

    Well in fact not the Shed of the Year Judge Sarah Beeny herself (which would be great) but the revised for 2008 book “Sarah Beeny’s Price the Job”, our people(me) talked to her people and we have managed to get 4 copies to give away.

    Click here to enter.

    Good luck and wossname

    Happy birthday to the Beeny

    Sheddies favorite and of course shed of the year judge Sarah Beeny is having a birthday today.

    We would like to sing happy shedday to the Beeny and hope she has a great day.

    Shed of the year judge - Sarah Beeny

    I’m very happy to announce that “the Beeny”, has agreed to be a judge again for the finals of Shed of the Year 2008, which will be in National Shed Week, from 7th July.

    Sarah gave us a lot of support for our first every Shed week and Shed of the Year earlier this year, and of course her sheddiness, helped her to win our shed week vote, as most people would like to show her around their shed and no doubt she had something to do with the press taking notice of last years competition.

    Even though shed week is ages away, having Sarah Beeny sign up and of course Trevor Baylis last week has got me a little bit wossname and I can’t wait for it to start.

    of course If anyone knows a celebrity with an interest in sheds, then contact me as more the merrier.