Cuprinol Shed of the Year 2025 – The Tiny Workshop

• London-based engineer wins this year’s Cuprinol Shed of the Year competition with ‘The Tiny Workshop’, thanks to “ingenious” space-saving design
• Celebrating its 19^th year, Mike Robinson wins an overnight nature getaway, as well as an £1,000 cash prize and Cuprinol product

Mike Robinson, an engineer from Plumstead, South-East London, has taken top spot in the garden’s most coveted competition, Cuprinol Shed of the Year. His space-saving super structure, ‘The Tiny Workshop’, was crowned champ after coming top of the ‘Workshop/Studio’ category following public voting and selected as overall winner by a judging panel.

‘The Tiny Workshop’ may be small, but it is mighty. Designed to slot neatly into a garden with limited room, it wowed judges with its imaginative use of space. With off-the-shelf sheds too big for his plot, Mike built the shed using two sets of heavy-duty steel shelving, bolted together and clad with wood painted in Cuprinol Garden Shades – Black Ash. Splashes of colour have also been added throughout, with the inside doors and pallet seating decorated with Cuprinol Garden Shades – Wild Thyme, and saw horses and a ladder finished with Emerald Stone.

Two doors flap open at the bottom and top to provide flooring and handy rain protection, with a smart overhanging green roof to store garden tools and welcome nature to the garden.

Built over the course of a few weekends, the industrial-feeling shed wears multiple hats: toolshed, workshop, storage space – and the perfect place to potter on a long summer’s evening: “We needed a good bit of storage for the garden necessities. Off-the-shelf options would have taken up too much room so went with a DIY design and build,” Mike explains. “I think ‘The Tiny Workshop’ has worked a treat. It’s a creative space where I can tinker and mend, as well as have the storage space for garden stuff, kids’ games and tools.

“I designed brackets for the old spanner handles with a 3D printer – they’re useful and give a clue to what is inside. The green roof will come into its own in the next year or so too, and I’m looking forward to seeing it come to life – the shed really is the gift that keeps on giving! I’m so happy the judges loved it too, and can’t believe I actually won.”

Category Winners 2025

This year’s winner is a special shed, but of course all the other category winners are in their own unique way: that’s why after 19 years it never gets any easier to choose the best shed. I love them all as they are all very, very different.

Budget

Kate Jenkins – The Beach Hut at The Bottom of the Garden

Unexpected/Unique

Anne Meadows – Far Meadow Cabin

Eco-Haven

Alexandra Foxley-Wood – The Plotting Shed

Pub & Entertainment

Ben Davies – Cushty’s

Cabin/Summerhouse

Ash Robertson – Redondo Trading

Simple but Effective

Robbi Chaudhuri – The Homeshed

Colourful

Glen Parker – Colourful Cuban Cabin

Read More on the official newsletter of Shed of the year – Behind the Shed

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