Surrey Homes | SH37 | November 2017 | Gift supplement inside

Above: Ben sourced the Mushroom House’s quirky windows from salvage fairs. He found the stained glass window at a car boot sale
to use,” Ben explains. “I used four big oak sleepers to make
the frame and keep it steady and strong, then I constructed
an oak frame for the top floor with treated softwood and
cedar too. The roof and walls are clad in cedar tiles.”
The Mushroom House couldn’t be built all in one go,
so had to be completed in stages, when time and resources
allowed. Ben remembers: “Elsie would come home from
school each time with a smile on her face asking to help.”
They got a bit carried away with some of the ideas, so the
original £500 didn’t go very far. The building extends out
over a small river and so Ben has installed a window in
the floor, so that you can look down into the water.
It is Elsie’s continued inspiration and interest that not
only got the project off the ground, but launched into the
stratosphere. “We were watching George Clarke’s Amazing
Spaces one day,” says Ben. “Elsie said; ‘Dad, do you think
we could get the Mushroom House on? We had to send
designs and plans – not that I had any!” He laughs, “So
we sent pictures. They said, ‘we love it! It’s perfect for
Shed of the Year’. And then the pressure was really on.”
“In the end they gave us some more time,” Ben says, “and
we were the last to be photographed, which helped.” Last,
but patently not the least. Since winning, the mushroom
shed has had lots of media attention. “It’s been all over
the place, national newspapers, BBC Radio 2, even on the
ITV news. Who knows where it will lead… Last year’s
winner now makes sheds for other people and has brought
out a book. You just don’t know what will happen from
this.” Ben is hoping that winning the title will help to
launch a business making bespoke garden buildings. “It
would be great,” he says, “I’ve really enjoyed making the
Mushroom House and I’d love to do some other projects.”
Although not trained in design, Ben’s creative flair must
have something to do with the fact his great uncle was Thomas
Cooper Gotch, an English Pre-Raphaelite painter and book
illustrator. Elsie and her older brother Sebastian are also good
at art. “I’ve definitely inherited the ‘quirky junk shop finds’
side of things from my mother. I love going round junk
yards, looking on Ebay, finding things.” The vintage inspired,
quirky look is not just confined to Ben’s award-winning
shed, however. It turns out that the interior of their house
in the pretty village of Chiddingfold is just as unique.
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