Great ideas for outdoor rooms

Reinvent your yard with a new deck, patio, cottage, dining room, or curl-up space

19 favorite garden cottages and sheds

Creative ideas for backyard retreats, detached home offices, and reinvented sheds

William P. Wright

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Recycled retreat

Lisa Phipps has a knack for using found materials in fresh ways.

She started recycling in earnest when she moved to a small farmhouse in Port Orchard, Washington. Like Virginia Woolf, Lisa wanted a room of her own. Money was tight, so she and her husband, Frank, used salvaged materials to build a shed.

The more you recycle, the more the ideas flow, Lisa says. “You just have to loosen up and have fun.”

See more of her garden retreat