A review of the Forest Garden Pent Retreat Shed and installation

Disclaimer: Our Forest Garden Pent Retreat Shed was installed to review free of charge, but words and pictures are mine.

Our garden is awesome (unless you are tasked with mowing it. So I hear) but one thing it lacks is space to store stuff – like all the tools needed to take care of it all. The two sheds which were here when we moved in are 1) terrible, and 2) worse. Neither are structurally sound or water tight, they have ivy growing right through them and basically although they have a rustic look going on from the outside, they’re not actually much good for keeping anything in unless you don’t particularly value it. As sheds go, I’d say that’s a pretty important function.

A new shed was always on the list of things to get but, sadly, down near the bottom under an ever growing list of other more pressing things; such is life. However, when offered the chance to have a BRAND NEW SHED, delivered and assembled, I was absolutely on board.

Who wouldn’t be?

Our Forest Garden Pent Retreat Shed

The Forest Garden Pent Retreat Shed is a pretty little cottage garden style shed with a pent (sloped) roof. It measures 186cm wide (just over 6ft), 226cm long (just under 8ft) and 260cm tall. The shed is made of high-quality UK-sourced, pressure treated Redwood Lap Board, made from FSC certified sustainable timber. Ours came factory painted in a lovely sagey colour, ‘Moss Green’, although that’s not for you, the Retreat Shed range from Forest Garden is also available in Pebble Grey and Natural Cream.

The slanted pent roof of the Forest Garden Pent Retreat Shed is made from beautiful Canadian Red Cedar Shingles. These are quite vibrant at the moment, but over time will fade to a subtle grey.

The shed has a sturdy timber floor, a lockable glazed from door and four toughened glass windows, two of which open to let air circulate.

The full RRP of the shed is around £3700, including expert construction (excluding the base). It comes with a 15 year anti-rot guarantee.

Installation of the Forest Garden Pent Retreat Shed

Not very handy? There’s no need to worry. Expert assembly of the Forest Garden Retreat Shed is included in the price; all you need is a flat bit of land (and it does have to be flat) ready for it to be built on.

I was told to expect a two-man team, however just one poor guy showed up on his own as his co-worker had an emergency. I would have offered to help, you know, but shed building isn’t really in my skill set so all I could so was offer a tea and leave him to it.

The shed’s panels and roof came pre-painted and ready assembled, so once it was transported up the garden and the base was built it didn’t actually take long at all (although I imagine it’s a lot faster with two) and came together quickly.

The whole shed is very sturdy, with walls made from 10mm thick timber and the pent roof from 12mm thick timber, and the floor is mounted on pressure treated bearers to keep it off the floor so it won’t rot.

Features of the Forest Garden Pent Retreat Shed

Forest Garden Pent Retreat Shed is worth considering for a lot of reasons.

Size-wise, it’s a perfect for pretty much any type of garden.

The inside of the shed is big enough to store quite a bit of stuff; we’ve put some of our BigDug racking in there to store the kids’ outdoor toys and garden toold, along with furniture that we want to keep dry. Currently, the kids also enjoy using it as a den. During the winter months, it’ll be used to store away the outdoor furniture that would otherwise be left out in the elements.

The four windows (two of which open, as below), glazed doors and painted exterior make it look more like a posh garden room than just your average storage shed; it would also make a lovely summer house or potting shed. The door comes with a lock and two keys so you can lock away your things in safely.

While we are using solar lights to illuminate it in the dark (and there is a lot of choice these days!) if it wasn’t too far from the house I’d consider getting electricity there so I could use it as a little writing space, or maybe even pop a fridge in for summer evenings and make it into a garden bar.

We haven’t quite finished planting around it but with a few touches here and there it already feels too pretty to just store things in and I’m determined it won’t become a dumping ground like most sheds!

The Pent Retreat Shed is an attractive and really useful addition to our garden. I can’t wait for summer to get here so we can put it to even better use!

The Pent Retreat shed has an RRP of £3,699.99 including installation.

You can buy it – and browse the other Forest Garden shed – here.