Whatever you want to call them, the recent trend for garden rooms seems to have gone to another level as homeowners show increasing interest in offices, studios and even car ports that are an investment. They want a garden building that will enhance their property and look lovely as well as being long-lasting, low maintenance and practical.
All these boxes can be ticked with a Verdante room according to Welsh Oak Frame's general manager Mark Jones, who practically crows with delight as he reports that enquiries are flooding in.
"We have got something pretty damn special," he says after 5,500 brochures flew off the Hampton Court stand. "Just watch this space."
In fact "space" is a good description for the garden buildings that the family-owned firm in Caersws, Powys, produce because the golden-hued triangular capsules can be configured to fill as much or as little space as you want.
The brains behind the company, which has been making oak-frame houses for 40 years, are brothers Paul and John Edmunds. Paul is a builder and John an architect and when the market for houses slowed down because new mortgages became scarce they created the Arboreta brand to specialise in such smaller structures as sun rooms and orangeries.
"House extensions are a difficult type of market but we were listening to customers, and the message kept coming, over and over again that people wanted something that didn't need planning permission," says Mark.
"They wanted something they could use as a guest room or because they had just had a child and wanted somewhere to get away from everything, or wanted to set up a business at home."
Verdante rooms do not need foundations, they sit on a pallet-like base and, like other garden structures under four metres high, they do not need planning permission unless you live in a designated area where permitted development rights are restricted.
These include conservation areas, national parks, areas of outstanding natural beauty and the Norfolk or Suffolk Broads, where you may need planning permission.
We have got something pretty damn special
Welsh Oak Frame's general manager Mark Jones
Listed buildings may also have different planning permission requirements.
Mark says: "When you have permitted development you still have to submit an application and it takes about a month to come through but you don't have to submit plans. You just request a development certificate outlining what you want to do."
Originally Verdante rooms were designed as alfresco dining areas but, from talking to customers, the company realised the rooms could have other uses.
"We knew there was a market for garden offices or gyms but there is also a market for three generations to live together but independently," says Mark.
He suggests the Verdant© rooms could help to provide a solution as guest rooms, although he points out that you would not be able to live full-time in a Verdante room, or any other garden chalet for that matter.
Apart from the double bay pergola for outdoor eating, which costs from Ј12,250, Verdante rooms are designed around a hub with four gables, or triangular walls.
"You can have a central hub and then extend off any of the four gables outwards to form another Verdante room, or you can just have the extension and not have the hub at all, it depends on how much space you've got," says Mark.
A single, enclosed Verdante room starts at Ј31,750 and a larger but open room starts at Ј39,000.
A hub with four rooms going off it starts at Ј68,250.
The central hub can be open to the elements or closed off with a door and windows, insulated or uninsulated, depending on what you want to use the building for.
"That is the concept that people really love. You've got a central hub and up to four gables at 90 degrees to each other, which creates an interesting shape.
"The dynamics of the space inside are weird: it is like a Tardis because there is so much space," says Mark.
"You would never have thought that four triangles together could create so much space and that is the cleverness of the design." Welsh Oak Frame, like other companies that make A-frame buildings, uses traditional carpentry.
"The technology has been around for 700 years," says Mark, who adds that there is a longevity about oak that people find irresistible.
"How long does it last? A damn sight longer than you or me," he says.
The Verdant© room's wow factor has won enquiries from holiday parks, a market that Welsh Oak Frame had not even considered.
The legal aspects have to be worked out before it goes any further but the Verdant© room designers seem to have hit on a winner.
"We are almost giddy as to which way to go with it," declares Mark, as he excuses himself to deal with yet another enquiry
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