Garden Art Studio Builders in East Dulwich and South London
CanaCabins builds bespoke art studios in gardens across East Dulwich, Dulwich, Peckham and Herne Hill. A studio in the garden gives you somewhere to work that you do not have to clear away at the end of the day.
- Based in East Dulwich, SE22
- 27 completed projects across South London
- Free site visit and written estimate, no obligation
Get a free estimate
Tell us what you are planning and we will arrange a visit to your garden.
What makes a studio different from a garden room
An art studio is not just a garden room with an easel in it. The things that matter are different:
- Light. North light is steady and does not shift colour through the day. Where the garden allows it, we orient glazing and rooflights to get you that.
- Ventilation. Solvents, oils, fixatives and kilns all need air moving through the space.
- Wall space. Studios need blank wall as much as they need glass, for storage, racking and work in progress.
- Floors. Something you can drop paint and clay on without worrying.
- Power. Enough sockets, in the right places, for kilns, wheels, compressors or lighting rigs.
We work these out with you at the design stage, because they are difficult and expensive to retrofit.
Studios we have built
On Crystal Palace Road we built a studio for a client who is an enthusiastic musician and sound recordist, where the priority was acoustic separation rather than light. The principle is the same: the building follows the work that happens inside it.
See the project gallery for photographs.
How the build works
- Site visit and estimate. We come to your garden, talk through how you want to use the space, and give you a written estimate.
- Design. We draw up the building around your garden, your budget and any planning constraints.
- Groundwork and base. Foundations suited to your ground conditions and access.
- Structure and cladding. Frame, insulation, roofing, windows, doors and cladding.
- First and second fix. Electrics, lighting, internal finishes and decoration.
- Snagging and handover. We walk the finished build with you and put right anything that is not right.
Planning permission for a garden building
Most garden rooms and garden offices in South London are built under permitted development, which means no planning application is needed. The usual conditions are that the building sits behind the front of your house, covers no more than half your garden, stays single storey, and keeps to a maximum height of 2.5 metres where it is within two metres of a boundary.
There are exceptions. Parts of Dulwich, Herne Hill and Camberwell fall inside conservation areas, and listed buildings have their own rules. We check this with you at the site visit, and if an application is needed we will tell you before you commit to anything.
Always confirm your own situation with Southwark, Lambeth or your local planning authority. We can point you at the right department.
Related builds
We also build garden rooms, garden offices, garden yoga studios and garden sheds.
Book a free site visit
Every CanaCabins build starts with a visit to your garden. We look at access, ground conditions, boundaries and how you want to use the space, then give you an honest estimate with no obligation.
We build across East Dulwich, Dulwich, Peckham, Nunhead, Herne Hill, Camberwell, Forest Hill, Tulse Hill, Brixton, Honor Oak and Crystal Palace.