Outside the Box

Backyard Products LLC

As more gear fills our garages, sheds continue to spring up in backyards as a way for us to clear some of that clutter. But you no longer need to settle for the barn-style roofs, storage-locker doors and drab siding that was typical when we last reviewed this product category 5 years ago. New products blend in with your residential surroundings. But what’s the point of having a nice-looking storage solution if you can’t find the things that you stored inside it? So, manufacturers now give you better ways to prevent your shed from becoming organized chaos.

SOME PLACE LIKE HOME. Large sheds (which cover more than 36 square feet of space) that look more at home in your backyard are now available at just about any price. Five years ago you needed to buy a wood kit or a custom-built shed at a minimum of $1,000 to get that residential look. Today several plastic-shed manufacturers carry models that have design features that resemble elements that might be found on a typical home for as little as $600. These new models have walls that look like the siding on a house and a roof that appears to have shingles. Plus, the shed doors bear faux wood designs and, in some cases, windows in the door or sidelites (the windows on either side of the door). Spiffy.

At much higher prices, you now have the ability to customize your shed to match specific elements of your own home more closely without relying solely on small, local independent dealers or built-to-order shops. Barrette’s Homestyles line of sheds includes optional vinyl-siding kits in three colors, which, Barrette claims, match 80 percent of the home siding that is sold today. To match the other 20 percent, you can buy your own siding and install it on the shed. That’s pretty cool, but this newfound freedom comes at a premium price. A 10-foot-by-8-foot version of the shed, which is the smallest and least expensive size that is in the line, costs $2,495, plus $313 for the siding. Yikes!

As for your shed’s roof, a few national kit and installed-shed manufacturers now provide “architectural” shingles, which means that the shingles overlap and that the depth of the shingle varies. These shingles are standard on models that start around $1,700, but a few sheds that cost as little as $900 will let you add it as an option—typically for about $70 on a 10-foot-by-8-foot shed. That’s nice, but you should know that buying your own shingles separately will run only about $30.

Manufacturers aren’t concentrating solely on the exterior of their sheds. Several changed their nonwood models to more easily accommodate storage accessories, such as shelving, so you can keep your stored items better organized.

For example, in its redesigned Big Max shed ($599), Rubbermaid added holes in reinforced areas on the interior walls where you can insert wall anchors for shelf holders or pegboard, which has long been a feature of wood sheds. Barrette’s vinyl Homestyles line takes organization a step further by including molded receptacles where you can insert two-by-fours and create the interior-storage flexibility that’s typical of a wood shed.

And we weren’t surprised to learn that shed manufacturers have taken the logical step of providing their own interior-storage accessories. These typically are sold as packages or kits, but Backyard Products, which makes the Handy Home, Heartland and Yardline brands, and Lifetime now include shelves with a few of their shed lines that start at around $1,000. A typical shelving kit starts at around $80 and includes a straight shelf, two corner shelves, a peg strip with metal tool hooks and a tool holder. Those are enough accessories to fill the side of a 10-foot-by-8-foot shed. Manufacturers say their storage systems save space, because they can be mounted on the wall, but a simple free-standing shelf set will accomplish the same thing for about half as much.