Pump House No.2

When you’re a top designer and author in need of an inspirational garden office but spending silly money on a pre-built shepherd's hut seems, well, silly, then you best get creative. Which is exactly what our Martin Port has done. 

In creating his ‘vaguely 1940s/50s industrial inspired’ office, Martin scoured the local neighbourhood, looking to repurpose and reuse. His remarkable haul included metal-framed windows from a 90-year-old house, Parquet flooring from another local property and a ‘garage find’ door that he turned into a stable door by reinforcing it and then chopping it in half. He also fitted an old David Brown water pump with Villiers engine he’d rescued from Teddington Television Studios a few years ago. The hand-painted Pump House sign was a 15-minute evening job, while the industrial design Shaw chairs were £20. ‘The rest of it I already had, so the main cost was the structural wood and the corrugated cladding which is made from recycled glass fibres,’ says Martin..

The finished space certainly looks fit for purpose, and we’re looking forward to seeing all the wonderful work that Pump House No.2 inspires but we’ll have to ask Martin when the industrial coffee roaster is due to arrive?

Books by Martin Port