London-based engineer wins this year’s Cuprinol Shed of the Year competition with ‘The Tiny Workshop’, thanks to “ingenious” space-saving design
Celebrating its 19th year, Mike Robinson wins an overnight nature getaway, as well as an £1,000 cash prize and Cuprinol product
Mike Robinson, an engineer from Plumstead, South-East London, has taken top spot in the garden’s most coveted competition, Cuprinol Shed of the Year. His space-saving super structure, ‘The Tiny Workshop’, was crowned champ after coming top of the ‘Workshop/Studio’ category following public voting and selected as overall winner by a judging panel.
‘The Tiny Workshop’ may be small, but it is mighty. Designed to slot neatly into a garden with limited room, it wowed judges with its imaginative use of space. With off-the-shelf sheds too big for his plot, Mike built the shed using two sets of heavy-duty steel shelving, bolted together and clad with wood painted in Cuprinol Garden Shades - Black Ash. Splashes of colour have also been added throughout, with the inside doors and pallet seating decorated with Cuprinol Garden Shades – Wild Thyme, and saw horses and a ladder finished with Emerald Stone.
Two doors flap open at the bottom and top to provide flooring and handy rain protection, with a smart overhanging green roof to store garden tools and welcome nature to the garden.
Built over the course of a few weekends, the industrial-feeling shed wears multiple hats: toolshed, workshop, storage space – and the perfect place to potter on a long summer’s evening: “We needed a good bit of storage for the garden necessities. Off-the-shelf options would have taken up too much room so went with a DIY design and build,” Mike explains. “I think ‘The Tiny Workshop’ has worked a treat. It’s a creative space where I can tinker and mend, as well as have the storage space for garden stuff, kids’ games and tools.
“I designed brackets for the old spanner handles with a 3D printer – they’re useful and give a clue to what is inside. The green roof will come into its own in the next year or so too, and I’m looking forward to seeing it come to life – the shed really is the gift that keeps on giving! I’m so happy the judges loved it too, and can’t believe I actually won.”
Founder and head judge of Cuprinol Shed of the Year, Andrew Wilcox, says: “In a difficult time of paying more and getting less, ‘The Tiny Workshop’ is a shining example of what can be achieved even in the most compact of spaces.
“This year’s winner takes the competition back to its roots of championing the simple yet effective. Traditionally, sheds have just been seen as somewhere to store your tools, or perhaps somewhere to potter and play. ‘The Tiny Workshop’ takes this seemingly basic concept and turns into something so inspired but also still very practical, and truly nothing like we’ve seen before in this competition’s history. I hope Mike can inspire sheddies for years to come, and may they also enter the 20th Cuprinol Shed of the Year competition in 2026.”
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Category Winners 2025
This year’s winner is a special shed, but of course all the other category winners are in their own unique way: that’s why after 19 years it never gets any easier to choose the best shed. I love them all as they are all very, very different.
Budget
Kate Jenkins - The Beach Hut at The Bottom of the Garden
Unexpected/Unique
Anne Meadows – Far Meadow Cabin
Eco-Haven
Alexandra Foxley-Wood - The Plotting Shed
Pub & Entertainment
Cabin/Summerhouse
Ash Robertson – Redondo Trading
Simple but Effective
Robbi Chaudhuri – The Homeshed
Colourful
Glen Parker - Colourful Cuban Cabin
If you missed it > Cuprinol Shed of the year 2024 overall winner and Unexpected/Unique Category Winner
Wrinkly, Rusty and Retro
Wayne Dawber, a school art technician from Crewe, has been crowned champion in this year’s Cuprinol Shed of the Year competition. His shed ‘Wrinkly, Rusty and Retro’ soared past 160 other entrants to claim top spot, after being voted king of the ‘Unexpected/Unique’ category by the public, and selected as the winner by a judging panel.
This year’s victor built his winning shed by combining unusual and disregarded materials, such as corrugated metal from a torn-down stable roof, and windows from a recently demolished chapel. Most striking, however, is the hand-painted vintage signs he has painted the shed’s interior and exterior with, in line with a style he likes to call “industrial, ghost town chic.”
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Andrew Wilcox
(Founder & Head Judge, Shed of the year)
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