Dylan, 9, hangs out in his mother's Modern-Shed, which has come to have many uses.
Dylan, 9, hangs out in his mother’s Modern-Shed, which has come to have many uses.

EL CERRITO — When Anja and her husband Tom considered their need for more space, they looked at many different options at first.

The couple has lived in their two-bedroom, 840-square-foot home for the past seven years, but as their son, Dylan, has grown older, and Anja has pursued work from home, she and her husband knew they wanted more room.

“We started looking around our neighborhood for a bigger home,” recounts Anja about their earlier experiences. “The prices shut us out of that. So, we thought maybe we needed to build onto our house. But that was also a pretty big investment. When we looked at Modern-Shed, we thought, ‘This could work to relieve some of our needs.’”

Anja works two days a week part-time doing public relations work at an office, but for the rest of the week, she likes to be able to work from home.

She also makes jewelry, like bracelets, and her “stuff was all over the place” with her work primarily on the dining room table, she said.

The couple checked out a Modern-Shed owned by friends in Richmond, Calif., and fell even more in love with the idea.

“Everything just kind of came together,” Anja said. “It’s been nice to have a dedicated space where I can go out and focus.”

The Modern-Shed team built and installed the 10’ by 12’ shed in Anja and Tom’s backyard in three days in early December.

The 10' by 12' Modern-Shed home office/play room complements the Hakoshima/Richardson backyard well.
The 10′ by 12′ Modern-Shed home office/play room complements the family’s backyard well.
 “We’ve had remodeling projects in the past that took a long time,” Anja recalled. “I was dreading having a long process, but Modern-Shed was super fast. They were great guys to work with and courteous and nice, so that was great.”

The Modern-Shed fits in well with the home — the shed’s red color matches accents inside and outside of their house — and the backyard, which the couple remodeled about two years ago.

“We love the red,” Anja said. “Our front door is red and in our kitchen we have a little touch of that, too, so it’s nice to bring it out here. Inside, we went with the white sheetrock wall and bamboo flooring, so it’s very light. With all the light from the windows, it always feels really sunny and nice and warm.”

The Modern-Shed doubles as both a work space for Anja and a play room Dylan, 9, when he has his friends over.

“It’s got a few different uses,” Anja said. “My son, when he has friends that come over, they can come out and hang out. We have the wireless and TV hooked up for movie night. They can hang in their own little space. We thought in a pinch if we have someone over to visit, we could have them stay out there or we could stay out there.”

Anja chose white sheetrock and bamboo flooring to give her Modern-Shed a light and warm feel.
Anja chose white sheetrock and bamboo flooring to give her Modern-Shed a light and warm feel.

Anja said the couple would consider looking to Modern-Shed again for future needs.

“It has a really nice feel to it,” she said. “Somewhere down the road, we might need something else … This feels like you’re in a little different place.”