I Built My Dream Terrarium Studio From Scratch

Last year I turned the spare bedroom in my house into a terrarium studio. I love what I've been able to create in this small room but I've always known that it's not going to be mine forever and that it's waiting for something more important. Now that it's time to move out of this room I've taken on the ambitious task of creating something of my own at the bottom of the garden. A ready-made kit style garden office would be the easy option but they simply don't fit the dimensions that I've got available. That leaves me with one option, to completely design and build the room by myself from the ground up. The first step is to dig the ground and prepare the foundations. Luckily there's an existing concrete base where there used to be an old shed so I can use this and dig out some more footings for the extended sides. I should mention that this video isn't a tutorial and I'm certainly no professional. I'm just simply going to document the building process and how I go about creating the space. Now that all the holes have been dug I'm adding a layer of hard core at the base of each one to give the concrete something solid to sit on. With the footings set I can now start bedding some concrete blocks into mortar. The challenge here is not only getting the blocks perfectly level but also at the exact same height as one another. With the foundations pretty much complete I can finally start work on the studio itself starting with the timber base. Because I live in England and I want to be able to use this studio year round, insulation is particularly important. The goal is to make this room as well insulated as possible to keep the room at a stable temperature and the ecosystems nice and happy. Plus the better insulated it is the more cost effective it will be to heat during the colder months. Now that the base is complete I can move on to framing the walls. This is the stage where the studio will finally start to rise out the ground and start to feel like a real room. Next I'm sheathing the frame with OSB. This helps stiffen the structure up and lock everything square. Now comes one of the trickier jobs, standing the walls up and locking them together. Smaller sections of the building like this one are pretty straightforward and the only difficult part is making sure everything's nice and square. For the larger sections like this one I'm using some wood to act as a brace and give me some support whilst I get it in place. Next I'm making the ridge board. This runs along the peak and gives each pair of rafters a central point to meet and be fixed to. It also helps keep them aligned as the roof comes together. I've cut a couple rafters and set them on the roof to see how they sit and join. The angle of these are crucial because they're going to set the final height of the building. Here in the UK I can't make this building any higher than 2.5 meters without needing planning permission which would be much more costly and time consuming. So this is the stage that it's really important that I'm below that threshold. With the length and angles perfect I can now use these pieces as a stencil for the rest. Now it's time to get the ridge board installed and start assembling the roof. With the ridge board in place, centered and level I can start getting the rafters installed. All the rafters are in and the roof is already feeling nice and solid. To make the roof even more secure I'm going to add some rafter ties that will help resist the outward force of the rafters and prevent the walls from spreading. These rafter ties will remain visible once the studio is finished so I'm using some square section timber that should become a nice feature in its own right. Now that the roof structure is fully framed I can start getting it sheathed with OSB. For the fascia and soffit I've gone for a nice grey finish. I think this would give the studio a modern look and contrast with the cladding really well. This is a breathable membrane and it's going to help protect the structure from wind and rain whilst allowing trapped moisture to still escape. Next I'm going to start installing the windows and door. This is one of those stages that instantly makes the build feel much more like a finished room. I've decided to spend a bit extra and gone for triple glazing in the windows and door just to try and keep this room as warm as possible in the colder months. For the exterior I've chosen composite cladding which I'm installing vertically. I think this orientation really helps complement the narrow windows at the front of the studio. Vertical cladding like this would usually require two layers of battens to create an air gap. These boards have a ventilation gap built in which helps save on time and materials. Now that the cladding's on the exterior has finally came together. I think the contrast between the two finishes works really well and I'm really happy with how it's looking. The exterior of the building is now pretty much finished. I've even installed gutters along both sides of the roof that channel the rainwater into a collection butt for future use. For the roof I installed an EPDM rubber membrane instead of traditional roofing felt. It costs a bit more but it should last a lot longer and require very little maintenance. Apologies if the build's jumped ahead a little. I'm on a really tight schedule and filming's taking a bit of a backseat. I've installed all the insulation on the inside of the building as well as a vapor barrier and got cracking on with the plaster boarding as well. I had an electrician here a couple days ago finishing all the electrics and now that that's done I can finish up on the plasterboard. I've jointed the plasterboard, sanded it down and now it's ready to paint. In my old studio I used a real dark green for the colour of the walls with the idea that it would make the tanks pop out and stand out a lot better. It did serve this purpose but it did make the room feel very dark and gloomy. For this studio I'm going to try and keep it as bright as possible and just go for clean white walls. For the flooring I've gone for a hardware and vinyl that should hold up well against spillages which are bound to happen in a room like this one. After all the work that's gone into this build the room itself is finally complete. Now I can start bringing in the shelving, tanks and equipment that will turn this room into a proper ecosystem studio. Getting all the tanks arranged certainly takes a bit of trial and error and although they've found their places now I'm sure the layout will change in the future. There's still a part of this story that I haven't explained. Why I needed to build this studio in the first place. I never intended my old studio to be permanent and I've always hoped that one day it would become something much more important. That day has finally arrived and we've transformed the room into our daughter's nursery. She arrived only a few weeks ago and since this entire build started because of her I feel like it's only right that she gets the first tour. This build has taken far more work than I expected which I think can be seen through the lack of uploads over the past few months which I do apologize for. But as you can see there's plenty of empty tanks and I've got some really cool ideas of what I can create inside them, so be sure to stick around. Thank you for sticking with me and thank you for watching.