Introducing the Winner of Shed of the Season 2025

This autumn marked the launch of our very first Shed of the Season competition, a celebration of the creativity and pride that our customers pour into their garden buildings. 

Open exclusively to owners of Crane sheds, we invited customers to share seasonal images of their Superior, Classic and National Trust sheds, capturing the charm of autumn in their gardens.

After a sun-filled summer, forecasts promised an autumn of vivid colour, and it certainly didn’t disappoint. Entries came in thick and fast, each one showing the many ways our sheds become part of daily life. We received everything from cleverly insulated storage spaces, complete with recycled cladding and fishing gear, to hobby retreats used for aircraft modelling, and garden sanctuaries evolved from lockdown projects.

With such a wonderful range of submissions, our judging panel had the challenging task of narrowing down their favourites. Each judge put forward their own shortlist, and after much thoughtful discussion, one entry stood out across every part of our criteria.

And so, we are delighted to announce that Dr Dianne Gull from Cumnor has been chosen as the winner of our inaugural Shed of the Season competition!

Dianne’s winning shed stands proudly at the bottom of her immaculate garden in the heart of Cumnor, where she and her husband, Professor Keith Gull, have lived for many years. The couple replaced their old, windowless shed during lockdown, after discovering it had become home to rats. They chose a 2.8 x 4.0m Superior Shed, with a roof overhang, superior double doors with windows, electrical pack and security pack. Finished with shiplap cladding painted in Farrow & Ball paint shade “Pigeon”, it feels perfectly placed and immediately at home in its setting.

Dianne said: “I was worried about men working in the garden ruining my borders, but I needn’t have been. The whole Crane experience was wonderful, they gently guided me through what I needed with no hard sell at all.”

Painted to perfectly match the colour of the couple’s house windows, the new shed is a working space for Dianne’s seedlings and tools. In summer, it takes on another role: the ‘G&T shed’, where the pair, along with their friends, sit with an aperitif. They enjoy watching the sunshine reflecting off the walls of the shed and gazing out across the open views of the neighbour’s fields beyond…and pretending they belong to them!

Dianne said: “The shed has made such a difference. It’s practical, looks beautiful, and it completes the garden. What’s not to like!”

A keen gardener who spends “every available minute”  tending her plants, Dianne opens her garden twice a year as part of the National Garden Scheme – for snowdrops in winter, and for a vibrant early-summer display that attracts more than 100 visitors. This year, she was presented with an engraved trowel by the NGS in recognition of ten years of fundraising.

She plans to display her bespoke Shed of the Season plaque, handmade from hardwood in Crane’s Norfolk workshop, on a stand next to the shed.

The Shed of the Season competition has been a wonderful reminder of how much care and creativity our customers bring to their spaces. We’ve loved seeing the individuality behind each entry, and we’re already looking forward to the next of our seasonal competitions. 

To carry on being inspired, visit our Superior Shed gallery here.