UK girl gave dad £500 to build mushroom house; it later won Shed of the Year
A 12-year-old girl's request for a mushroom-shaped playhouse led her father to build an award-winning structure in their garden. The project eventually won the 2017 Cuprinol Shed of the Year competition.
Why it matters
The story highlights creative DIY culture and the value of family-driven architectural projects.
A 12-year-old girl from Surrey, England, gave her father £500 from her savings and asked him to build a house shaped like a mushroom in their back garden. Her father, Ben Swanborough, took up the challenge and built a two-storey wooden hideaway with a trapdoor, stained-glass windows and a glass floor overlooking a stream. The unusual structure later won the overall title in the 2017 Cuprinol Shed of the Year competition.The Mushroom Shed, also known as the Mushroom House, was selected from a record 2,963 entries in the tenth edition of the annual competition, as per the information on Shedblog. The event attracted 26,571 public votes, with the final winner announced by George Clarke during Channel 4's Amazing Spaces Shed of the Yearprogramme.What began as a request from Swanborough's daughter eventually became a place where the family could spend time together and entertain friends.
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