A 16×16 garden room gives you an impressive amount of space for working, relaxing or creating a genuinely multi-purpose room away from the house. At approximately 16ft x 16ft, there is room for several workstations, substantial furniture, storage, exercise equipment or separate working and leisure areas within the same building.
I’m Robin Antill, founder of 1st Choice Leisure Buildings, and I’ve worked with garden buildings since starting Marina Sheds in 1979. Together with my son Craig, who studied carpentry at Guildford College, we use that experience to help customers compare construction, insulation, glazing, layout and value before making a substantial purchase.
Browse our 16ft x 16ft garden rooms below or explore our complete garden rooms and garden offices range if you would like to compare other sizes and specifications.
Size: 16×16ft garden room or office · Construction: Quality redwood deal timber or LP® StrongCore™ cladding · Glazing: Toughened glass, with double glazing options · Floor & roof: Timber construction · Roof styles: Apex or pent · Installation: Free professional installation as standard.
Uses: Home office, studio, gym, games room, hobby room, teenage den or garden retreat · Insulation: Full insulation options for year-round use · Customisation: Bespoke designs, coloured paint finishes and double-door options · Services: Base building and electrical options available · See before you buy: Full-size garden rooms on display at our Surrey show site near Guildford, Woking and Ripley.
Need advice on a 16×16 garden room? Explore our 16×16 garden rooms or contact our experienced team for help with specification, insulation, glazing, base requirements, installation and bespoke design options.
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| Feature | Platinum Garden Rooms | Royal Garden Rooms |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | Home offices, hobbies, studios and garden retreats | Premium offices, studios and larger multi-purpose rooms |
| Price position | Lower initial investment | Premium specification and price |
| Popular models | Fleet Apex and Odiham Pent | Bletchley, Buckingham, Denham and Marlow |
| Typical sizes | Fleet and Odiham available up to approximately 16×12 ft | Royal models available up to approximately 20×12 ft |
| Insulation | Fully insulated Fleet and Odiham models with insulated walls and roof | Premium fully insulated construction |
| Double glazing | 14mm double glazing on Fleet and Odiham | Higher-specification double-glazed garden room range |
| Design choice | Apex Fleet or contemporary pent-roof Odiham | Wider choice of distinctive Royal designs and configurations |
| Why choose it? | You want an insulated garden office or room with an excellent balance of comfort, quality and price. | You want a more substantial garden room with premium specification and additional floor-space options. |
A 16×16 garden room has a nominal footprint of approximately 256 square feet, or around 23.8 square metres. That is a substantial amount of space and opens up possibilities well beyond a simple one-person garden office.
The finished internal dimensions will be smaller because of framing, insulation and internal lining, so always check the exact measurements for the individual building before planning furniture, equipment or the foundation.
Yes. A 16 x 16 office can comfortably accommodate several workstations when the layout is planned properly. Two people can have very generous working areas, while three or more smaller workstations may also be practical depending on the desks, storage and equipment required.
With a room of this size, I would think beyond the desks themselves. Allow for comfortable circulation, filing, printers, electrical sockets, internet equipment, lighting and somewhere for visitors or colleagues to sit if meetings will take place in the room.
One of the advantages of a 16ft x 16ft garden room is its square footprint. Large floor areas can still be awkward if the proportions are long and narrow, whereas a square room gives you much greater freedom to arrange furniture and create separate zones.
You could have several workstations on one side, storage on another and still retain a central seating or meeting area. Alternatively, one part of the room could be used as an office while another is used for exercise, hobbies, music or relaxation without necessarily requiring permanent internal partitions.
At this size, I would think carefully about how the room could be used in the future as well as how you intend to use it today. A large home office could later become a studio, gym, games room, family room or a combination of several different uses.
That flexibility is one reason it is worth planning doors, windows, electrical requirements and furniture before ordering. A few decisions made at the design stage can make a substantial difference to how adaptable the finished room will be over the years.
If you plan to occupy a room of this size regularly throughout the year, consider insulation. However, I would never decide based solely on the word “insulated”. Look at exactly what is included in the walls, floor, and roof, and compare the doors, glazing, and internal finish at the same time.
The 16×16 buildings currently shown on this page are from our Platinum Winchester range, with full insulation available as an option. You can also explore our wider insulated garden rooms and offices to understand the different insulation specifications available across our ranges.
I’m Robin Antill, founder of 1st Choice Leisure Buildings. I left school at 15 and started my own garden building business in 1979, trading as Marina Sheds. In those early years I made garden buildings, sold them, delivered them and dealt directly with the people who would use them, so I learnt the trade from the timber upwards rather than simply from manufacturers’ brochures.
I sold Marina Sheds in 1990, although unfortunately I did not receive all the money I was due from the sale. It was a difficult business lesson, but it did not end my involvement with garden buildings.
By 1992 we had expanded beyond traditional sheds to include summerhouses, garages, garden rooms and log cabins, and that wider direction led to the name Titan Garden Buildings. My son Craig joined me in 1992 after studying carpentry at Guildford College from 1990, bringing his practical carpentry knowledge and understanding of timber construction into the family business.
We sold Titan Garden Buildings in 1998 and in 2000 formed 1st Choice Leisure Buildings. Rather than manufacturing everything ourselves or being restricted to one manufacturer’s products, Craig and I wanted to use our experience to select quality garden buildings from different established manufacturers and give customers a genuine choice. Craig now runs the day-to-day business, and I continue to support him and the team whenever required. You can read more about 1st Choice Leisure Buildings and our history.
After working with garden buildings since 1979, I’ve learnt that two large rooms can look very similar online while being quite different when you compare their framing, cladding, flooring, roof, doors, glazing, insulation and overall construction.
With a 16×16 building, those decisions matter even more because this is a substantial purchase and a significant amount of garden space. The largest or most expensive specification is not automatically the right one. The important thing is understanding what you need and choosing the building and specification that genuinely suit that purpose.
Before ordering, I recommend marking an approximate 16ft x 16ft footprint in the garden and then sketching your proposed furniture and equipment inside it. Think about where desks, sofas, cupboards, exercise equipment or meeting furniture will go and whether doors and windows interfere with the layout.
Also consider where electrical sockets, lighting and internet connections will be needed. Planning these practical details is much easier than trying to work around a poorly positioned door, window or electrical point once the room has been installed.
A 12×12 garden room has approximately 144 square feet of nominal floor area compared with approximately 256 square feet for a 16×16. That means the 16×16 provides around 112 square feet of additional nominal space, so the difference between the two sizes is substantial, not marginal.
If you mainly need a comfortable one- or two-person office, a 12×12 garden room or office may already provide everything you need. I would move up to 16×16 when you need several workstations, larger furniture, or genuinely separate activity areas to make good use of the extra space.
A 16×16 building and a 5m x 5m garden room are relatively close in overall scale, although they are not identical sizes. A nominal 16ft x 16ft footprint is approximately 4.8m x 4.8m, while 5m x 5m provides a slightly larger metric footprint.
If you are not restricted to imperial sizes, you can compare our 5m x 5m garden rooms and offices as another substantial square-room option.
A large garden room needs a firm, flat and level foundation suitable for the particular building. Don’t build the base based on the nominal 16×16 description alone, because exact external footprints vary between models. Always use the manufacturer’s precise dimensions for the building you actually order.
Our garden room base guide explains the main foundation options and why preparing the base correctly is particularly important for a substantial building.
Access deserves particular attention with a building of this size. Consider gates, side passages, walls, steps, parking, and the route building components will need to take from the delivery vehicle to the installation position.
If access is restricted or unusual, tell us before ordering. It is far better to identify a potential installation issue at the planning stage than discover it when a large 16×16 garden room is due to be assembled.
Even after more than four decades around garden buildings, I still recommend seeing them in person whenever practical, and that becomes even more important with a room of this size. Photographs do not fully communicate the scale of a large building or the differences in construction between specifications.
You can visit our Surrey display site at Sutton Green Garden Centre, Whitmoor Lane, Sutton Green, Guildford, GU4 7QA to compare representative garden buildings and construction methods. We cannot display every model in every size, so please contact us before making a special journey if there is a particular Winchester garden room you want to see.
A 16×16 garden room has a nominal footprint of approximately 256 square feet, or around 23.8 square metres, with nominal dimensions of approximately 4.8m x 4.8m. Exact external and finished internal dimensions vary between models, so always check the individual product specification.
A 16×16 garden office can accommodate several people depending on the size of their desks, equipment and storage. Two people can have extremely generous workstations, while three or more work areas may also be practical with a carefully planned layout.
The Platinum Winchester buildings currently available at 16×16 can be specified with a full insulation option. Check the individual product specification and discuss your intended use with us before ordering so you understand exactly what insulation, glazing and internal finish are included.
Yes. The large square footprint makes a 16×16 room well-suited to creating different activity areas, such as an office on one side with seating, exercise, hobby, or entertainment space elsewhere in the room.
I strongly recommend it. Mark the footprint, measure desks and larger furniture and consider the position of doors, windows, sockets and storage before finalising the design. A building of this size gives you considerable flexibility, but planning helps you use it properly.
Yes. A 16×16 room provides approximately 256 square feet of nominal floor area compared with approximately 144 square feet for a 12×12, giving you around 112 square feet of additional nominal space.
1st Choice Leisure Buildings is a family business backed by my first-hand garden building experience since 1979 and Craig’s carpentry training and industry experience since 1992. With a substantial building such as a 16×16 garden room, that experience helps us advise on construction, insulation, layout, base requirements and practical installation rather than simply selling the largest building available.
