Royal vs Platinum Garden Rooms Guide – Which Should You Choose?
| 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. |
Small Gallery of Customer Painted Garden Rooms We’ve Built
Explore our photo gallery featuring garden rooms supplied and installed for our customers. From stylish home offices and creative studios to relaxing retreats and versatile living spaces, discover how our bespoke garden rooms can transform your outdoor space.
Customers Painted Garden Rooms...
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Choosing the Right Painted Garden Room
Choosing the Right Painted Garden Room
I’m Robin Antill, founder of 1st Choice Leisure Buildings, and I have worked with timber garden buildings since 1979. My advice when choosing a painted garden room is simple: enjoy choosing the colour, but look beneath the paint too. Construction, timber quality, flooring, roofing, doors, glazing, and insulation all affect how well your garden room suits how you intend to use it.
Our painted garden rooms range from attractive buildings for relaxing and hobbies to insulated garden rooms suitable for more regular use as a garden office or studio. Specifications vary between models, so compare what you are getting rather than choosing on appearance or price alone.
Pre-Painted and Grey Garden Rooms
Why Choose a Pre-Painted Garden Room?
A pre-painted garden room arrives with its exterior colour finish professionally applied, saving you the initial job of painting a new timber building yourself. It also means the building looks finished from the outset, with colours available to complement your home, fencing, paving, decking and planting.
The paint system and available colours vary between our ranges, so check the specification of the individual garden room. A quality exterior finish also helps protect the timber surface from normal weathering, although painted timber will still require inspection and maintenance over time.
Grey Garden Rooms
A grey garden room is an especially popular choice for modern gardens. Grey works well alongside stone paving, patios, decking and contemporary landscaping, while providing an attractive contrast with lawns and planting. Lighter greys tend to look softer, while darker grey and charcoal shades can create a more contemporary look.
If you are specifically looking for a grey painted garden room, check the colour choices available with each model as shades and paint systems vary between ranges. Remember that photographs and computer, tablet, and phone screens cannot reproduce paint colours exactly, so if an exact shade matters, ask for an appropriate colour sample before ordering.
Painted Garden Room Uses and Year-Round Comfort
Painted Garden Rooms for Work, Hobbies or Relaxing
Before deciding on a size or colour, think about what you actually want your garden room to do. A room for relaxing in spring and summer has very different requirements from a garden office used throughout the working week in winter.
For regular year-round use, insulation and glazing become particularly important. Some of the painted garden rooms above are fully insulated, while others have insulation available as an option. If this is important to you, compare our dedicated range of fully insulated garden rooms. If you are primarily looking for a workspace, you can also compare our complete range of garden rooms and garden offices.
Are Painted Garden Rooms Suitable for Year-Round Use?
Yes, selected models are suitable for regular year-round use. Still, a painted finish by itself does not make a garden room suitable for winter. Look at the full specification, especially insulation in the walls, floor, and roof; the type of glazing; and how you plan to heat and ventilate the room.
If you want a comfortable home office, studio, or hobby room year-round, I would normally start by comparing fully insulated models rather than choosing a building mainly because you like its colour. Our garden room insulation and heating guide explains this in more detail.
Garden Room Ranges and Colour Choices
Diamond, Platinum or Royal Garden Room?
Our Diamond, Platinum and Royal ranges are designed for different requirements and budgets. Diamond buildings are a good choice when traditional timber construction, attractive design, value, and bespoke flexibility matter. Platinum garden rooms offer higher specifications, with insulation available or included on selected models. Our Royal garden rooms are premium, fully insulated buildings designed for customers wanting more frequent or year-round use.
I would not automatically recommend the most expensive range. The right garden room is the one with the specification you need. If it is mainly a place to sit and enjoy the garden during warmer months, your requirements will be very different from someone using the building as a garden office five days a week throughout the year.
Choose the Garden Room Before You Choose the Colour
This is my simplest buying tip. First choose the construction, size, layout, insulation and glazing that suit what you want to do, then choose the paint colour. Colour matters because you will be looking at your garden room every day, but it’s only the surface.
Two painted garden rooms can look remarkably similar in photographs while being quite different underneath the paint. Compare the framing, wall construction, floor, roof, doors, glazing, insulation and what is included in the price before making your decision.
Painted Garden Room Size and Base
What Size Painted Garden Room Do I Need?
Think about what will actually go inside the room. Desks, office chairs, sofas, exercise equipment and storage can fill a building surprisingly quickly, so an empty garden room will usually feel considerably larger than it does once furnished.
One method I have recommended for years is to mark the proposed dimensions on the ground using string or canes. Put some furniture inside the marked area and walk around it. This gives you a much better idea of the usable space than simply trying to imagine what an 8ft, 10 ft, or 12ft building will feel like.
Also allow suitable space around the building for installation and future maintenance, taking into account roof overhangs, fences, trees, shrubs and access to the site.
A Good Base Is Essential
Even the best painted garden room needs a firm and level foundation. I have seen customers spend considerable money on a quality garden building and then try to save on the base. In my experience, that is the wrong place to cut corners.
An unsuitable or uneven foundation can affect the floor, doors and structure of the building. Establish the required base dimensions and specification before installation. If you need help, check out our garden building base service or ask us for advice.
Garden Building Experience Since 1979
My Experience With Garden Buildings Since 1979
I left school at 15 and went on to start my own garden building business in 1979, trading as Marina Sheds. In those early years, I manufactured and sold timber buildings, which taught me a great deal about construction and the difference between a building that looks attractive and one that has been properly made.
I sold Marina Sheds in 1990, although unfortunately I did not receive all the money I was owed from the sale. In 1992 we moved forward by adding summerhouses, garages, garden rooms and log cabins to our range. As the business was no longer just about sheds, we changed the name to Titan Garden Buildings.
My son Craig joined me in 1992 after studying carpentry at Guildford College from 1990. His practical carpentry knowledge complemented the experience I had gained in manufacturing and selling garden buildings, and we have worked together in the industry ever since.
We sold Titan Garden Buildings in 1998 and, in 2000, decided on a different approach. Rather than manufacture and sell only our own buildings, we wanted to use our experience to select quality products from manufacturers we trusted and offer customers a genuine choice. That decision led to the formation of 1st Choice Leisure Buildings.
Today Craig runs the day-to-day business, and I support him as required. After working with garden buildings since 1979, I still believe customers should have enough information to understand what they are buying, rather than being expected to decide from a photograph and price alone. You can read more about my experience and the history of 1st Choice Leisure Buildings.
See Painted Garden Rooms Before You Buy
See Garden Rooms Before You Buy
Whenever possible, I recommend seeing garden buildings in person. Photographs are useful, but they cannot fully show the feel of the timber, solidity of the floor, construction of the doors and windows or the amount of usable space inside.
You can visit our Surrey garden building show site to see and compare garden buildings for yourself. We cannot display every model, size and colour available, but seeing examples of the different construction methods and specifications can make choosing much easier.
Painted Garden Rooms – Frequently Asked Questions
What is a pre-painted garden room?
A pre-painted garden room is a timber garden building supplied with its exterior colour finish already professionally applied. This saves you the initial job of painting the building yourself and gives it a finished appearance from installation.
Can I buy a grey garden room?
Yes. Grey finishes are available on selected garden rooms and are particularly popular for contemporary gardens. Available shades vary between ranges, so check the colour choices for the individual model.
Are painted garden rooms insulated?
Some are fully insulated, some have insulation available as an option, and others are intended more for seasonal use. If you want to use your garden room year-round, compare the insulation and glazing specifications carefully. You can also browse our insulated garden rooms for year-round use.
Can I use a painted garden room as a home office?
Yes. Many painted garden rooms make excellent home offices. For regular year-round use, focus on insulation, glazing, ventilation, heating, and electrical requirements, as well as the building’s appearance. Our wider garden rooms and garden offices range lets you compare the available specifications.
Does a pre-painted garden room need maintenance?
Yes. A professionally applied paint finish covers the initial decorating job but doesn’t make exterior timber maintenance-free. Inspect the finish periodically and follow the relevant manufacturer’s recommendations for maintenance and recoating.
Will the paint colour look the same as it does online?
Not necessarily. Lighting conditions, photography and different computer, tablet and phone screens can all affect how colours appear. If matching a particular shade matters, ask for an appropriate physical colour sample before ordering.
Do I need a base for a painted garden room?
Yes. A garden room requires a suitable, firm, level foundation. The precise requirements depend on the individual building, so establish the correct base size and specification before delivery and installation. If you would like us to help with this part of the project, see our garden building base service.
Do I need planning permission for a painted garden room?
Many domestic garden rooms in England can be installed under permitted development rights when the relevant conditions are met, but this does not apply in every situation. The position, height, and intended use of the building, as well as restrictions affecting your property, can all be relevant. Read our garden room planning permission guide and check with your local planning authority if you are unsure.
Final Advice on Painted Garden Rooms
My Final Advice
After more than four decades in the garden building industry, my advice is to choose in this order: decide what you want your garden room to do, choose the construction and size needed for that purpose, consider insulation and glazing if you want regular year-round use and then choose the paint colour that will look right in your garden.
Whether you want a contemporary grey garden room, a traditional painted garden room or an insulated pre-painted garden room for use as an office, concentrating on the complete specification should help you make a better long-term choice.
Robin Antill
Founder, 1st Choice Leisure Buildings
From £7869