Apricot Studio is a garden studio and workshop in a suburban backyard in Preston, Melbourne. The project is designed and built by trouthouse.

The studio presents itself as a small intervention in a suburban garden, but the materials wrapping the studio-cum-workshop have a much deeper story to tell.

The studio is an experiment in designing around existing materials, rather than choosing materials to suit a design. In order to achieve an aesthetically appealing result, the Japanese wabi-sabi concept was used as a guiding principle.

Existing cement sheet weatherboards were cut down to shingle format and reused as custom cladding. The front and back door were salvaged from the house on the property, with the front door being the original social housing front door.

Existing galvanised metal roofing had developed corrosion holes, but was reused as a rainscreen cladding. Existing painted merbau weatherboards were planed back and oiled to let their intrinsic beauty shine as new cladding. Existing hardwood studs were used as new framing, and workbench framing.

Every internal surface is lined in 9mm plywood. Offcuts were used to make the interior cabinet and desk.

The golden light emanating from the entirely plywood interior creates a very unique calming atmosphere.

The design of the spaces is broken into increasingly messy zones. The ‘clean’ space is used for desk work and displaying books and objects, and is separated by a simple apricot-coloured curtain from an intermediate space used as a workshop. A ‘messy’ exterior space sits under the large back eave and is used for power tool work.