GALION — Marian Walker’s she shed puts others to shame.
The 10-by-14-foot backyard retreat is decorated from top to bottom like an old-fashioned English tearoom. It’s filled with white wicker and wrought iron, bunnies, and birdhouses. But mostly, it’s a reflection of Walker’s love for tea — and her flair for decorating.
“It was quite the event when they came in a big trailer and dropped it off,” said Walker, who’s had the custom-built, pine shed for four years now. “And then I went to town decorating and got all my junk that is girly-girl and all my teapots that I’ve collected or gotten as gifts.”
The result? A quaint hideaway nestled among the towering beech trees in her backyard. A she shed fit for an afternoon of English tea, scones, and jam. A she shed that Walker has several nicknames for — phone booth, office, villa, cabana, and lodge to name a few.
“My husband Charlie and I — I force him to come out here in the morning and we can kind of talk and plan our day then,” Walker said. “And I love to come out in the evening when the sun sets and stare at the lights. I call them fairy lights. It’s beautiful. It’s just so beautiful.”
Walker said she and Charlie first got the idea to scout for a backyard shed about six years ago with the purpose of also using it during the winter to store their outdoor patio furniture. After looking for about two years, they eventually spotted one in Mansfield and ordered it from an Amish builder in Dundee, Ohio.
It only took Walker a month to make it her own. She added an old living room mantel, covered a small wooden bench with fabric and hung tea towels for window valances. “Things that didn’t have a place in the house” found a new home in the shed, along with a few treasures from travels to Germany and abroad.
The white potting table/server in the corner is a former bathroom vanity. A cotton dresser scarf that belonged to her mother was stitched into covers for rocking chair cushions. She hung up a glass teacup chandelier and brought in English ivy and plenty of potted silk plants, garden decor and bone china serving pieces.
The decorating diva, who is also a longtime buyer for the Galion Hospital gift shop, invites her granddaughter to sit down for a glass of iced tea when she comes from North Olmstead to visit. But when the three grandsons arrive each summer, Walker works her magic, transforming the gussied-up getaway into a rustic lodge.
The boys traditionally get a camping gift from grandma, then spend a night in the converted shed. Walker tosses in moose pillows, throws and lanterns as well as signs and pictures from national parks and the Blue Ridge Parkway — even a ladder so the boys can climb up to their hangout in the tiny loft.
In September, Walker — who is known around town as “the Queen of Halloween” — does up the shed just like the rest of her two-story home and yard for her favorite holiday. Gory and ghoulish, the pristine paradise becomes a “homeopathic healing center” or whatever frightening theme she dreams up that year.
Walker has enjoyed hosting other gatherings in the gray and white getaway since they got it, too. Friends have come over for “pajama night” or dressed in 1950s attire for “soda shop night” complete with popcorn, malts, shakes and, of course, soda fountain decor.
But mostly, Walker just enjoys the 35-step walk to her special spot, where she’s greeted by flowering window boxes, surrounded by solitude, and comforted by her favorite books or a soothing pot of hot cream tea.
“I like, I guess, the fact that it’s just a little getaway. I can come out here and meditate and relax,” Walker said. “It’s a really good place to talk to someone on the phone and get caught up and things like that. It’s my little hideout, a nice little hideout.”
