Beloved backyard bar set for colourful Caribbean makeover

What started as a humble backyard shed has become a hive of activity in Brisbane’s southern suburbs.

And with the help of professional designer Carlene Duffy, the little shed is getting a long-overdue brush of colour to give it a new lease on life.

Sean and Jillian are set to transform their backyard shed, with Carlene Duffy’s help.

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The small, hand-built timber shack, which plays a supporting role to a grand Queenslander-style home, was initially intended for household storage – but things didn’t exactly work out that way.

“We wanted to build a shed and I was thinking it would be one of those little metal things, down the side of the property where no one could see it,” the home’s owner Jillian Patterson begins. “But Sean had other ideas.”

The little shed that could.

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Sean Patterson, Jillian’s husband who hails from St Vincent in the Caribbean, wanted to build something that resembled a brightly-coloured beach shack.

“In the Caribbean you drive along the road and there are those [Brighton-style] beach huts along the beach, and they’re all rum shops,” he tells realestate.com.au.

“I thought, ‘I can do better than that! I can build me a rum shop at the side of the house!’”

So much more than a garden shed, Sean has made it his personal bar.

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So Sean and his father-in-law set to work building the dream shed by hand. While it doesn’t actually operate  as a rum shop (no speakeasies to be seen here!) it has still become a hub of fun for the neighbourhood.

“Being from the Caribbean, Sean likes his music, so he has a big speaker in there,” Jillian says. “Luckily we’ve got good neighbours and they just text over their song requests when Sean’s got the music cranked.

The servery window is a great feature for attracting passers-by and neighbours.

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“People come over and pretty much every man leaves going, ‘yeah, I need a shed like that!’ He’s become famous in the neighbourhood.”

Sean and Jillian have even embraced their own little ‘party spot’ at home, adding a deck and jacuzzi near their private bar.

However, the one thing missing from the little shed is the bright colour-scheme Sean wanted at the start. Instead, it was built on Jillian’s proviso that it share the same neutral colour scheme as the rest of house.

The shed will soon get a colourful makeover.

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Fortunately, there’s been a change of heart.

“I want to give it the character it has deserved all along, and also just see a big smile on Sean’s face,“ she shares.

As for Sean, he can’t wait to have something that reminds him a little more of the island life.

“[I like] Anything light and bright, beach-themed, [relevant to] the ocean. I’m all about water,” he shares.

“My country’s flag is yellow, green and blue with three diamonds in the middle and I was thinking of maybe having that flag on the door.”

Sean wants to incorporate the colours of his native flag (Saint Vincent and the Grenadines) into the paint makeover.

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Enter Carlene Duffy, designer at Cedar & Suede and former The Block contestant with her husband Michael. Carlene is using the Taubmans Coloursmith app (available on App Store or Google Play) to help Sean and Jillian land on the precise colour palette for the job.

“The app is helpful because you can see a piece of fabric, someone else’s house or even a plant and then use it as inspiration without having to guess what that colour is,” Carlene explains. “All you need to do is take a photo with the app and it will spit back that exact colour [in paint].”

Carlene has made good use of the Taubmans Coloursmith app when redesigning Sean’s shed.

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So far, Sean and Jillian are thinking of vibrant blues, greens and yellows – like the St Vincent flag and the beach itself. Carlene is thinking complementary blue-green tones may fit the ‘beach-vibes’ brief.

Choosing a colour scheme can be a fun process.

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“My first thought is that we choose a darker bluey-green – more blue with green undertones – for the exterior, and we choose a complementary lighter blue with green undertones for the interior,” she suggests.

Fortunately, Sean has the right attitude:

“I’ve got ideas, but [I’m happy with] whatever you guys want to pick. I’m easy going, mate. I’m island style.”

Steal a sneak preview of the end result…

Interiors are Caribbean Green – the colour of beach shacks in St. Vincent.

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