As we settle into working and learning from home, repurposed backyard garden sheds and prefab outbuildings offer a pleasant soft divide between family and work life

WORKING FROM HOME wasn’t working for Max Sinsteden, director of design firm Olasky & Sinsteden. His tech-industry husband required only a laptop and pad of paper to get his job done. “I as a decorator, on the other hand, have 400 tote bags and eight huge Tupperware boxes of samples," he said. When the couple reclaimed for serving meals the beleaguered dining room table that had functioned as his workspace, Mr. Sinsteden thought outside the box, decamping to a new octagonal, bell-roofed outbuilding 20 yards from their 1921 beach cottage in Westerly, R.I. The structure was made in Lancaster, Pa., by Hillbrook Collections and in May muled into place on a flatbed. “They arrive done...literally there’s a cord coming out the back," said Mr. Sinsteden of such to-the-rescue buildings. “Our contractor dug a trench with conduit to bring power out there, and you connect it up."

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