Creating a sophisticated car shed with PlyPlay

PlyPlay™ lines the interior of this large rural barn, home to a collection of vintage cars and holiday accommodations for the owners.

When designing a shed to house and display classic cars, the owner researched kit set shed solutions and settled on a style to suit his rural Northland site.

‘After first looking at corrugated cladding options, we settled on a plywood look inside and out,’ says Michael. ‘Customkit Buildings supplied all the materials, pre-cut and ready to assemble, and our builder Ryan Bridgens built it on site.’

‘Plasterboard doesn’t work for a car shed, so I googled “plywood”, and PlyPlay came up as an option. We were already familiar with the brand, and it provided a higher-quality look and finish than you can achieve with painting or staining plywood on site.’

The T-shaped shed incorporates a large display space for the cars on the ground floor, with the leg of the T containing a living and recreation room, with bedrooms above.

Michael chose PlyPlay in a combination of Naturally Naked and Double Trouble finishes, which are set off with negative detailing in black.

PlyPlay comes with a protective plastic film. ‘The protective film was great,’ says builder Ryan, ‘as we could pre-mark drill holes with a Vivid and not worry about overmarking on the sheets themselves. We installed the sheets and peeled the plastic off as we went.’

Ryan and his team installed 880 sheets of PlyPlay and created a system for its installation. ‘The 5mm negative was marked with spacers. We then hand-nailed the wall sheets, and the ceiling sheets were fixed with a fine nail gun. We devised a brick pattern, started at the centre line and worked our way out to the corners.’

Everyone is thrilled with the finished result. ‘It has turned out beautifully,’ says Michael. ‘It has a higher-end look compared with standard sealed plywood and is far more robust and durable than plasterboard.’