For Lac Sinclair , Que., cottage owner Mark Potter, repurposing materials was the starting point for his bold and playful shed. “Not wasting things became the framework I operated in,” he says. “A whimsical look—but consistent with the rest of the cottage—that’s what I was going for.”
He used board and batten siding left over from his cottage renovation, painting it a bold cobalt blue to complement his grey cottage and the surrounding environment. “From a distance, cottages on my lake that are blue blend into nature quite well,” he says. “But when you get close, they can be striking.”
The weathered cedar boards came from a recently replaced dock. The dock had been in the water for nearly 20 years, and it almost gave way under foot, but Mark didn’t want to waste the wood. “It’s still good cedar,” he says. “You just can’t stand on it anymore.”
He placed the dock boards horizontally—not just because they fit the space well, but also because they added to the look. “As I started putting them up and thinking about how they would look next to the board and batten, I liked the contrast between horizontal and vertical elements,” says Mark.
As final splashes on the project, he installed yellow corner trim and a strip made of some 25 broken hockey sticks he had been keeping. “I didn’t want to just throw them away,” he says, “but I didn’t know what to do with them.” When the shed needed a finishing detail, he echoed the dock boards by cutting the sticks into short pieces and stacking them like siding. His reason? “I love hockey.”
This article was originally published in the Mar/Apr 2025 issue of Cottage Life.
Photos courtesy Mark Potter
Mark Potter’s bold shed plays with contrast, colour and line.
Photos courtesy Mark Potter
Mark juxtaposed dock boards with board and batten. “I liked the contrast.”
Photos courtesy Mark Potter
Old hockey sticks added a decorative stripe.
Photos courtesy Mark Potter
Photos courtesy Mark Potter
Photos courtesy Mark Potter
Organized and accessible garden tools.
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Photos courtesy Mark Potter