About My Retreat Garden Rooms

Kieron Summerhayes

Founder and Managing Director

My Retreat Garden Rooms is my business and every customer deals with me personally from first conversation to final handover. I oversee every design, visit every site and check every build. That is not a selling point, it is just how I think a business like this should be run.

Before starting My Retreat I spent 22 years in the newspaper industry, the last five organising large-scale consumer exhibitions for the Telegraph Media Group. When the pandemic arrived in March 2020 and the events company I was about to launch was no longer viable, I pivoted those same skills into building garden rooms. I have not looked back.

How It Started

The idea for My Retreat came from personal experience. I was trying to work from home with children running around the house and realised what I actually needed was a dedicated space at the bottom of the garden, close enough to be convenient but separate enough to actually concentrate. The garden room industry at the time was full of companies offering either low-quality boxes or premium products with premium price tags and very little in between. I thought there was a gap for a business that combined genuinely high build quality with honest pricing and a personal service.

We started with fully bespoke builds, designed and managed individually for each customer. In 2022, we widened the range to include our manufactured model range, the Ashton, Clifton and Westbury. These rooms are still fully customisable but much of the construction happens in our factory in Yorkshire, which means faster installation, less disruption on site and a lower price point than a fully bespoke build. The bespoke Westbury remains available for customers who want something the standard models cannot accommodate.

Every room, whether a standard Ashton or a one-off Westbury with slimline glazing and SiOO:X treated larch, is built to the same structural standard. Steel floor frames, concrete-filled pile foundations, EPDM rubber roofing and a 10-year structural guarantee on every single one.

Why Customers Choose Us

We are not the biggest garden room company in Surrey. We are deliberately not trying to be. What we are is a business where the person who answers the phone is the same person who visits your garden, oversees the drawings, checks the build and hands you the keys. That level of personal accountability is genuinely rare in this industry, and it is consistently what customers mention in their reviews.

Trusted Partners

A garden room often sits within a wider project. These are the companies we work alongside and refer with confidence. All are businesses we have built a genuine working relationship with over time.

Hydropool Surrey

We were neighbours at Clifton Nurseries in Addlestone for several years before the garden centre was sold for housing, and we have continued working together on combined garden room and hot tub installations ever since. Managing both as a single project means one point of contact, one programme and a much smoother experience for the customer. Hydropool offer a wide range of premium hot tubs and swim spas with a strong reputation for quality and aftercare.

hydropoolsurrey.com →

Country Landscapes & Design

Ross at Country Landscapes has been part of our wider team for years and is genuinely one of the most capable people we work with. His background is in groundworks for commercial contractors, which means he understands foundations properly. Ross installs all of our bases and handles any associated groundworks including waste and water connections. Beyond that, his landscaping skills are exceptional. Whether it is decking, paving, garden design or a full garden transformation around a new room, there is very little Ross cannot turn his hand to. A new garden room often prompts a broader rethink of the outdoor space around it and Ross is the person we call.

countrylandscapesdesign.co.uk →

Bloomin' Marvellous

Highly skilled gardeners and landscapers based in Surbiton with over 20 years of experience. Bloomin' Marvellous cover fencing, decking, paving, trellis, paths, planting and garden maintenance across Surrey. A reliable and talented team for customers who want the garden around their new room looked after properly.

bloomin-marvellous.com →