The backyard studio is the flagship of our finished-building line: one well-built, climate-controlled room that becomes whatever your house is missing. Gym, office, reading room, podcast booth, plant room, escape hatch.
Why a studio instead of a spare room
Because you probably don't have a spare room; that's the point. A studio adds a genuinely separate space with its own door, its own temperature, and its own purpose, without a home addition's cost, timeline, or disruption. Nobody walks through it to get to the laundry. The commute is ten seconds and it still feels like leaving the house.
What our studios include
Every studio is built on the full finished-building spec:
- Insulated shell: walls, ceiling, and floor, so the mini-split isn't fighting the weather
- Finished interior: drywall or tongue-and-groove, trimmed and painted
- Real electrical: dedicated circuit, outlets planned around your layout, good lighting
- Climate control: a mini-split sized for the building, quiet enough to forget
- Windows that earn their place: transoms for privacy plus light, or a big view window if the yard deserves it
- Siding and trim matched to your house, because a studio should look like it belongs
The white studio with the sliding barn door and transom windows in our gallery is a real Apex build, and still one of our favorites.
Typical uses
Workout room, home gym, yoga space. Writing room. Podcast or streaming setup. Therapy or client-meeting space. Plant room with real light. Teenager containment. The honest answer is that most studios end up doing three of these at once, which is why we plan outlets and lighting for flexibility instead of one narrow use.
If your studio has one specific job, read the more specialized pages too: home offices for full-time work, and art and music studios when light or sound is the whole point. And if the long-term plan is space someone could live in, start at DADUs instead; it changes the foundation, plumbing, and permitting decisions from day one.
What drives the price
Size first, then systems. The electrical run from the house and the mini-split are the fixed steps; interior finish, window count, and foundation type move the number from there. A modest 10x12 studio on piers with SmartSide is the entry point; a 12x20 with Hardie, a window wall, and hardwood floors is a different budget. Both get an itemized quote, free, usually the same day.
Build process
Site check and design, permits where required, then foundation, shell, dried-in roof and siding, electrical and mini-split, insulation, interior finish, paint. Most studios run a few weeks start to finish; you'll have the real schedule in writing before we start.
A note on permits: requirements for finished buildings vary with your city and county, zoning, setbacks, utility connections, and the scope of the project. We confirm what applies to your exact address as part of every quote, and coordinate the permit when one is required. The finished backyard buildings overview covers this in more detail.