Free Shed Plans for 10 x 12 Wooden Yard Shed
These Free Yard Shed Designs come from http://www.FamilyHandyman.com/ With sliding doors for wide shed access and an open portico. Uses prefabricated roof trusses for easier construction.
Free Shed Plans and Designs For Building Wooden Sheds
Should you use other peoples’ shed plans (either free or purchased) or should you draw them up yourself?   Should you even buy ready-to-assemble storage sheds instead of building yourself?
Building A Shed – Do It Yourself With Either Paid Or Free Plans
Why build your own shed when you can buy a kit and even have it built for you at extra cost? The answer – because you can save money and have a better quality shed by building it yourself. Also, the building of your shed brings great satisfaction and reward. A shed is a fun project where you can even design your own shed and hone your woodworking skills. If you do it yourself, you will save money.
My opinion: if you purchase ready-to-assemble shed kits from, say, Home Depot or Lowes, consider the sturdiness of what the end result will be. If you find the finished project requires extra support, you could put in new braces for the roof and, say, extra plywood on the floor, but in the end the sturdiness may or may not be up to your standard and you may even end up tearing the whole thing down.
42" x 72" Redwood Garden Tool Shed
These are free shed plans from the California Redwood Association at http://CalRedwood.org. Full instructions and material list given. A very sound structure.
Building your own shed is best if you have the time and the basic carpentry know-how (so as to avoid costly mistakes. You could be lucky, however, and your mistakes might easily be covered by the trim!)   Shed construction involves basic carpentry and basic framing techniques. You should know the skills involved and have the fundamental knowledge of how a floor, walls and roof should be framed, sheathed and finished before you tackle the construction of your own shed.
If don’t have these basic carpentry skills just yet, or you lack the time to do it yourself, you might want to consider having it built for you.
Assuming you have the skill and knowledge to build a shed, you could use purchase plans. You would have a greater variety of plans to choose from here. Else you could search the internet for the limited number of available free shed plans, as you probably are doing here.
8x10 Outdoor Wooden Storage Shed
Free shed plans for an outdoor wooden 8×10 storage shed from Southern Forest Products Association at http://www.SouthernPine.com. Three flooring options are given.
If you prefer free shed plans, as well as searching online, libraries usually have woodworking and building books and magazines which often have shed plans. The quality of the plans vary, but at least they are free. Unfortunately, many free plans lack a whole lot of detailed instructions, which can be confusing for someone just starting out.
Why Not Create Or Modify Your Own Shed Designs?
You may want to work directly from a pre-made plan and make no changes. However, it is very seldom that you will see a set of plans that are exactly what you want. The more your skills develop, the more you will want to draw up your own plans, or improvise and modify pre-made ones. To personalize them.
Some prefer to draw up their own plans entirely from scratch. Good ‘ol Yankee self reliance. If that’s you, you should still take a look at whats in other plans. This is to get new ideas. You’ll be able to see what the other options are on how things are done. You might be looking for inspiration and ideas for artistic flair, custom shelves and other storage solutions. Or perhaps you are looking to substitute the roofing. There may be a number of different kinds of roofs for sheds and if you prefer one of the roofs instead of the one in your plan, you can substitute that in your design. Also, other people’s plans don’t just include designs but also small notes on how best to do things.
8 x 12 Simple Wooden Storage Shed Plans
These free shed plans from Handyman Club at http://HandymanClub.com are taller for extra storage space. The interior is lined with pegboard for hanging tools.
Use Google SketchUp To Make the Shed Plans Your Own
The best is to start with a shed plan that is closest to what you want and draw it up in Google Sketchup. Then start adapting and modifying it.  They’ve just come out with version 7 of Google SketchUp which you can download free at http://sketchup.google.com.  You can then keep modifying and improvising as you come across new ideas until you are finally satisfied with the plans you have.
The next step is to come up with the materials list to price it out. The cost of the materials for the shed will usually be less than the cost of a shed “kit” and you could build it to a higher quality.
Google SketchUp is a free, robust piece of software that allows you to model your designs in 3D. It is both powerful and newbie-friendly 3D design tool that isn’t hard to learn. It is better than many pay-for 3D modeling programs. You can view the model from any perspective to see what your project looks like at different angles, you can zoom in and out of your designs.
7x7 Garden Shed Project Designs
Free shed plans from Georgia-Pacific Corp at http://www.gpplytanium.com. Small at 40 square feet but with ample headroom and a hutch on the side for recycling bins.
You don’t need the pro (paid) verson of Google SketchUp. The pro version is not much different to the free version. The free version should work for most people. Its capable of doing full designs of any project, large or small.   Also, the pro version may not do exactly what you want it to without needing someone else’s addon.
To acquaint yourself with Google SketchUp, have a look at the free video tutorials on using Google SketchUp.   SketchUp doesn’t do a materials list, however. There is, however, a free cutlist addon that you can download here.
If you require any other add on, search on google (using “google sketchup + addon + whatever-you’re-looking-for) and save yourself the $450 for the pro version.
If you need more help with SketchUp, there is always Google SketchUp Community Forum where you’ll find other dedicated SketchUp users.
8' x 10' Wooden Storage Shed Designs
Free shed plans for 8′ x 10′ wooden storage shed from Just Sheds Inc at http://Just-Sheds.com. Detailed designs, construction details and material list given.
Another good place to learn about SketchUp and woodworking is the Design.Click.Build blog which is moderated by a community of woodworkers. It has step-by-step tutorials for designing components in SketchUp and downloads of pre-built 3D models of furniture parts.
Words of Advice in Building Your Own Wooden Storage Shed
One thing to consider is what tools you have and what you can buy or borrow. Perhaps you have a ladder, drills, squares, levels, drill press, a sanding belt, router and a router table but need a power miter saw, compressor and a framing nailer. If you include the cost of the extra tools, that would increase the cost of your project.  However, you obviously keep the tools when you complete the shed (whereas the people from Lowes or Home Depot will take it with them.)
A word of advice – don’t try to cheapen your project and cut corners. Don’t try to get away with things. Instead, take the time to research, understand and follow best practice in all aspects of your construction.
Don’t make the shed too small. If you have in mind an 8′x10′ shed for storage, that may be too small. Remember, those dimensions are outside dimensions. The actual inside working width in an 8×12 shed is much less than 8 feet. You would have difficulty even turning around inside it with an 8 foot 2×4.
10' x 12' Basic Wooden Shed Plans
These free shed plans are from Archchemicals whose website is at http://www.archchemicals.com/Fed/. Â The plans for a wooden backyard shed are very basic.
Keep the size of the shed on a four foot increment to minimize waste. If you can, work with 12×12 or a 12×16. If you don’t want to cut any rafters (not that difficult really) you can order small triangle shaped trusses for the roof from your local lumberyard. If you are using T1-11 for the sides, use real plywood, not waferboard. The same applies to the floor, use (treated) plywood. I would recommend cedar for the trim, not pine. Insulate the walls inside to help modulate temperature swings. Build overhangs into the roof all the way around, 12″ is nice.
A quick tip – if you order 12′ lumber don’t just assume it will be exactly 12 feet! Your shed may end up being 12′ 1″ inch long!   12′ is what they call the “nominal” dimension (in name only.)  Good luck with your project!
These aren’t free shed plans. In case you can’t find what you want here, this has over 14,000 woodworking plans and projects from which to choose from. The cost will be less than a single set of shed plans from many other websites. Its the next thing to being free! Enjoy.