The Shed, like so many standout ideas conceived in the past five years, started as a pandemic passion project.

Founder, co-owner and instructor Jane Ellington says in March 2020 she decided to renovate the shed in her backyard, creating a micro boutique fitness studio where she would teach a blend of yoga and Pilates classes. [For those not versed in Pilates speak: Ellington offers both mat and reformer classes. Mat classes means what you would think—a workout on a yoga mat with minimal props—and reformer classes take place on diabolical, yet effective machines called, well, reformers.]

This week, as of Monday, March 3, Ellington opens the fully realized version of The Shed at 1006 Lafayette St. (formerly Homme Essentials).

We sat down with Ellington to chat about the new studio and what she hopes she and her team will bring to the Richmond wellness community.

Style Weekly: Tell us about the evolution of The Shed.

Jane Ellington: I’ve lived in Richmond for seven years and had been working in marketing. In March of 2020 I was looking at leasing a building [for a Pilates studio] but luckily hadn’t signed any paperwork. At the time, all the workout studios were shutting down. I started going into people’s houses and teaching private yoga and mat Pilates classes and I got busy enough that it seemed like a good idea to renovate the shed in my backyard. I started seeing duets and small groups. I completed my mat and reformer training in 2024, and then in late 2024, found the opportunity to open next to Stella’s on Lafayette. It finally felt like the right time and the right place.

We kept the name because it felt cute to call the first micro studio The Shed, but I think there was a double entendre there, too. With any workout you can be shedding stress, or maybe something in your physical or mental body.

What kind of workout do you offer?

I started doing yoga when I was 14, and followed that practice through college and post-grad, and I’ve always really loved the mindfulness piece. In yoga, and really in any workout, I think you start going for the physical benefits and then keep going for the mental benefits.

I know personally, my workout is my therapy every day. I always loved that piece of it. I wanted to keep a nod to yoga, but as I got older, and my body changed a little bit and I got pregnant and was trying to put myself back together postpartum, I really felt like I saw the benefit of Pilates and the strength aspect of it. I really wanted to offer that to my clients.

In the past couple of years, I’ve homed in on my style of teaching, which is Pilates with a little bit of yoga blended into the warm-up and cool down.

I see all ages and types of clients—I have quite a strong hold with the working-mom crowd. I know we all have limited time during the day, so I want every minute in class to count.

Your classes were necessarily small in your backyard shed—will the class size change now that you have a full-sized studio?

No. It was important for to me to keep class size small.  I got a lot of feedback from current clients that come in groups of three to four how special that community feel is. I equate it to going to dinner with group of eight people versus 30—it’s a completely different experience. I really love keeping it smaller for the client and the teacher because you can look at people’s bodies more closely, there’s a harmony of almost personal training while still having that community and class feel.

What kind of classes will new and repeat clients be able to book at The Shed?

We will be offering our mat and reformer Pilates classes plus one pure yoga class a week; we’ll have eight reformer machines. The mat Pilates classes will still have that yoga feel at the beginning and end. My business partner and I (co-owner Phebe Jenkins) will each be teaching about 22 classes a week and a third teacher, Elizabeth Carrington, will come in for six classes a week.

Why should someone take a class at The Shed?

The size of the class, the beautiful space and the expertise of the teachers; our lead teachers have 500 and 1,000 hours of training between them. Plus, our hands-on approach to teaching.

I’m hoping The Shed will be a cool third place that people want to come and spend their free time and money in. I feel like people hang out in different ways now, they’re drinking less. Maybe instead of saying “Hey let’s get a drink after work,” they’ll say, “Let’s go to a workout class.”

The Shed is now open daily at 1006 Lafayette St. Check out the full schedule and book classes online. All props, including mats, are provided.