Gentleman,

I just bought a piece of dirt and will be building a house. I need to put a trophy room in it as my wife will not have let me have my " dead animals" in the front room. What I am thinking of is a small room maybe 24x15 with a large french door at one end to get the mounts in, a small bar, built in gun case/safe and room for a business desk and computer. Someone once told me not to put many windows in a trophy room as the light affects the taxidermy, but I don't want a dungeon either. I think I can get 12' to 16'walls in it too. The house needs to be a 3bed/2.5 bath at least and should finish out at around 2000". Have any of you done this? Does anyone have house plans or ideas? I tried searching those "house plan sites", but have not come up with anything. I would like to get some ideas roughed out before going to an architech. The lot is 80' wide X 170 deep

drd39,

I attended the seminar at the SCI Convention by Mike Boyce of Animal Artistry. Mike and Stewart Farnsworth did a great job of teaching how to build a trophy room. I would not have ever considered some of the things they were saying,like using 3/4 inch plywood throughout the room so you can put the animal wherever you want. They were explaining the damage done by sunlight to trophies etc. I am sure if you give Animal Artistry a call they can give you some great information.

quote:

Originally posted by drd39:
Gentleman,
What I am thinking of is a small room.......... I don't want a dungeon .......

Wrong - wrong...Make it as big as possible, you will thank your self later. Windows are not good, just let in sun light that damage your trophies and fade them out. That out of the way, go for it.

Make it as big as you can, and go for high ceilings, with scissor trusses. Ceilings ought to be in the range of 14 or 15 feet at the walls, and 18 or so in the center. Put in a couple of smallish windows on the south side (say 3'wide by 5' tall) and a single big one on the north side (again, about 5' tall and 5 or 6 feet wide). That way you can mount your heads high so that they won't be seeming to crowd you, and you can still have light in and around floor level. Put in some dimmer-switch controlled track lighting con the ceiling several feet out from each wall, and some fan/light combinations down the center of the ceiling. Consider putting some electric outlets in the floor itself so you don't have cords running everywhere. For the walls, either go with plywood or make it a log house. And use light colored wood or finishes to keep it from getting cave-like.

If I ever build a trophy room, I always thought about small square windows along the roof line (Arts & Crafts Style) and would get them tinted. That way you would have plenty of light without losing wall space and the tinting should cut down on the sun fading problem.

Regards,

Terry

Very good ideas, gents. We're in the process of deciding to add on or move and a trophy room is high on the agenda. jorge

We to are trying to decide how bad we want a trophy room. We are starting to stack them up like a cord of wood. Trophy room, another trip to Africa,Trophy room, another trip to Africa. TRIP TO AFRICA!! Hands down. Some day we will add on when we are through playing.

Just wanted to bring this back up incase there are any more responses. Thanks so far......

I'm about 6 weeks from finishing up a similar project. I ended up using post and beam in the main great room and the trophy room. It allowed for much higher ceilings. I also went with 11 foot walls in both. I don't have the misses saying no heads in the house and ended up putting a museum quality display in the great room with a bison and a bunch of pheasants and quail. It will look great when finished.

In the trophy room I opted for skylights. It lets in lots of natural light but is indirect and will do minimal damage to the trophies.
Definitely use 3/4" plywood on all the walls and I also went to studs on 12" centers.
The house is a bit bigger than 2000sqft but I've got a huge great room an office, sunroom, breakfast nook, 3 br 2.5 baths and a monster master br. It could easily be scaled back to get you in the mid 2500 range. PM me with a fax number and I'll send you a basic floor plan if you're interested.

John

fritz454

I'd like to see some photo's of that when your done, sounds really "fitting"

quote:

Originally posted by fritz454:
I don't have the misses saying no heads in the house and ended up putting a museum quality display in the great room...

John

Of course some of us must work with certain "restraints" In my case - anything I want goes in the trophy room. She gets to design the living room.

fritz454,
Any chance I can come see your place? I'm only 70 miles away. E-mail me at drd39@hotmail.com if it works for you......

Since I cannot afford both a trophy room and the hunts/taxidermy to fill it up, I will go on the hunts and skip the taxidermy/trophy room.

I like big windows unlike many here.

At the moment my house is a trophy room but a plan one day is to build something separate.

High ceiling as mentioned, but I will have french windows or even "accordian" cafe style window-doors. So whole walls can be opened. I hate dark houses.

My plan is to mount trophies on the wall space ABOVE the french windows/doors. Plus use suitable curtains including gauze for the heat of the day. Unfortunately I like paintings and bookshelves too so they will compete.

DRD,

Speaking from experience...If possible go with a cathederal ceiling...16 feet peak with walls down to 9.5 feet or 10 feet... try for indirect sunlight or else...I used tongue and groove for ceiling.. Measure around height of animals to hunt and mount and as walls built add 2by 12 between studs right across walls so you will be able to use entire walls for trophy placement and support..

Mike

Hey retreever

When are you going to invite me up to see this

Anyone know how to shrink the file size of jpg files. I tried to post a few pictures but they are 1.2-1.3 meg per and would really slow down this thread.
I appreciate any help. I have a new computer and the software that I used to use is not on this one.
Thanks,
John

Try XAT.com

The photo and image editing software is quite good and is what I use. Shrinking, colour correction, remove "noise", cropping, resizing, compression, quality reducing etc.

Thanks NitroX

Let’s give this a try.



The bison and Pheasant will sit on the platform above the entry closet door. The base is recessed and copper clad so I can plant live grasses and plants native to Montana.
I just did the stone work on the hearth today.




The great room. The trophy room is in the same style. Unfortunately the pictures were too dark. I'll take my flash next time.




Master BR. The door leads to a private deck.




Another of the master BR.






Front entryway.

Hopefully this gives some idea on the design I went with.

John

Alright I'll try again tomorrow.

Is there a problem with imagestation? I seem to remember something about that.

Where do you guys post pictures?

John

I think I figured it out. Thanks for the help.
John

Beautiful house, thanks for posting the pictures. Good luck with the finishing touches.

I am currently building a new house as well, and the trophy room is high on my list of focus points.

My trophy room is currently 18.5 x 32; I am limited by the total footprint of the house in terms of square footage. We had to move two bedrooms upstairs, and in AZ that is a bad idea. We should get our variances approved this week, and if all goes well, be in it next summer.

One item that I am concerned about is resale value of the house, since I don't plan on retiring here. So very small windows are probably out, but I will see what my architect thinks.

You might consider talking with Tom Julian of Julian and Sons Custom Woodworking.

Trophy rooms are Tom's specialty. He would probably be happy to share some ideas with you.

http://www.julianandsons.com

Ok last picture.



Lots of wall space and the light is sufficent. The half wall is for a wet bar and there is a widow to the left. It faces North East and only gets direct light for the first hour or two of the day. All other light is from the 5 skylights.

There are some good suggestions here, but the best one would have to be this:

Talk to an architect or builder who knows about large taxidermy mounts. You don't necessarily have to sign a contract with them, but listen to what they have to say.

I am currently working on a house (as the architect) in which the client is a big time hunter with several large mounts. We are also putting in a large vault in the basement. This is my kind of client!!

Adequate blocking in the walls is very important as those mounts are somewhat heavy and need to be secured properly. And you may not want to limit yourself to hanging the mounts only at the studs...

Also, tall walls and vaulted ceilings are a must. If the walls are too short, the bottoms of the mounts are too low in the room. Having a large head and horns that the brisket is down around waist level sucks!

Windows are nice for the natural light, but do degrade the mounts over time. They can also screw up the positioning of the mounts if the windows are planned poorly. Don't break up your walls into too small areas for those mounts. Nice window coverings are a good idea, too.

The size of the room should also be such that will allow for future mounts. Don't go too big, but certainly don't go too small!

I'm not a fan of skylights as most all leak over time. But if you like 'em, use 'em.

If you decide to talk to an architect to design a house for you, here is an alternate idea (suggestion) that will save you a lot of money. Try to locate someone who works in an architect's office to do your plans after hours. The person ideally should have design experience and not just drafting experience, and he or she will charge much less than the boss would. The boss has a lot more overhead to deal with. Also, the experience of the "draftsman" is always a benefit to themselves too and many are willing to "moonlight."

If you have an idea of what you want your plan to be like, sketch it up on a piece of paper. That makes the initial communication easier between you and your architect/builder/draftsman. But, the client who brings in a plan out of a magaizine, and says "I want it exactly like this, but I want this, this, this , and this changed" are a pain in the ass!!!! I'm not saying that magazine plans are worthless, but they are harder to have to work around if you want changes made. And if the plan you cut out of the magazine is the size of a business card, they are impossible to see!!!

I have been doing residential plans almost exclusively the past five years in Jackson Hole, so if you want to talk more, send me a PM.

I wonder if there is any sort of standard plans and variations of ideal 'trophy rooms'?

You might be able to gain inspiration from the "Great Hunters: Their Trophy Rooms and Collections" series of books (volumes 1-4 I think). I saw a couple of these while staying at the Afton House, and although most featured are on the high-end, there are some good ideas related to basic design, colors, textures, carpeting, lighting, etc for the average trophy room. $60-$65 a pop, but considering the cost of a new room and what's going in it, maybe not a bad investment.

GREAT HUNTERS- Vol. 1
GREAT HUNTERS- Vol. 2
GREAT HUNTERS- Vol. 3
GREAT HUNTERS- Vol. 4

My trophy room is fairly similar to drd39's original description. I built it in 85 in my mid 20's. and it was my own design. Like alot of us say, "If I ever build again I'd do some things different. It is 16 x 20 with 14 foot walls and I sheeted it with 3/4 inch plywood then went over it with a cedar vaneer. 2 high angled windows facing north and then 4 more windows on the south side at man level for air and light. Ceiling is T & G cedar and a nice looking glu lam beam running length wise.
Nice hard wood floors. Entry from inside is a 3' door on inside corner. (also a mistake)I guess what I'd do different is without a doubt, build it bigger, like 20 - 25 wide x 40' deep with the same height. No windows, just good track lighting or actually multiple flush controlled lighting and one huge double door opening from outside onto my deck facing 10,000 foot peaks that would fit anything and not have to bring it thru the house to get it in. Kind of like the idea of having a big outside entry for a full basement.
Bigger is better if you have plans..............
By the way, the 3/4 in plywood works great with large screws. Put anything anywhere. Good luck and have fun.

fritz454

One thing I didn't notice in this "excellent" trophy room is double doors to the outside. That's one thing no one thinks about, getting those trophies in.

When I mount full body mounts for my clients I always make them to fit in any standard door, or bring it to them in pieces & put together there.

having double doors makes bringing them in much nicier and gives you a little extra.

quote:

Originally posted by Bill C:
You might be able to gain inspiration from the "Great Hunters: Their Trophy Rooms and Collections" series of books

Thanks Bill. I have a couple of these (the first two I think?). I bought them exactly for this reason. Are the later two any or more useful for this purpose.

Double doors to the ouside is going to happen here. This guy is going to strat opening it for me.

Widowmaker416 you're right. The pictures that I have are all of the great room except the last one I posted. The trophy room is the same style as the pictures but is off the great room.

I have double french doors into the great room and an open arch that is 6 feet wide that gets you into the trophy room. I figure that is plenty of width to get just about any mount I can think of in and it limits the direct light into the room.

Sky lights let in ,what it think, is the perfect light. Their construction has improved quite a bit in the last 5-10 years. I stayed away from the opening kind. Too much to go wrong there but I'm not concerned with leaks given the roofing material and the quality of the skylight.

John

I always get detachable antlers/horns for the big stuff so transporting it is not a problem.

We just got declined on our variance (housing association didn't approve our plans) so it is back to the drawing board for me.

Ok, lets cut to the core! A new wife?

Just kidding folks, tha tha thats all folks.

the other issue on double doors is security.

I am no security expert, but I think double doors are easier to break into. We have them on our house now, and each door has bolt nn the opening end that sinks into the floor or the wall above it (4 bolts).