Ladies and Gents: I was elated to have my wife "approve" a safari room in our house in the near future. I have for years had plans in my mind of how I would decorate the room and mount trophies. Now I need your input on how you've done your rooms. Pics would be great! Unfortunately, we live in a nice, but humble home and the dedicated room is only about 10'X11'. I am a reader and have been gradually collecting safari/Africa/hunting/fishing/hunting dog books for the library. I will have a library of about a hundred sport classics.
It will have a classic sport room of forest green walls, a burgandy wingback reading chair, pictures of classic/current hunting scenes, etc. In other words it is a place I can retreat to and read and dream and admire my past adventures and dream of future ones. I think we all can admit that the dreaming and planning is perhaps 80% "the thing" of what we love about our sport.
I know I can't hang a buff and a kudu and an eland without making the room appear to shrink and look out of balance, but what are your recommendations? Specific questions:
1. What mounts would you recommend?
2. What have you done in your safari rooms that have appealed to you?
3. Whatever you'd like to share.

I have plans for a simple music system to play my favorite African theme music to enhance the experience. A brandy flask and a selection of fine cigars will be presented as well (wife may not allow smoking in the room! I can compromise on that anyway).

I aplogize if I some of you don't know me by my moniker. I have been enjoying this site since '00 and thoroughly enjoy you sharing your African experiences. I travel a lot and it has been a place I can connect with on the road.
Warms trails and blue skies...

Try European mounts of Wildebeast and Hartebeast.

A gun safe.

A DVD player and screen

Make each wall a different continent.

Put a lock on the inside of the door.

I would go with quality rather than quantity. A few European mounts on the wall of course, no reason you could not do a set of buffalo horns on a plaque. A couple of shoulder mounts, impala and warthog would be good. Zebra rug on the floor, and maybe a pedestal mount in one corner. An oil painting on one wall would look good.

Use an African drum as a table next to your chair.

You can buy one on Ebay (just as authentic as one you buy in Africa, and a lot cheaper to ship). They come in various sizes, so measure the height of the arm on your chair.

Regards,

Terry

Some 'native' weapons - spears, shields, clubs look good as do African carvings.

European skull cap or skull mounts take up less space. Another way to mount some bovines is not to shoulder mount them but "neck" mount them. Numerous (all) people have advised me to mount my scrub bull that way.

As for the cigars and smoke, if it keeps your wife out of your space maybe it is a good idea. She can have the rest of the house.


A classic trophy or safari room has:

animal artifacts or trophies;
skins on the floor, ideally wood with rugs and skins;
leather chairs;
a collection of classic sporting books;
the aromas of fine wines, spirits and cigars;
antique (or modern if the law allows) decorative firearms;
curios;
photos of the hunt.

Sounds like you are well on the way there!

Good luck.

Definitely a zebra rug, and some European skull mounts. A nasty warthog to lend contrast with kudu and sable. A glass desk top sitting atop elephant legs. A desk chair upholstered with giraffe hide (hair on). A computer on the desk for logging in to acccuratereloading.com. African spears, bow & arrows. A flat screen tv and DVD player for watching hunting videos. A bookshelf with your collection of books and magazines on African hunting. (Reminder: subscribe to Hatari, African Hunter, and perhaps African Sporting Gazette).

Excellent ideas all...keep 'em comin'!

This is a great thread. I just moved and am in the process of buying a new house, and am planning my safari room. My first African safari will be in May '06. Ive got everything worked out, except where to put the leopard, but I keep reminding myself that I probably need to worry more about getting a leopard than where to put him if I do.

I'm an avid collector of African maps from different time periods. I've always thought it would be neat to put them in as "fillers" or, if the room were big enough, even different areas for animals in different countries with maps showing the changes in Africa over the years. Other than that, I really like the idea of something with each animal indicating what, where, when for folks who don't know a kudu from an eland. JMO. Good luck!

Nice pictures as always Terry.

A suggestion for anyone who spends more on taxidermy each year than food.

Buy some of the "Trophy Room" Books. There are a few different lines of books. I have the one titled "Great Hunters, Their Trophy Rooms and Collections Vol 1"

Flip through there and get ideas. It is a valuable tool for planning the construction and layout of a trophy room. You will see things you like and things you do not like. It gives you an idea of how to plan.

The volume I have has Irvin Barnhart's trophy room. Some of the things he did I really liked. The entry to the trophy "house" has two full mount bongo and two sets of Elephant tusks.

Who couldn't like that?

Try and get an idea on how you'd like the lighting set up from the start. Maybe even get a lighting designer in at the begining. Also try and limit windows. UV will fade any mounts over time.

1/2 inch plywood on the wall at hanging height will allow much felxibility in where to hang things. Putting a coarse fabric covering on the walls will help hide holes when you decide to move mounts.

If you get a chance to go to SCI try and check out the seminar on trophy room design but on by Tom Julian. He has lot's of practical common sense ideas. Lots of pictures, too.


-Steve

quote:

animal artifacts or trophies;
skins on the floor, ideally wood with rugs and skins;
leather chairs;
a collection of classic sporting books;
the aromas of fine wines, spirits and cigars;
antique (or modern if the law allows) decorative firearms;
curios;
photos of the hunt.

If the law does not allow you to display modern firearms the first thing you need to do is move to some place where the government at least pretends to trust you. Once that is accomplished the rest is all good advice.

Scott,

There are some great suggestions here. I just finished a room similar to what you are planning that I will put most of my african trophies in (kudu might not fit) when I get them back. I put french doors leading into the room, built coffered ceilings and had a bookcase/corner unit built for one wall. I had a shadow box built in the center of the bookcase that will hold one of the trophies. I am going to have one or both of my springbucks mounted a pedistal for a corner spot and I found this gemsbuck form that will keep the mount from encroaching too much on the room.

I hope this gives you some ideas. Good luck.

George

I really appreciate your pictures and ideas. All of them are excellent. I will be attending Reno for my birthday present (54) and will get more ideas there. Does a zebra skin look better on the floor or the wall was one question I had.
If you have some more pics of your safari/trophy room I'd enjoy seeing seeing more.

Get some of the "great trophy rooms around the world" or "great hunters and their trophy rooms". I think those are the titles... mine are hidden away somewhere. I think book #2 had the best layouts...

forgot to say, these are books..........

Al

Mickey 1 mentioned a gun safe. I have seen some nice gun safes with front see through panels (I guess they are some sort of special glass which can't be broken easily) which I think would add to the atmosphere. When someone asks "how did you get that buffalo", you point to the safe and say, "I shot him with that 416 over there". Otherwise, there also some safes that are clad in beautiful furniture so it doesn't look like a safe at all until you open it. In Europe one showroom for Hartmann Tresore happens to be in my town of Rambouillet but I am sure there are the same type of safe in the US.

Lots and lots of TAXIDERMY!!!
Sorry, you know how we taxidermist are! LOL!