I am at the planning stages of my dream house, and need opinions on what works best for a classy trophy room. I have lots of space, and plan on addding to my collection over the next decades

- what celing height is prefered? Angled ceiling's starting at what height?

- Main floor, or upper floor of the house?

- lighting locations on walls to illumitate trophies?

- Windows, or not?

I am looking for any and all opinions


thanks guy's

thomas

Well ,

Higher the celing the more wall space
Mine is 16' valted. But My friends is 20'
he has amore wall space for big things that need to go high to make them look better.
Windows , I was told by a Taxidermist that Sun light is the enimie of Mounts. But I think you need some kind of window.
Walls , what ever you decide to cover them with put 3/4 plywood under it to have some thing to hold the mounts instead of trying to find a stud.
One of the best things you might do is get some books Like Trophy Rooms Around the World and Grate Hunters to see how others did there rooms and get Ideas from them .A little here and there you end up with a nice room.
Also there are posts of other peoples rooms
on here to look at.Mine was made from Lodges that I went piece here and there.

If possible, I would make certain to have no less than 12 foot peak ceiling, but preferably 16 feet or more at the peak, with 9-10 foot minimum walls at the low side(s). You will be surprised at how soon you will use up wall space, and how much vertical space a kudu or eland can occupy.

Main floor of house. Carrying a full mount grizzly up a flight of steps should be avoided. Some African mounts get fairly heavy. If possible, have a double door at one entrance. If not, make the entrance door as wide as possible.

Lighting: I have trac lighting in mine, but there might be better ways. It makes photos of mounts difficult to take without shadows. Why not include a floor lamp or a table lamp or two strategically placed? There are windows in mine, but I am not sure whether they add or subtract. Maybe in a few years I will make up my mind. Windows do make the usable wall space less.

On wall construction, I am in complete agreement with blazer. No less than 9/16 plywood, with whatever finish you prefer. I like light colors to show off the mounts. You can dry wall over the plywood if you wish. No matter what others think, I still like the look of wood.

If you put it together well, you will be surprised at how much time you spend in it.

I believe most taxidermy mounts are best viewed at or only slightly above eye level. Obviously, for the larger game, this is usually not practical as it takes away from living/furniture space in a room. One way to deal with this is to hang your mounts up high, but also talk with your taxidermist about future mounts and how they will be displayed. A "sneak" pose or one where the head is tilted downward will allow you to better see the face and horns of the animal. A mount with the head straight or slightly lifted as if testing the wind will not be easily viewed if hung too high.

Building a boxed shelf into a wall to display a lifesized mount also looks very nice. I would take inventory of what you have, plan for mounts that you will hopefully add, and build the room to show them off the best. This sounds obvious but many people just build a room, and then try to figure out where to put everything.

Put in more light than you think you need and set some on dimmers. Also think about curios, photos, maps and other items you may want to be diplayed on shelves or on the wall.

Good luck with your room.

Lighting is probably one of the most important aspects along with plywood walls to hang your mounts ( I actually covered one wall up 22' high with 2 x 6's turned so the flat side is out for hanging heavy mounts) For lights you need to use "full spectrum" lights to bring out the true colors in your mounts. A mix of spots, tracks with some incandesent as well for a good mix. Great you're thinking about it now vs. later. The trophy books from SCI press are great.

There are many great ideas that have been mentioned already. I'd say to make the room as big as possible with lots of lights. A bright trophy room can make the difference between feeling like a welcoming part of the home or a Victorian dungeon. You might also want to think about making a large scale diorama or two (like they have at Cabela's).

I have a number of clients with great trophy rooms in a variety of configurations. The Safari Press book series Great Hunters- their trophy rooms and collections has some good examples from classy to ..... way over the top!

A couple things to think about is natuaral lighting. Sunlight (UV rays) is terribly hard on mounts. (causes severe fading and hair deterioration) So limit it or add UV filtering coatings to the glass.

Using plywood behind the drywall allows you to hang what you want where you want it w/o sorring about studs etc. Definately worthwhile if you aren't planning the old english library look where everyting is hung at a single height in which case you can get by with a 2x 8 between the studs at that particular height.

So you need to determine your own tastes and dispay preferences. If you want your mounts categorized according to regions, continents, sub species etc. planning the space and layout will be determined by your collection and long term goals. If you like to intermingle then its not a big deal.

"Mounts are best viewed according to how they were designed to be viewed" or if not preplanned and custom designed most shoulder mounts are typically designed for 8 ft ceilings on small and medium and 10' on larger horned animals.

I personally like for mounts to be looking back at you when you are in a general area of the room or have some specific focus vs. just staring off into space. This can be planned into future mounts and occasionally modifications can be made to existing mounts.

Big animals and tall or wide horned animals need big space and or tall ceilings to really show them off or can be done as pedestal mounts if you have enough floor space. Life size game can be moved up onto ledges, shelves etc. if young children are an issue or to give the room some diversity.


I recently did some work for a fellow that had his trophy room built as part of a walk out basement with full view from the main and upper floors. (2.5 stories high) Very nice for accommodating a lot of stuff he already had mounted since they were placed at the various floor levels so your eye went to those looking back at you. He's filling in with things mounted with a more 3 dimensional balance to give the viewer a better transition.

So it is mostly personal taste, what you have mounted to work with and the budget.

I have a few client rooms on our website . If you want some other photos or specific examples send me an e-mail and I'll send you some more.

Mike

You have some excellent advice here. I would just like to highlight a couple points. First, sunlight and normal lighting itself damages your mounts severely and quickly. The only option to deal with it is to limit windows to just what is necessary. Then cover each with the film you can buy that is like saran wrap that blocks the most damaging part of the spectrum. It sticks to the glass and is hard to tell its even there. Then, don't put mounts, hides, photos, art prints/originals or even furniture for that matter anywhere that direct sunlight will hit it through a window during the day. It isn't hard it just takes planning. Do not forget to factor in sun angle variation summer to winter. Second, there are now lightbulbs that will not fade your mounts and other things yet will fully illuminate what you want. They are a little more expensive, but worth it if you want to keep your mounts etc. in original condition as long as possible. I would also suggest one more thing I did that you might consider. I reviewed the mounts I had and listed the mounts I reasonably hoped to get some day and built to show them at their best. Also do not forget heat. Heat whatever the source should be away from mounts. The classic example is mounts above the fireplace. The heat and smoke/partculates damage mounts, especially right above a fireplace. I know they look great. Check julian brothers on the web. They custom build rooms and woodwork. Its pretty nice stuff and they usually do a seminar at SCI in Reno every year or so.