My wife and I are in the blessed situation where we are hoping to start building a new home (hopefully our "forever" home) within the next year or two. A trophy room is of particular importance to me but I have no personal experience with planning one (or a house for that matter).

I'm starting to spit-ball some ideas and develop a plan for what would be most effective. My wife's preference is that the room will be separate from the main living areas, so my tentative plan is to have the room extend from one end of the house (perhaps like a guest house type of concept). So far, I'm thinking of around 1000 square feet, 12 foot ceiling, and 3/4 inch plywood behind the sheet rock.

Any thoughts/ideas/advice would be very much appreciated! God willing, I have quite a bit of hunting ahead of me and my biggest fear with this project is looking back 10-20 years from now and going "Damn, I wish I would have thought of that when we were building this..."

Your Planned room is about the same dimensions as mine, and your comment about putting up 3/4” plywood under the Sheetrock is essential. Your 12’ ceiling, (and wall height, I presume) is as low as I’d go. My walls are 13’ tall and if I was going to change it, I’d probably go 14’ instead of 12’. I wanted a clear span cathedral ceiling, so we installed a 42’ glulam beam the length of the room so that everything is open. The ceiling is clear heart cedar. You’ll want to install track lighting to give yourself maximum flexibility in how you focus lights on the animals. One thing I’d definitely do different next time is install higher quality windows, like Anderson or Pella.

One thing you did not mention is a fireplace. I have a huge fireplace at one end of the room and it is the focal point of the whole room. 6’ firebox, covered in natural Colorado Moss Rock, it’s pretty dominant. IIRC, it’s base is 16’ wide, with a low hearth all around. The chimney peak is 24’ above the floor and I have 3 elk and 3 deer shoulder mounts anchored onto the rocks, as well as other skulls and a set of elephant tusks sitting on the hearth. I’ve also got a chimney along one of the sidewalls, for a fireplace in an adjoining room. That chimney goes 30’ high in the room and holds a life size Mountain Goat, as well as a couple deer shoulder mounts.

I highly recommend you consider a fireplace for the room, as you won’t regret it. I’ve got 50 something mounts and room for another 10-20 before things begin to look crowded.

Let me know if you have any questions, I’ll be glad to share some additional thoughts on things I’d do the same again or different if I ever build another house.

DLS...thank you for the advice! I was torn between 12' and 14' for the wall height. My fear with going up to 14' is that it might tower above the main level of the house (which will probably have 10' walls).

Did you use only track lighting or did you use some recessed can lighting as well?

I forgot to mention the fireplace. The room will definitely have a wood-burning fireplace and I'm contemplating having a central fireplace which opens to two sides. I thought by having the fireplace centrally it would add some space that I could hang a few trophies as well as be a focal point in the room.

I have a combination of 14 and 10 foot ceilings in mine; I would not go higher than 14 - anything higher makes them too high (we have 20 foot ceilings in the living room and I can't imagine hanging stuff that high.

I am almost done with my Colorado place. It has two great rooms, one of which is a loft that looks down on/into the the first floor. I will not have a dedicated TR in that house, but will hang a moose, leopard, maybe a Cape buff and some smaller stuff, to include zebra skins on the floor. I will have a separate reloading room like I do in AZ and a separate office that will also have some stuff.

The primary great room has cathedral ceilings, which really limits things IMO.

My GC is also a hunter and he is installing track lighting for the stuff in the great room with cathedral ceilings. We also have cans in that room as well.

I sheathed my TR in AZ with 3/4 inch plywood, but I am not doing that in CO - rather I have identified where big/heavy stuff will go and installing blocks for those animals. A wing bolt holds deer sized critters just fine if you can't find a stud.

quote:

Originally posted by PAGuardian:
. . . I forgot to mention the fireplace. The room will definitely have a wood-burning fireplace and I'm contemplating having a central fireplace which opens to two sides. . .

Do not get a two sided fireplace, I have one and will never have another. Smoke will go into the one of the two room. I had to add metal (commercially bought product that is sold just for that problem), and lower the top of the fire box to get the smoke out the chimney.

You might want to also decide whether you will also make this your gun room? If you plan on having a TV in the room also plan for the required wiring for the cable, internet, security camera etc.

The lighting is extremely important plus do not have switches/controls all over the place.The lighting should be planed thoughtfully with care with a single switching location.

quote:

Originally posted by JCOOK:
The lighting is extremely important plus do not have switches/controls all over the place.The lighting should be planed thoughtfully with care with a single switching location.

Better yet, a smart home switch. In my new trophy room, I have everything on smart home. I can control all the lights via voice, switch, or iPhone. Same with the TV, Stereo, HVAC, ceiling fans, both indoor and out, Door locks, and in my case, the two garage doors. It's nice to be able to select any combination of all of those by saying Hey Google, set the temp to 74 degrees and turn on the ceiling fan to medium.

My room has been completed about 10 months now. I've yet to place a finger on a light / fan switch, or touch the thermostat. Most times I'll unlock the door from my iPhone while rolling up in the driveway.

This has been an interesting read as I'm having a new house built pretty soon. I have a collection of African game as well as sheep and deer. I'm having a nice pedestal mount done for a Marco Polo I recently took.
A question I have for you good folks is have any of you built a pedestal for a life sized mount that would be off the ground about 5 ft? I ask b/c I have a life size Bongo and that guy takes up some room. My thought was to have a pedestal built coming out of the wall about 4 or 5 ft high. Then have the Bongo on it. The Bongo is standing with a slight downward look.
I'm thinking this would look ok and not also not seem like it's taking up a bunch of floor space.

Thoughts?

Take a look at Todd’s room (he had a thread on it). It is amazing!

Yes, 12 to 14 feet would be best unless maybe you plan on mounting an elephant head. I've never had the funds to build an actual trophy room but did build my average size little house with a 12 foot ceiling in my living room that's 30' 3" long by 17' 8" to 19' 8" wide due to a bar top that juts out into it on one side. The other side has a door on one end that goes into a bedroom and the other end has a 5' window for a nice view leaving 20' of solid wall for mounts. A nice 12 pt. whitetail buck, a really big eland, a water buff, a banteng, a kudu and a cape buff completely take that wall space up without being too crowded. Big stuff eats up wall space. Make sure the mounts go up high enough for at least a six foot man's head can clear the bottom of the mounts.

By bottom of the mounts I mean the head and neck but the bottom of the chest on a shoulder mount wouldn't have to be that high up.

You might want to look at the picture I had posted, of the Elgin Gates trophy room, for some ideas of what to do.

Thanks Tysue, for resurrecting this thread. Reminded me to ask PAGuardian how his room came out.

PAGuardian, can you post any pictures of how your room looks, assuming you’re done building it?

quote:

Originally posted by DLS:
Thanks Tysue, for resurrecting this thread. Reminded me to ask PAGuardian how his room came out.

PAGuardian, can you post any pictures of how your room looks, assuming you’re done building it?

DLS,

My apologies! I missed that this thread had been brought back to the top a few months ago.

As an update, we are about 75% done with our house build. The trophy room is coming along nicely. It has vaulted ceilings which are 19' at the peak, 10' wall height on the sides, and 3/4" plywood under the drywall.

This week they should be installing the beams (poplar) with the wide plank hickory flooring to follow. I also picked up 4 gemsbok horn sconces with porcupine quill shades at DSC last week for some extra wall lighting.

Once we get it all done I'll be sure to update with pictures.

quote:

Once we get it all done I'll be sure to update with pictures.

We'll be looking forward to the pics!

Here's a sneak peak of the room as things progress. We are getting pretty close now...

Beautiful.

Well it has been a pretty long haul but we are finally in our new home and the trophy room is structurally complete. Really it just needs some decluttering (I hate moving).















Just to provide some details...

The flooring is 7" wide, long-plank hickory. The baseboard trim and beams are made from 1"x8" poplar. The ceiling lighting consists of LED canned lights on a dimmer switch and the wall sconces are gemsbok horn with porcupine quill shades. Under the dry wall I had them place 3/4" plywood for easy hanging. Thank you to the folks at AR for all the advice and sharing their own rooms which was immensely helpful in putting my own room together. Now I just need to fill it up a little more

Mesquite trees are ugly, but sawn into lumber make great looking mantles for fireplace.

Man, that looks really excellent.

I particularly like the wall color, well done!!

Your room came out really nice, classy. I like it a lot.

Nicely done, that bongo mount is truly amazing.

The room is lovely and I am impressed with the quality of the taxidermy. The mounts look very lifelike. Personally, your Kudu is my favorite. A well done kudu pedestal of such a nice specimen ranks in my book as one of the most-beautiful trophies anywhere. That zebra blows me away as well.

Thank you all for the kind words!

As for the taxidermy, the credit goes to the two great taxidermists who brought those dreams back to life. The kudu, zebra, and baboon pedestals were done by Matt Wolf who has since retired. The bongo, sitatunga, and giant forest hog/colobus combo were done by Aaron Simser of Artistic Visions Wildlife. Aaron runs a top notch taxidermy outfit who I will continue to use going forward.

What is the color on the walls? Looking to paint my home office/budding trophy room and like the color.

quote:

Originally posted by crackerman:
What is the color on the walls? Looking to paint my home office/budding trophy room and like the color.

The paint is Coastal Plain from Sherwin Williams (SW6192).

Looks really nice PA

quote:

Originally posted by PAGuardian:
Thank you all for the kind words!

As for the taxidermy, the credit goes to the two great taxidermists who brought those dreams back to life. The kudu, zebra, and baboon pedestals were done by Matt Wolf who has since retired. The bongo, sitatunga, and giant forest hog/colobus combo were done by Aaron Simser of Artistic Visions Wildlife. Aaron runs a top notch taxidermy outfit who I will continue to use going forward.

Looks really good. I’ve also been using Aaron’s studio for over ten years now. So glad he finally got around to opening the new, larger showroom and shop.

quote:

Originally posted by Highlander7:

quote:

Originally posted by PAGuardian:
Thank you all for the kind words!

As for the taxidermy, the credit goes to the two great taxidermists who brought those dreams back to life. The kudu, zebra, and baboon pedestals were done by Matt Wolf who has since retired. The bongo, sitatunga, and giant forest hog/colobus combo were done by Aaron Simser of Artistic Visions Wildlife. Aaron runs a top notch taxidermy outfit who I will continue to use going forward.

Looks really good. I’ve also been using Aaron’s studio for over ten years now. So glad he finally got around to opening the new, larger showroom and shop.

Thank you all for the kind words.

Highlander, I’ve really enjoyed working with Aaron. He has been superb. I have a few hunts for 2024 and early 2025 so I’m hoping to have a bunch of stuff to drop off and really fill this room out. I’ve not had a chance to see Aaron’s new studio yet but I’ve heard it’s very nice!