My tack room

 I have a nice tack room. Its a shed that I traded a horse for; its got insulation, electricity, a nice window, locking door, saddle racks, bridle hooks, shelves. I painted the walls and added a pretty strip of wall paper with running horses on it. When I first got the shed I traded this horse, Justin, for it. I didn't know how good of a horse he was till it was too late.

 Just A Dose Of Khemo, half Arabian/Morgan gelding

And here is the shed when I first saw it at a storage facility in Kirkland:

 Just the bare bones really, flooring was ripped up, big barn doors on one end, no window. We added insulation to the walls, the window, another man door that is where this white shelf is in this photo. We put in a dividing wall so there is a different area for grains & supplements from the saddle & tack.



New vinyl



IKEA shelves, hold a ton of stuff



SOME of the saddle & tack we have in there



 I put the vinyl in by myself and its not a professional job but I think I did OK with it. It doesn't show dirt & sand, its easy to keep clean, it looks like tile and I like it a lot. I'd like this in my kitchen.

I used a Knotty Pine wooden trim on the walls and ceiling to make it look rustic.

All of the saddle racks and bridle hooks are black.

I have a lot of stuff on the IKEA shelves, its perfect for all the small things.

I use a small space heater in winter along with a ceiling fan to circulate the air to prevent mold & mildew. There are a couple electrical plug ins in the tack room side so I can charge batteries, use additional lights, extension cords, clippers, etc.

The ceiling light/fan are small and just the right size for the room but if its turning you better not be putting a saddle on a top rack!

I cut all the boards for the walls and window trim myself and it doesn't look too bad. I also painted the outside man door red, my favorite color. Its got a brass handle and I'd love a brass kick plate someday. I need to paint the outside to match the barn.

We live on a dead end road so once in a while there are undesirables who park out on the road. Most of the time there is nothing happening but they freak me out so there is now a lock on the tack room door, you need the combination to get in. Works perfectly for all of us, gives the boarders security. I've had my saddle stolen before and was lucky to get it back so this is nice.

I've put a fold down saddle rack on the front beside the door so its easier to tack up and the whip holder is close to the arena. The small deck is nice for if a mom wants to watch her daughter ride, or for just chilling while your horse frolics in the arena. I've sat out there in the sunshine just to read a few times.

What I would have done differently if I had known then what I know now:

I wish I had not used the other end for a feed room, I wish I had made the entire thing a tack room. I could certainly use the space now. All the western saddles are too heavy for the racks I had purchased so some of them have to be on tack trunks. I've had to get rid of a lot of my own tack to make room for the boarders items.  The barn gutters are blocked underground where they drain and water splashes onto the step by the feed room entrance, I'm not happy about that but Lan has been working on it. It just needs to be blown out and rehooked to the drain field.   The front door is now red. its got that same stoop and the door still gets icky stuff on it, I wonder if a small porch roof would help? I don't want anything the horses could get hurt on and they are my first priority.

The feed room end

I still use the barn doors on the end of the shed to access the feed room portion of the shed. I put shelves on the left hand wall that hold odds & ends, buckets, scoops, lights, big tools. On the right hand back corner there is a cupboard which has supplements on top and more tools & things inside it. There are garbage cans for the grains. Its really cramped inside but we make do. The electrical on this end of the shed doesn't work, the pigtails were never attached to power so I have to run an extension cord from the tack room, over the wall to a ceiling light. I used this room for 3 years without light! There is a light switch that I would LOVE to be able to use to turn the light on/off and I'd really enjoy having use of the outside porch light on dark nights.

What I had before the tack room



Old feed room in barn



After I added saddle racks



There was a small 8x10 room inside the barn across from my wash rack that was a feed/storage room. It worked well enough for the previous owners but I wanted security and more space.   The tack room was the stall next to this, it had lockers with saddle racks in them and each one had its own shelf. It wasn't secure at all, anyone could just go in it and do whatever they wanted.

And I wanted that stall as a stall.

And then I wanted a tack room.

And then I needed a foaling stall so we used this space to add to the stall to make this 18x10, plenty of room for my small mare to foal out or a bigger horse to hang out if they need more space than our other stalls offer.

I have made it perfectly clear to Lan that when we move I am taking my tack room with me. It was moved here on a flatbed trailer and it will be moved again. The only way I'll leave it behind is if the new farm has a bigger and better tack room thats already there. I put so much work into this shed and Im not about to just dump it now.