DefinitelyDressage.com

My new shed with stables/tack room and feed room is almost finished!
I have a room about 4 x 3 metres with ply walls and wondering how best to set it up. Does anyone have any favourite things for their tack room?

I've recycled former kitchen top cabinets to store small items - liniments, shampoos, first aide creams, etc. It is so hard to keep stuff free of dust so enclosed cabinets versus open shelves works for me. You can place supplement containers on open shelve since they are used daily. Likewise, I also have a short lower kitchen counter top which is useful when you need a table top. Again, a few drawers are handy for little items.

If my math is correct, that's about 9x13 feet. Is this going to be only a tack room or a combined feed/tack room. Later I will try to get you a pic of my tack room which is a similar size. My feed room is small (mistake) and really pretty unfinished, but it does the job for me. My tack room has a door/stairs that leads to my loft. A real pita because I'm always dragging hay in the room.

Are rodents a problem, I design differently if they are.

Just as a tack room, the feed room is separate. Would love to see a pic MC. A loft sounds so cool!

Haven't though of kitchen cabinets, that would be useful.
I expect there is potential for a mouse problem. Surprisingly I haven't had too much of a problem yet. This room in the shed is lined but they may get under the door.

Rodents will get in, no matter what. Mice only need a 5mm gap!

I use a combination:
a large wooden box (originally used to deliver some type of medical equipment) for long-term storage, as it is rodent-proof but not completely airtight
old non-working chest freezer (700L) to store feed in
1 large repurposed kitchen cabinet (one cupboard and two deep drawers, and we added old cabinet doors as "lids" to turn the space that was for the hob into a useable storage space)
hooks/nails on the wall to hang halters etc (but not leather anything)
a couple of large clear plastic containers with lids (great for first-aid type items as you can see everything, 40-60L size).

In my float I have a large cupboard with saddle rack and hooks for my bridles. It is rodent proof so all leather that is "in use" goes there. Plus a cover rack to stash fleece rugs on.

I also have a bit of small stuff stored in a small set of drawers in the tack room, too (originally bedroom furniture), as well as a bunch of house furniture stacked up, as my tack room is the only storage space we have at the moment!

At our future place, I'm planning cabinets, cubbies, and drawers, with doors on everything to keep dust and grime out. Drawers big enough to store clean coolers, sheets, and blankets. If there's room, double the number of bridle and saddle spots you need for spare bridles/halters/breast collars, wet pads, etc. Hooks to hang jackets, half chaps, helmets, spurs, bits, and girths on the wall. Wire baskets for horse boots and dirty wraps/laundry. A set of those hinged blanket hangers that only catch the fronts to hang dirty coolers (stick dirty blankets in the stall area). Designated cubbies for boots, and spot to store leather cleaning supplies. And a whip holder.

Musical comedy - did you remember to take a pic of your tack room?
I'm now on days off so going to slap some paint on the walls so I can start moving in

Flight wrote:Musical comedy - did you remember to take a pic of your tack room?
I'm now on days off so going to slap some paint on the walls so I can start moving in

I did forget. Sorry. I will try to remember to do it today. Then I will have to figure out how to re-size to put it here.

So in my designed tack room which I no longer have, I used metal grills to line my wooden cabinets and boxes to keep rats out. I had a locker for each stall, with saddle racks, shelf and drawer. Now I keep my feed in metal garbage cans standing in the wooden grain bin because my bins are not lined.

I keep the clean blankets in trunks, and ones in use hanging on the doors. I have a multiple blanket hanger for wet blankets, but not in the tack room.

Storing blankets that I'm using is a big problem for me. I have several and alterate them depending on the weather, etc. No matter where I hang them, mice get in there, chew the insulation and breed. Right now, all my winter blankets are being stored in the dressing room of my horse trailer.

I have a separate feed room and it's totally secure from mice, so I don't have a feed storage issue.

So this is my tack room and the other question is paint or stain the ply?? My friend suggested painting a feature wall and staining the rest...

I would paint it ... but, I'm the type to paint the garage

I purchased very large containers with snap on tight lids to store blankets, pads, leg wraps, etc. in the barn They are mice proof! Otherwise, the little rodents destroy anything with material.

http://www.rubbermaid.com/en-US/shop-pr ... torage-box

Flight wrote:So this is my tack room and the other question is paint or stain the ply?? My friend suggested painting a feature wall and staining the rest...

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I think your friend is right on the money. I would just stain. If you like color do a wall. Personally, while I really like the modern look of laminated ply, just pained isn't for me.

Flight, I took pics but I cannot resize them to fit here. I tried, but failed. I'm just technically challenged.

I thin stain would look nice, and be less likely to show the inevitable scuffs and dings that will happen over time. For some reason though, I'm picturing a wide horizontal painted stripe about halfway up the wall. Looks like a great space!

A couple.

A couple more. I prefer a dresser with drawers as oppose to trunks and boxes. I don't want to have to sort through stuff to find what I'm looking for.

I couldn't get a photo that showed the size of the room. It's not too small. Abut 10x12. I'll measure later.

Thanks MC! Sorry I didn't see this earlier.
What is your floor?
I like the bench thing.

I have most things in tubs like Josette posted, as the mice moved into my last place. But I like the idea of drawers.. actually I have some doing nothing so might move them down.

We painted half and stained half. I think the painted half will get scuffed but I will put the drawers or shelves there eventually.

Flight wrote: Does anyone have any favourite things for their tack room?

A wine fridge would be nice

Flight wrote:Thanks MC! Sorry I didn't see this earlier.
What is your floor?
I like the bench thing.

The floor is cement. The aisle, feed room, and tack room have cement flooring. The stalls have stonedust base. The bench opens to storage. I like it too!

I

MC, what do you have as your floor covering in the tack room? I was wondering about putting something down, but not sure.
I think I'll look around for a bench like yours too

My tack room is about the same size as yours.

I have the saddle racks on the back wall, along with a blanket rack.

The right side wall is all shelving, from the bottom all the way up. This is where I store most of the stuff I don't use every day -- ie winter blankets in the off season, fly sheets in the off season, tack not currently needed, etc. Everything is in tubs. My trick is that all the tubs are PROPERLY LABELED (and I keep them current) - because then I know where X item is, at a glance, when I need it again.

On this same wall, I also have a chest-height rack that has my everyday use stuff: brushes, grooming equipment, treats, riding gloves, etc. I made sure everything has a place, so it all still fits even after several years.

On the other wall, I have my bridle rack, and then a high (just above my height) shelf where I store old buckets and whatnot. From this shelf I have hanging everyday equipment like halters, leg wraps in bags, whip, etc. Lining the wall underneath all this stuff are tack boxes, which are also handy for sitting on.

So, what I'm saying is, a lot of storage is nice None of my stuff is as fancy as above, but I am quite happy with my setup. It is very useable for what I need it for.