BryceM
AH veteran
@Green Chile recently started a thread asking about trophy room ideas. I've seen many good ones posted here over the years. Also, a few that are truly epic in scope, planning, and execution. I learned a few things along the way, and maybe what I did will provide some good and bad ideas for others.
The plan:
For me, the decision to build a standalone addition came gradually, a few years after building the house. At first, my small man-cave in the house was home to my trophies, but after my second or third trip, it was obviously not going to work. Besides, my wife has always been perfectly content with plenty of hunting, but she has an intense desire to eat dinner without the animals looking at her.
We had always planned to add a shop, and it seemed logical to combine the two. The want list included:
- A hangout trophy room that was big enough to host a small party, meeting, or watch movies.
- A two car garage, with doors tall enough to house a camper. I don't have one, but you never know......
- A bathroom
- A reloading room
- A space to keep some woodworking tools
- A ceiling mount for a hoist capable of easily lifting a moose or car engine
- A place to debone, grind, and package game
- An overhang on the back to house the bird dogs
- A small loft for exercise equipment or perhaps a billiards table
- In-wall, surround speakers
- Heat and AC
- 3/4" plywood backing in the trophy room
What we did not include:
- A walk-in vault
- A formal bar
- A built-in dust collection system for the wood shop tools
I poked around here and other places for quite a while to get a feel for what I might need in terms of size, wall space, and height. I was originally planning on 12' ceilings, but after talking it over with the contractor, it really wasn't that much more to go up a full 16'. That decision, I've never regretted. There was a finite budget for the building, but I certainly didn't want to be out of room immediately.
The final building dimensions came it at 62'x34' with a 10' covered overhang on the back for the dogs. The trophy room size was 19x33', finished, with a staircase leading up to a small loft, and a sink with small cabinet. The floorplan came out like this. The 2 car garage is on the left, with the larger bay providing room for a table saw, jointer, workbench, and a few other tools.
The small office in the middle became a reloading room, and the bigger open room is on the right. The loft is over the reloading room/bathroom area. The roof hoist is located just in front of the depicted truck, and there is also a restaurant-style stainless steel sink/table for meat processing in front of the truck. I wired it with plenty of 120V and 240 outlets. Do NOT skimp on those. They're cheap up front, but even a ridiculous number of those is never enough. A big freezer is next to the sink/table which is rather convenient.
An architect drew up the plans, added some truss reinforcement for the lift/hoist, and I was lucky enough to find a contractor who spends plenty of his own time hunting.
The plan:
For me, the decision to build a standalone addition came gradually, a few years after building the house. At first, my small man-cave in the house was home to my trophies, but after my second or third trip, it was obviously not going to work. Besides, my wife has always been perfectly content with plenty of hunting, but she has an intense desire to eat dinner without the animals looking at her.
We had always planned to add a shop, and it seemed logical to combine the two. The want list included:- A hangout trophy room that was big enough to host a small party, meeting, or watch movies.
- A two car garage, with doors tall enough to house a camper. I don't have one, but you never know......
- A bathroom
- A reloading room
- A space to keep some woodworking tools
- A ceiling mount for a hoist capable of easily lifting a moose or car engine
- A place to debone, grind, and package game
- An overhang on the back to house the bird dogs
- A small loft for exercise equipment or perhaps a billiards table
- In-wall, surround speakers
- Heat and AC
- 3/4" plywood backing in the trophy room
What we did not include:
- A walk-in vault
- A formal bar
- A built-in dust collection system for the wood shop tools
I poked around here and other places for quite a while to get a feel for what I might need in terms of size, wall space, and height. I was originally planning on 12' ceilings, but after talking it over with the contractor, it really wasn't that much more to go up a full 16'. That decision, I've never regretted. There was a finite budget for the building, but I certainly didn't want to be out of room immediately.
The final building dimensions came it at 62'x34' with a 10' covered overhang on the back for the dogs. The trophy room size was 19x33', finished, with a staircase leading up to a small loft, and a sink with small cabinet. The floorplan came out like this. The 2 car garage is on the left, with the larger bay providing room for a table saw, jointer, workbench, and a few other tools.
The small office in the middle became a reloading room, and the bigger open room is on the right. The loft is over the reloading room/bathroom area. The roof hoist is located just in front of the depicted truck, and there is also a restaurant-style stainless steel sink/table for meat processing in front of the truck. I wired it with plenty of 120V and 240 outlets. Do NOT skimp on those. They're cheap up front, but even a ridiculous number of those is never enough. A big freezer is next to the sink/table which is rather convenient.
An architect drew up the plans, added some truss reinforcement for the lift/hoist, and I was lucky enough to find a contractor who spends plenty of his own time hunting.
