Show me your tack room!

[Simkie]

For the first time ever, I have MY OWN TACK ROOM. This is just now really sinking in :lol:

It’s pretty much a blank canvas right now, but I’d like to get it set up in a way that makes sense this spring and summer! It’s a 12 x 12 room with a cement floor. Little window on the wall across from the door. Full sized fridge. Has some saddle racks, swinging blankets racks and bridle racks right now. Kelso the Kat also overnights in there and has his food and water. I like the look of this and am considering doing the same white paneling on the walls.

Show me yours? What do you LOVE about your tack room, and what would you do differently next time?

[ElementFarm]

Things I love about my tackroom:
-durable permanently hung saddle racks, more than I originally thought I’d need (and now all full)
-cabinets with shelves for sprays, shampoos, meds
-washer/dryer (what I originally thought was a luxury is not a can’t-live-without)
-half bath
-lots of bridle racks
-room under saddles for tack trunks
-a/c so nothing freezes or molds
-LIGHT – so nice to have a bright space, and not dim and depressing feeling
-tack cleaning station (hook, running water, shelf for cleaner and sponges)

Things I don’t like:
-floors are tile which is great, but they are WHITE. Who does white on a barn floor?! --always looks dirty
-not big enough (I have to keep bins with blanket storage and seldom used equipment in the house closet or attic)
-no room to display show ribbons or photos
-doubles as a feed/grain room, so one whole

[moving_to_dc]

My tack room sounds like it has a similar floorplan. Same size, with a window straight across from the door. You will quickly find that 12x12 doesn’t give you a lot of “floor space” along the walls.

In warmer months, I use a temp controlled window fan, or a window AC unit. The room is super well built, draft free and heavily insulated, so I am able to keep it “comfortable” all year round.

My barn cats live in my tack room, too, so I have a covered litter box and their food dishes in there.

I have an old/antique formica topped metal kitchen cabinet and an antique tall locker in there. They are priceless for dust-free rodent free storage. Even though my tack room is well sealed and draft free, dust always finds a way in!

Saddles are hung on the wall, to save floor space. My tack room has a 11’ ceiling, so the less used saddles go on racks up high that require a step stool to reach. The saddles in constant use are lower, but still about 5’ off the ground. Having them that high allows me to have a HUGE patio/deck box below them to store sheets and winter blankets in, and allow the lid to open fully, and me to not knock my head when I am getting stuff from the box.

Bridles are hung on racks tucked between the saddles, and on the wall on each side of the window.

I have 3 Rubbermaid trash cans in the tack room, as it also doubles as my feed room. The length of wall above them is lined with hooks, spaced about 6" apart, that have all manner of halters, leads, breastplates, cruppers, martigales, etc. hanging on them. They are up high, so nothing hangs down in the way of the feed cans.

I have a very well supported shelf that holds three 60# vittles vaults with dog food, cat food, and ration balancer in them. It was custom built so that those cheap plastic 3-drawer units fit flush under it, with just enough room to slide in, but they bear zero weight so as not to crush them. I have bits, leg wraps, quilts, first aid stuff, etc. stored in the drawers.

The remaining floor space along the wall is where I park the Dyson. Yes, I have a Dyson solely to vacuum the tack room! I also squeeze the space heater in there, and a couple re-purposed 50# CortaFlx tubs being used for more storage.

Having everything along the walls gives me a generous floor space in the middle to safely park the space heater in the winter, or a saddle stand for cleaning saddles, or a Momma goat with newborns that need warmed up, or a zero gravity recliner for me to sleep in when I have to monitor somebody overnight in the barn.

[Miss_Motivation]

Pinterest is your friend, from simple setups in sheds to ah-mazing setups that would require staff just to dust! Tack room planning is so fun.

My favorite things: http://www.royalwireequine.com for tack room hooks, racks, etc. They are incredibly strong, modular when you use their main frame wall unit, and really well designed. They are also very flexible and well-designed by horse people. Not Pinterest-beautiful, but boy do they do the trick.

Royal Wire’s stall gates are good too, much stronger than the ones I have bought at the race track. And their all-purpose hooks that fit over wood or block walls are really handy too for shows- they hang tack and the same fixtures you use at home, and they also have brackets that hold 2 x 4’s to staple your stall drapes to at shows. Can’t live without their tack room clothes rack at shows, either.

Just great stuff. We use their bridle and saddle racks in our tack lockers and group tack rooms and in 10 years, have never had a single thing break or be any kind of a problem.

Freight on the Royal Wire stuff can be expensive, because it doesn’t weigh much but is rather bulky. They always used to have a display at the Quarter Horse Congress in Columbus in October, and you could cash and carry products from there which was a really good deal.

Have fun planning- it will be fun to see photos on your thread as others share what they’ve done.

ETA- I have found some gorgeous old racks and hooks on eBay that made their way into my own tack room.

[DunByMistake]

At the moment, I have a converted chicken coop for a tack room but my SO has been talking about building me a room inside our hay barn.

One side has a built in shelf about counter height, we put in a saddle rack on one wall and the best thing is the little boxes that were built for the chickens. They are mounted on wall in 2 rows of 3. My wonderful SO cleaned all the chicken poop and feathers out of the boxes for me and I now use them for storage. My helmet box is in one, horse boots in another, grooming box, etc all fit into the little boxes on the wall.

My mother in law gave us an old towel rack when we moved to our place and it has been sooo handy for hanging blankets. Now that winter is finally over, I’m going to store winter blankets in tubs under the shelf in tack room.

If a new tack room doesn’t get built this summer, my plan is to paint my current one and totally get rid of the chicken smell. No matter how much I scrubbed, there is still some poop splattered about 8 feet up on the wall.

[Bluey]

@DunByMistake

At the moment, I have a converted chicken coop for a tack room but my SO has been talking about building me a room inside our hay barn.

One side has a built in shelf about counter height, we put in a saddle rack on one wall and the best thing is the little boxes that were built for the chickens. They are mounted on wall in 2 rows of 3. My wonderful SO cleaned all the chicken poop and feathers out of the boxes for me and I now use them for storage. My helmet box is in one, horse boots in another, grooming box, etc all fit into the little boxes on the wall.

My mother in law gave us an old towel rack when we moved to our place and it has been sooo handy for hanging blankets. Now that winter is finally over, I’m going to store winter blankets in tubs under the shelf in tack room.

If a new tack room doesn’t get built this summer, my plan is to paint my current one and totally get rid of the chicken smell. No matter how much I scrubbed, there is still some poop splattered about 8 feet up on the wall.

Sounds wonderful.

After scrubbing all you can, try painting with Kiltz paint, that will cover any and all.

If the smell is coming from where you can reach with paint, not from underneath the wood, you won’t have any more odd smells in there.

We had a old office room in our old barn that had stinky mold from an undetected leak.
Once we scrubbed all we could and repaired where it was rotten from it, using Kiltz, one coat, took care of that lingering smell just fine.
That paint is a primer, but is pure white and looked so good, we never painted over it and decades later, it is still like new.

They also make products today with an enzyme that will break up any that causes odors, try to scrub with those.

I saw an internet picture of a barn that had chicken aluminum nesting boxes in the side aisle with all kinds of supplies stuffed in there, shin boots, bandages, brushes, bottles and it looked nice.

[DunByMistake]

@Bluey Thank you for the suggestion. I will remember that. I have a deep phobia of birds so would like to purge all chicken related smells!

My boxes are nesting boxes (couldn’t think of name before) but are wooden. And they are so handy! Deep enough to hold a lot of stuff and keep everything organized in its own compartment.

[Gloria]

Anyone has good idea to hang/organize dressage girths? Unlike hunt girth, which has buckles at the end so you can hang a row of hunt girths through a long “poke,” dressage girth has leather all the way to the end, making it quite inconvenient to hang on the wall. The leather on the ends get in the way.

[Bluey]

@Gloria

Anyone has good idea to hang/organize dressage girths? Unlike hunt girth, which has buckles at the end so you can hang a row of hunt girths through a long “poke,” dressage girth has leather all the way to the end, making it quite inconvenient to hang on the wall. The leather on the ends get in the way.

Turn them around and hang them by the buckle, even if there is more material past it, now in the front?

Hang little strings/chains with a little snap from the hooks, hang the buckles by the snaps?

[tinah]

Gloria, could you use the giant clips they use for holding bags of chips shut, or would the girth be too heavy?

[Bluey]

@tinah

Gloria, could you use the giant clips they use for holding bags of chips shut, or would the girth be too heavy?

Good idea, or those big metal office clips?
The come in very large sizes also and those are very strong, would hold a girth just fine.

[moving_to_dc]

@Gloria

Anyone has good idea to hang/organize dressage girths? Unlike hunt girth, which has buckles at the end so you can hang a row of hunt girths through a long “poke,” dressage girth has leather all the way to the end, making it quite inconvenient to hang on the wall. The leather on the ends get in the way.

I use shower curtain rings, hung on a closet rod held up by closet rod shelf brackets. I hook the part that the shower curtain hangs on to the girth, either the buckles or the keepers in front of the buckles.

[csaper58]

I would completely rodent proof the tack room while it is empty. Your other thread is “Rats in the barn” yes?

[Foxglove]

Organizing a tack room is a bit like organizing a bedroom --much is personal choice. Mine is 13x10. Following my ma’s suggestion of organization of the work place (she had some kind of degree in that field) I put the items used most often closest to the door --the feed and supplements are on the wall on the right as one walks into the tack room. If you are only feeding, no need to go further --pick up a bucket, check chalk board for who eats what, and leave. On the left side are the bridles hung by individual horse name. On the back wall are racks for saddle pads and girths, divided by shelves that hold “used sometimes” products --soaps, clippers, show products, trailer washing supplies. Farthest from the door are the six saddles --three western three English. Next to them (and we’re back to the feed now) the most commonly used items are on shelves beside the feed --brush boxes, fly spray, coat conditioner, gloves, spurs. Above the feed is the medical cabinet with all health related items in it behind doors. So clockwise from door: bridles, pads, little used items, girths, saddles, brush boxes, and feed --closest to door.

[Mukluk]

I’d be too embarrassed to show you my tack room right now- It’s a mess. Maybe in a few months if I manage to get it cleaned and organized. But don’t hold your breath. Nonetheless there is nothing quite like having your very own tack room!!!

[Simkie]

Thanks, all! Part of my problem is my horse stuff has been packed for SO long that I’m not even sure what I have anymore. So first order of business is to find it all and figure out what I need.

Right now the room has bridle racks on the “door” wall, to the right (door opens to the left.) The right wall has six saddle racks, 2 rows of three. The back wall has the small window straight ahead and swinging blanket racks to the right of the window. The back left corner has the fridge.

Any thoughts on that white paneling I linked in the first post? Am I going to rue putting anything white in the tack room? It doesn’t have a ceiling, but is walled off from the barn. Is is open to the loft, though, so may get some dust from there.

My feed is in another room, although we may wind up storing alfalfa pellets behind the door or somewhere else in the tack room.

[PeteyPie]

@ElementFarm

Things I love about my tackroom:
-durable permanently hung saddle racks, more than I originally thought I’d need (and now all full)
-cabinets with shelves for sprays, shampoos, meds
-washer/dryer (what I originally thought was a luxury is not a can’t-live-without)
-half bath
-lots of bridle racks
-room under saddles for tack trunks
-a/c so nothing freezes or molds
-LIGHT – so nice to have a bright space, and not dim and depressing feeling
-tack cleaning station (hook, running water, shelf for cleaner and sponges)

Things I don’t like:
-floors are tile which is great, but they are WHITE. Who does white on a barn floor?! --always looks dirty
-not big enough (I have to keep bins with blanket storage and seldom used equipment in the house closet or attic)
-no room to display show ribbons or photos
-doubles as a feed/grain room, so one whole

Check out this relatively cheap and easy solution for your white tiles:
http://remingtonavenue.com/2015/08/the-girl-who-painted-her-tile.html

She sealed her floor well so I suspect it is super durable, but another thing I really liked about this method is that she painted the grout as well, which would make it easier to keep clean. Oh, and the finished product looks great.

[PeteyPie]

@China Doll

This is mine before I filled it with more tack, blankets and horse misc. Now it is a hot mess.

That is one beautiful room. Are there cabinets or hangers out of view of the photo to store more stuff?

[Bluey]

@PeteyPie

Check out this relatively cheap and easy solution for your white tiles:
http://remingtonavenue.com/2015/08/the-girl-who-painted-her-tile.html

She sealed her floor well so I suspect it is super durable, but another thing I really liked about this method is that she painted the grout as well, which would make it easier to keep clean. Oh, and the finished product looks great.

Very pretty, but to live with that day in and out, that floor would make me dizzy to walk around on it.

[PeteyPie]

The idea I was hoping to convey was that tile floors can be painted, not that one would have to use that design. There are so many ways to paint something, from plain solid colors, spatter patterns, stencils, hand-painted designs, stripes, plaids, faux stone or marble, checkerboards (a look I really like on a floor, especially with low-contrast colors, although black and white is awfully nice)… the list is only limited by one’s imagination.