Elkwood Farms' Tack Room

[sobreiros]

It's taken me a while to name my Julippy stables - I wanted something that sounded charming and rural, I'm not sure if I succeeded but now I'm attached to the Elkwood name, so that's that!


A tack room is something I've wanted to cobble together for a while, mostly because I get annoyed by all the saddles and props spread about the bookshelves and can never find things when I need them! But it's also been a while since I've done miniature decorating and it makes my heart happy 

I couldn't wait until tomorrow to set it up and take photos, so they're not brilliant as it was a bit dark.





The room itself was measured and cut out of a cardboard box, with some bits reinforced with duct tape, and then I painted up the walls and used some grey felt for the floor. I had a little sample pot of wall paint from when I painted our furniture in a nice dark duck egg, so I used that for the walls.





The saddle racks and the little shelf were also made out of painted cardboard. The rosettes on the shelf were actually won by the ponies  I think I'll add some brackets to the saddle racks, they're sturdy enough but it would just make them look better.





The rug is just a little scrap of fabric I grabbed exactly for this reason.




It's not finished yet; I have to think of more things to add to it. Maybe a counter or a bookshelf? I don't want to use cardboard for everything, as I do prefer the look of wood, so I might have to source some lolly sticks or balsa wood. Another visit to the local model shop might be in order!


Any suggestions would be appreciated, I'm not the best at this!!

[whitestones]

Looking good. Balsa wood is great for making tables and shelves out off. What about adding some bridle hooks and a cupboard? If you check out Dolls house scale items you will be spoilt for choice for bit and bobs to add to it. I look forward to seeing how this goes as you add more items

[astudyinscarlet]

It looks great so far. I think adding lots of little details is always good, things like a noticeboard (you can make one from a piece of cork sheet or tile) with typical yard stuff (sales adverts or whatever) and photos and things on; spare bits and tack items hanging up; bottles of horse shampoo and things like that on shelves (you can usually make stuff like that from pieces of dowel or small bottle caps and that type of thing and stick labels on them from actual products either cut from catalogues or find them online and print them out). A rug rack could be useful too and perhaps a little shelf unit for grooming tools or something. Maybe a bed for the pets as well?

Plastic push pins make quite decent bridle hooks especially if you put them on a strip of balsa wood or something similar.

[eldabee]

Looks good. I'm following the advice too- I've been involved in the dolls house hobby for years, but I can't quite translate it to mini stables!

[sobreiros]

Thank you so much for your suggestions guys!! I'm definitely going to make some bridle hooks and put them alongside the saddle racks. And a bookshelf as well! I'll have to purchase some balsa wood, I was thinking of using lolly sticks but the balsa might end up cheaper.

Definitely going to gather some bits and bobs to make little containers and tubs out of though. I think I'll weather the walls a bit as well along the edges, the cleanliness of it all is bothering me!!

[astudyinscarlet]

I've made little shelf units out of small boxes by adding card inserts inside for shelves. Painted up they look pretty good. I don't use corrugated ones but sometimes you get quite stiff card boxes for small items (especially around christmas time something suitable might turn up) or you can buy plain paper mache boxes. You can also get little mache boxes or bare wooden boxes with hinged lids that you can paint up and turn into storage trunks for rugs or odds and ends. And if you want lolly sticks look on ebay for them and buy them in big quantities if possible, they work out a lot cheaper that way.