Sara's hobby room

Hobby rooms come in all shapes and sizes. Some are teeny tiny closets, while others are positively palatial. Here's the story of how one of those very grand spaces came to be. Thank you, Sara, for sharing this here. I hope to someday visit your big, beautiful horse room!

Building the Horse Room

by Sara Bowman

When we bought our house in 2015, we decided not to use the upstairs room as our bedroom.  It was awkward with the angled ceiling, and it was too hot during the summer.

This left one options: A horse room!

The room was an ugly shade of rust when we bought it so I had painted it teal to make it a nicer space for me to make tack and house my collection.

It didn't work. The space was a cluttered mess, and while I did enjoy working up there, it never really felt like a place I could show people. The lighting was bad and somewhat dangerous. It was dark and shadowy, and it had carpet. I HATE CARPET. Tiny metal pieces would fall out of my hand and into the carpet, never to be seen again. It got to the point that I was starting to hate it, and I wanted to remodel. During the pandemic my husband, Jake, and I started projects around the house to improve our little sanctuary. He had made bookshelves to create a library in our spare bedroom and fixed our deck. Remodeling the horse room was extremely ambitious. But the phrase “happy wife, happy life” is one Jake embodies. In early 2021, I began the arduous task of packing up six years worth of model horse paraphernalia. As I packed the horses in their pouches and into totes, I used the opportunity to document my entire OF collection by taking pictures of each horse in my lightbox. 

I had never done that before, and it was actually quite fun. Everything was moved down into the basement, except the resins, who got to live in the library on the shelves. Finally, on April 19, 2021 we donned our respirators and went to work on demolition. 

It was fun! Jake swung the sledge hammer and pulled the walls down. 

We opened the window that overlooked the driveway and threw pieces out of it into a rented dumpster. It was exhilarating to be throwing things out of the window! 

Demolition was hard work, and it was so hot upstairs. We made sure to keep respirators on because of all the dust and insulation.

Once we had taken the walls down to the studs, we ripped up the carpet. It was as disgusting as I always feared! Out the window it went. We planned on new insulation, so we had to pull all of that down and put it into plastic bags. This was my least favorite part of demolition. The insulation got everywhere! 

When all that was done, it was astonishing how large the room was. With the help of my father-in-law, Jake was able to rewire the entire room. This meant there would be outlets all over the room instead of the two that I previously had. He also replaced the dangerous track lighting with bright recessed lighting. Next came the new insulation.

In June, we welcomed a new puppy into our family. This meant the remodel was going to take a back seat while all of our attention was focused on our new kid. I could probably post a million pictures of her, but three will have to do. 

By the time July rolled around, all the insulation was up, and I was getting antsy.  I wanted my space back! Fortunately, BreyerFest and all the online shenanigans were great distractions.  

Jake started hanging drywall with the help of the neighbor guys.   

The room was starting to look like a room again! I don’t know what I was expecting with drywall, but I definitely didn’t anticipate it taking so long. Mud, dry, sand, repeat. Mud, dry, sand, repeat. At least an air conditioner was upstairs during this part. 

This went on for all of August. I think Jake knew I was going a little nuts when I took my newly acquired Spot On upstairs and took a picture of her in the naked room. 

In September, the walls were painted. I chose a glossy white paint to help reflect light. I didn’t want the new room to be a dingy dungeon again. 

Also in September, Jake started laying the new flooring. 

I chose grey vinyl flooring to help keep the room bright, and of course, to help me not lose those metal tack parts! 

The room was really starting to come together, and I was getting excited. By the beginning of October the floors were done. All that was left was minor things like the trim, outlet plates, and fixing minor boo-boos with the drywall.

Once that was done, we bought shelving. I had some, but it wasn’t going to be nearly enough for what I had planned. On October 16, we started installing the shelves. 

I was giddy.

I started bringing horses upstairs. 

Two days later all of the shelves were up and covered the entire length of the northern wall. I spent all of that Monday unpacking my OF models and filling those shelves.

 

Jake brought up my resin cubbies and we filled those, too. 

We added a hammock for the designated studio cat club house.

My room was officially finished and contained horses again. I sat up there for hours just brimming with happiness.

My desk got moved back upstairs, and I started to unpack my tack making supplies. 

I had new storage for my props, dolls, and fabric. This time, everything was going to have a home. 

I decided to free my boxed horses so that I would have more room. That was like Christmas. I unboxed at least twenty five horses and placed them on the newly christened shelves.

In November, I was back to making tack. I had a lot of work to do to get ready for BreyerFest 2022, which was held in person at the Kentucky Horse Park.  

All in all, it took it took seven months from the first swing of the sledge hammer to having all the horses were officially unpacked and on the shelves. It was expensive, tiring, frustrating, and one hundred percent worth it.

I don’t think I can thank Jake enough for what he did upstairs, but he knows how much I love my horse room and how often I am up there. 

It's the horse room of my dreams, that's for sure.