Most trophy rooms aren’t designed. They’re accumulated — one mount at a time, over twenty seasons, hung wherever there was wall left. That’s how a collection ends up with a bull elk crowding a doorway and three whitetails in a row all looking the same direction.
We plan the room instead. Where each mount sits, what it sits on, which animals group together, how the light falls, and what happens when you come back from the next hunt with two more.
From individual mounts to a room that works
Trophy room design is not decorating. It’s a technical problem with an artistic answer. A full-body elk needs a specific ceiling height and a specific approach angle. A cape buffalo pedestal weighs what it weighs, and that load has to land on something. Two shoulder mounts facing each other read as confrontation; the same two turned slightly out read as calm. A wall of animals lit from the wrong side loses every bit of the detail you paid for.
We have been building mounts since 1978, and we know what they need — because we know exactly how they are built.
What we help with
- Room layout and sightlines
- Mount placement and grouping
- Which animals belong on pedestals versus walls
- Wall loading and safe anchoring for heavy mounts
- Custom habitat bases and scenic groundwork
- Multi-animal and multi-species arrangements
- Lighting placement and fixture recommendations
- Custom wall panels and backboards
- Plaques and story elements
- Reorganizing and rehanging an existing collection
- Planning space for the animals you haven’t taken yet
Who this is for
Safari hunters coming home with five, ten or fifteen animals at once. Western hunters with elk, mule deer, bear and sheep that need to share a room. Whitetail collectors thirty years deep who have run out of wall. Anglers with a fish collection that deserves better than a hallway. Lodge and cabin owners. And anyone building a new home who wants the room planned before the drywall goes up — that is the ideal time to call us.
There is one more group we see often: someone who has inherited a collection and doesn’t know what they have, what condition it’s in, or where to start. We can help with that too.
How it works
- Consultation — we talk through what you have, what’s coming, and what the space is.
- Collection inventory — every mount catalogued with species, mount type and dimensions.
- Measurements and photographs — of the room, and of the collection.
- Concept plan — layout, groupings, pedestal and habitat recommendations, lighting notes.
- Fabrication — any new mounts, habitats, pedestals or panels the plan calls for, built in our Jefferson studio.
- Placement — we help get everything where it belongs.
New construction or a remodel is the easiest version of this. An existing room is entirely workable — it just means more measuring, and more care moving what is already hung.
Coming back from Africa
A safari collection is the hardest trophy-room problem there is: many animals arriving at once, wildly different sizes, and a strong reason to group them by region or by hunt rather than scattering them across a wall. Plan it before you go, not after the crate lands.
African Safari Taxidermy & Trophy Planning →
Habitats and pedestals
A mount on a plain panel and the same mount on a custom habitat base are two different objects in a room. Habitat is what makes a collection read as a place rather than a wall of animals.
Common questions
Do I need a finished room before I contact you?
No — earlier is better. If you’re building or remodeling, we would rather talk before the walls are closed up, so lighting and anchoring can be handled properly the first time.
Can you work with mounts that aren’t yours?
Yes. We regularly plan rooms around collections built by other taxidermists, and we can assess condition at the same time.
What if my collection is still growing?
That’s the normal case, and it’s a big part of why planning helps. We leave designed room for what’s coming rather than filling every surface today.
Can you fix or clean the mounts I already have?
Yes — cleaning, repair and restoration are separate services we often combine with a room project. See Taxidermy Restoration.
How much does a trophy room project cost?
It depends entirely on how many mounts are involved, how much new fabrication is needed, and how complex the habitats are. Send photos and dimensions and we’ll talk through realistic scope. Individual mount pricing is on our Pricing page.
Do you install, or just plan?
Both are possible. Tell us what you need and we’ll discuss what makes sense for your project and location.
I inherited a collection and don’t know where to start.
Start with photographs. Send what you have and we’ll help you work out what you’re looking at and what condition it’s in.
How far ahead should I plan?
If new mounts are part of the project, build our current production schedule into your timeline — see the Pricing page for current delivery times.
Plan your trophy room
Send us photos of the room and the collection, along with rough dimensions, and we’ll tell you what’s possible.