Here it is, the grand reveal. We've been working on this project as a family, which has been a blessing because it's the largest project I've taken on thus far. Aside from home maintenance projects, of course, but we're talking about fun crafting type projects here.
My husband has been collecting pallets for various projects I come up with and one day, bless his heart, he showed up after work with the frame of a shipping crate in the bed of the truck. Wow! I knew that would save us a huge amount of time in building our daughter's new custom tack box. She spent quite a bit of time designing her ideal tack box and, once we got going, we all realized the interior would really look nothing like her plans. And we're totally ok with that.
Here it is, with none of her tack in it yet. For the coronation ceremony, the first saddle to sit on the a saddle rack is my Grandma Cunningham's saddle, and the first saddle pad to go in is my Grandpa Cunningham's. (I love this picture, by the way!)
The goal of this project, besides building a much-needed new tack box, was to repurpose, recycle or reclaim as much as possible, either from things we collected or things we already had. Aside from the hardware and the plywood used to make the doors, we totally achieved our goal.
Now, down to the nitty gritty. You know that the frame was a crate. We filled in all of the gaps with pallet wood, including the top and the floor. I made the brush shelf on the top left side all by myself and am so incredibly proud that it's level and functional because a woodworker I am not. That is the talent my husband has been gifted with and I am so thankful he is patient with me and our daughter when we do things like this together. The halter hangers are tuna cans and there are two on each side of the tack box. There are two additional hooks in the center of the brush shelf on the left for hanging girths and cinches. Also on the left side, I've installed two sets of eye hooks with bungee cords to hold saddle pads and whips.
On the right side, I installed that piece of draft horse pyrography I burned months ago and hadn't yet found a purpose for. Once I'd added a few knobs and some dowel rods that I found in the garage, it became quite functional for this project and saved us from needing to purchase additional hooks. There is a little, tiny corner shelf there, too, that is of scrap wood I found in my husband's tool bag.
As you can see, we off-set the saddle racks to make a small seat in the back corner. This provides her with a changing room, which is why there's also a mirror on the door directly in front of that space. We have a piece of scrap carpet that will be cut to fit here, too. In case you have difficulty envisioning this, allow me and the boys to demonstrate. :) There isn't always time to run to the restroom between show classes and some barn visitors aren't respectful of the need for privacy when exhibitors duck into stalls behind sheets or garment bags to try to change clothes. She thought, since the tack box is going to be the same size and hold the same amount of tack no matter what, she thought hey, why not?!
And then the personal touches were added. Longears and music...
She's had these hooks for a few years, but wasn't using them. This is the perfect place for them right now.
Draft horse pyrography hooks to hang clothes, belts, bridles...you name it.
I really wanted to have actual horseshoes on the front but I could not get them mounted in a way I felt they would stay on through moving the tack box to and from the fairgrounds for the next 3 years. So I burned them onto the doors with her initials, as requested. Next up is a bit of shading, then the whole tack box will be sealed with a clear waterproofer and ready to go!
Oh, and because we made a space for her to change inside, we made sure to provide illumination so she can see what she's doing and look in the mirror to hopefully ward off any wardrobe malfunctions.
I love it when a plan comes together!
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