Fall is here, which means it’s time to get those seasonal decorations out. But if you’re a hunter with a trophy room, you’ll want to take care to keep trophies safe. Here are six fall decorating tips for your trophy room, or other rooms in your home where animal mounts are displayed:
- Add fall elements to displays: Whether you’re hosting a fall themed party or merely someone who enjoys the cooler months, decorating your home to celebrate the fall season may be on your radar as of late. And what better way to brighten up your space than to incorporate red and orange colors? For a taxidermy collector, this means the chance to (carefully) add fall elements to make your grounded trophy displays pop. Place decorations—like small pumpkins, colorful fall leaves and holiday decor—on the base and around ground or mantle displays. Use fake, lightweight items to avoid harm.
- Add a turkey trophy: The fall season brings images of Thanksgiving turkeys and the feel of nature to the air. If you don’t already own a wild turkey trophy, plan a hunt to get yourself one or track one down for purchase. There are many options to pose a wild turkey—including the strutting pose, the flying pose and the beard and tail pose—but a standing pose is a good neutral pose that is great to display during the fall season and year-round.
- Don’t hang things from mounts: Although the antlers on your buck wall mount appear to be strong and sturdy, you do not want to hang decorations from them. If an element is too heavy, it could pull the entire mount down off the wall of your trophy room, or even damage antlers, teeth, claws or wings. Placing things on animal mounts also makes cleaning them difficult.
- Decorate around, not directly on trophies: As just mentioned, it’s best to steer clear of hanging decorations on your mounts. In other words, refrain from decorating directly on your animal trophies or mount displays to avoid leaving damage. You can decorate around your trophies, such as with pumpkins and dried leaves, lining bases with fall garlands and tacking decor to the wall near wall mounts, instead of on them.
- Be careful of lit candles: Scented or not, candles are a popular fall time home decor item that you will find in homes everywhere this season. However, you must remain vigilant of burning candles at all times to avoid a full-blown fire. Additionally, if you have decorations out near your animal mounts, between flammable decor materials and dry animal fur, there’s a real chance you may create a fire hazard.
- Inspect decor for insects: Whether your fall decor includes live plants, fresh foliage or reusable pieces, it’s important that you inspect everything for animal-trophy destroying insects. The common moth, fur beetles and carpet beetles will not hesitate to munch on taxidermy, and other bugs may decide to nest.
Need help designing your trophy room or do you have general taxidermy questions? If so, contact the team at Nature’s Design Taxidermy today!