Reinvent It: A Shipping Container Goes a Little Bit Country
When Linda and Greg Schrage of Ojai, California, had a hay barn for their horses, their neighbor’s move worked out nicely for them. The neighbor had five new transport containers she had purchased for storage and was looking to unload them.
Linda enjoys to use reclaimed things and had a vision for transforming the $1,500 container into a tiny drop. Her eyesight, a design of salvage supplies and Greg’s handiness caused a welcome inclusion to the property.
The tiny barn is tucked along a driveway where the bunch pulls up their horse trailers, close with their own riding arena. A barn windows and star give the utilitarian box some country fashion.
BEFORE: This is the 8- by 20-foot delivery container once the couple purchased it.
Linda describes the main house as “type of a Cape Cod Ojai ranch” She planned for the salvage-container hay barn to match it.
The couple purchased windows at Home Depot, cut holes and added pine trim.
Linda had her painter load the sprayer and paint the container with her go-to reddish paint, Benjamin Moore’s Roasted Pepper. (It has been ceased, but she’s the recipe so it can nevertheless be mixed up for her)
She and Greg crafted shutters from some of their barn wood and subsequently brought in horse-ranch style with some rusty horseshoes.
Linda faux painted the pine trim around the windows to match the barn wood shutters. It’s a technique she’s perfected over the years. “I only layer a lot of goods from the fancy paint shop,” she states.
The couple framed out a pitched roof to add additional personality to the tiny barn. The roof is covered with bits of tin they flashed from “all over the area,” Linda says.
Dual doors make it easy to load the container. “The container can seal completely tight if we need it it’s perfect for storing our hay,” Linda says.
All these are Linda’s helpers: Jake, Wrangler and Lucy. A side door in the far end of the container comes with an operable window that helps ventilate the space when required.
To block views of the horse stadium’s big expanse of sand, the couple added a lush landscape. Twelve heaps of fill facing the hay barn create landscaped mounds planted with variegated Euonymus, society garlic, roses, Nepeta and penstemon. The drop is just out of sight to the ideal side of this picture.
Greg constructed this tiny birdhouse, complete with a tiny porch; it sits atop an old tree trunk. He struck their storage pile again, with barn wood, old tin along with a rusty horseshoe.
Including a little kit drop from a big-box shop, this tiny compound of outbuildings serves as a hay barn and a little living area. “I only love to ‘project,'” Linda says. The couple’s next project is a far bigger one: completing a home in Northern California with as many reclaimed materials as possible.
