Reinvent It: A Shipping Container Goes a Little Bit Country

When Linda and Greg Schrage of Ojai, California, needed a hay barn for their horses, their neighbor's move worked out well for them. The neighbor had five new shipping containers she'd bought for storage and was looking to unload them.

Linda loves to use reclaimed items and had a vision for transforming the $1,500 container into a little shed. Her vision, a stockpile of salvage supplies and Greg's handiness resulted in a welcome addition to the property.

The little barn is nestled along a driveway where the couple pulls up their horse trailers, close to their riding arena. A barn star and windows give the utilitarian box some country style.


BEFORE: This was the 8- by 20-foot shipping container when the couple bought it.


Linda describes the main house as "kind of a Cape Cod Ojai ranch." She planned for the salvage-container hay barn to complement it.


The couple bought windows at Home Depot, cut holes for them and added pine trim.


Linda had her painter load up the sprayer and paint the container with her go-to red paint, Benjamin Moore's Roasted Pepper. (It has been discontinued, but she has the recipe so it can still be mixed up for her.)

She and Greg crafted shutters from some of their barn wood and then 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 has perfected over the years. "I just layer a lot of products from the fancy paint store," she says.


The couple framed out a pitched roof to add more character to the little barn. The roof is covered with pieces of tin they salvaged from "all over the place," Linda says.

Double doors make it easy to load the container with hay. "The container can seal completely tight if we need it to; it's perfect for storing our hay," Linda says.


These are Linda's helpers: Jake, Wrangler and Lucy. A side door at the far end of the container has an operable window that helps ventilate the space when needed.


To block views of the horse arena's large expanse of sand, the couple added a lush landscape. Twelve loads of fill in front of the hay barn create landscaped mounds planted with variegated Euonymus, society garlic, roses, Nepeta and penstemon. The shed is just out of sight to the right side of this photo.


Greg built this little birdhouse, complete with a little porch; it sits atop an old tree trunk. He hit their storage pile again, using barn wood, old tin and a rusty horseshoe.


Including a small kit shed from a big-box store, this little compound of outbuildings serves as a hay barn and a small tack room. "I just love to 'project,'" Linda says. The couple's next project is a much larger one: finishing a home in Northern California with as many reclaimed materials as possible.

URL: Reinvent It: A Shipping Container Goes a Little Bit Country http://www.decor-ideas.org/cases-view-id-18453.html