DIY Framed Guitars

Jul 3, 2012 | DIY, Lifestyle, Our Home

Folks…I ACTUALLY did a DIY project! Aren't you proud? And trust me, if I can do this, YOU can do this. Why?

1) I am NOT crafty, and borderline hate crafty things.
2) I'm cheap, house-poor, and can't really spend much on my home decor.
3) My husband…bless his little heart…is about the least handy person on the planet, nor does he desire to be. He has many talents, but building/fixing things is not one of them.

So really, it's that easy. Here you go!

DIY Framed Guitar

We moved to a new home in Dec (a short sale that needed a bit of TLC). My husband (Bubba) plays guitar and I play piano. Bubba said that he really wanted to display our instruments in our new house so we would be more inclined to pick them up and play them…rather than keep them tucked in a closet.
I didn't want a bunch of guitars lying around, so we came up with this idea!
We went to Home Depot and bought some moulding. It's SUPER cheap, like $0.55/ft-ish. We wanted it to look like the moulding that was already on the walls in our room:
We pre-measured our squares and cut it right there at Home Depot.

Even though it was already white, it needed a new coat so we did a quick once-over with white paint and brush. We had them dry in the garage.
Once dried, we created a mock-up of the squares on the floor to make sure they would align properly once on the wall.
My husband used his measuring tape and level to make sure they were straight and properly lined up on the wall before nailing them down. We used a pencil to mark where they needed to go.
We used tiny finishing nails to nail them down. A few nails later, voila!
We ordered some cheap but sturdy guitar hooks online and hung our babies. We could instantly see that it didn't look right, it needed something.

I went to a thrift store and tried to find some sheet music. I couldn't find what I wanted and almost gave up…then I noticed these babies:

A whole set of OLD sheet music books. They couldn't have been more perfect! I bought two books at $3 each and took them home.

How cool are these books?!

As my husband and I started tearing out pages he said, “wow, these pages feel REALLY old.” We searched through the books to find a printing date…and found one.

1918? Are you kidding me? We were tearing pages out of a book that is almost 100 years old.
Oops.
We chose a handful of our favorite ornate, unique, and artistic music. We weren't sure how to stick it to the wall. I almost ran to Michaels and bought something, then my husband found this in a random pile of stuff the previous owners left behind:
Bingo.
We started spraying and sticking.
Before long, it was finished…and we couldn't be happier with the results!
It's been a few months and it's still holding up really well! Some of the corners are coming up from leaving the windows open and the wind blowing the pages, but a little more glue fixes it right up.
Our room is ALMOST complete. We need curtains, a piano bench, and a bold rug. There are a lot of neutrals so I want a rug that POPS. However, we are out of money for this room so we will have to wait until we build up our “decorating fund” again.
The “fireplace” is actually a space heater surrounded by a solid wood mantel. We bought it from Costco about 5 years ago for around $500. It looks real, and heats up a room really well. We used it nearly every day in the winter in our town home, and think it really adds some depth to this room.
The mirror was $30 from Ross. The vase and silk willows were a set from Costco, $7 I believe.
The chairs we are IN LOVE with. We had been shopping around for accent chairs for months. We wanted to stay under $300 for a pair of chairs, and were having no luck. Every chair we found was TINY! An adult could hardly sit on it comfortably!
I found these awesome chairs on Overstock and knew they were perfect…
but they were out of stock.
I called Overstock to see when they would get more in, they had no idea if they ever would. I almost impulsively bought my second-favorite chairs for $350 EACH…but stopped myself.
(Self-control comes in handy, sometimes!)
A week later I got an email that the chairs were back in stock.
ALLELUIA.
We got the two of them for right around $300.
The music books we now use as decor, sans the pages that are now glued to our walls.
This metal decorative tin and the decorative balls inside I got at a yard sale, $5 for everything I believe. The candle was also a yard sale find.
We absolutely love the room. It's the first thing you see when you walk in, and it's always filled with the sound of music. People can hardly help themselves when they see the guitars hanging there, they always sit and play for a while! It's great!
We will soon be displaying my flute, Bubba's Ukulele from Brazil, and we hope to get an african drum of some kind someday to add to our collection.

So there you have it!
With a little creativity you can dress up YOUR music room too.
Happy DIY'ing 🙂

Jordan signature

16 Comments

  1. Helen

    I Love, Love Love this! It looks terrific! You have given me an idea to get my husband's guitars out of their cases and out of the corner of our sunroom.

    Reply
  2. Lisa

    awesome ideas – you did great. Have you thought of a coat of polyurethane over the sheet music? Might not be good if the sheet music is right on the wall though.

    Reply
  3. Nikki

    Jordan! You did an amazing job on the guitars! I LOVE that you used sheet music as a backdrop! Perfect.
    My recent post Keep Calm and Worship On

    Reply
  4. Drew

    WOW! Fantastic job you've done with those frames and I really like the musical chords behind those guitars. Frames are placed nicely and inspired me pretty much to work in such DIY project to framed my classic guitars nicely on my room walls. Thanks.
    My recent post Does the Play Worship Guitar Program Help You Learn Guitar?

    Reply
  5. Nasly

    I love this, but do you have any ideas for a framed guitar with glass? or some kind of frame that will also protect the guitar?

    😀 I loooooveee the room!

    Reply
  6. funcheaporfree

    Hmm, that's a good thought! We aren't that talented so we, personally, would have to get it made somewhere. Unfortunately I have NO IDEA where you'd even start, so sorry!

    Reply
  7. Joy Thomas

    I am thinking of doing this same thing with my son’s guitars in his bedroom. I am trying to decide what dimensions to make the frames. I like the size you used. Can you tell me what your frame dimensions are? Thank you!

    Reply
    • Kathy

      I am so grateful that you posted this. My husband died January 2021 of covid. I’ve been searching for a way to display the guitar that his parents gave him when he was 16 years old. This is perfect and I have people making it as I’m typing. Thank you for giving me a way to honor my husband.

      Reply
      • Fun Cheap or Free

        Kathy! Thank you for sharing, our hearts go out to you and we are so thankful you took the time to share that with us. We hope that it is something you will cherish forever and can remind you of fond memories.

        Reply
  8. Sherry

    excellent. copying this for our music/art studio – thanks!

    Reply
  9. Emily

    What dimensions are your frames? Love the size of them.

    Thanks! 🙂

    Reply
    • FunCheapOrFree

      Oh my gosh, I have no idea! Haha! I’m out of town for the week but will try to remember to measure when we get back. We built them around the size of the guitar more than the size of the wall.

      Reply
      • Maria Haisley

        Did you have the measurements? Im looking to make this for my husbands guitars….

        Reply
        • FunCheapOrFree

          I don’t, I’m sorry!

          Reply
  10. Caroline

    I’m in the midst of decorating my teens music area. My daughters electric piano is easy, it sits on the adjacent wall looking great, but I didn’t want my sons guitars just hanging on the other wall looking messy! WOW, this is the perfect solution! Thank you so much for sharing your wonderful idea <3. I'm thinking i'll match in the framed backdrop with our striped grey and white wall behind the piano for conformity. Now off to measure up and buy some skirting boards! 🙂

    Reply
    • Jordan Page

      Oh, I’m so glad that this is working out for you! Good luck with this fun project 🙂

      Reply

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