This Guitar Room Ideas guide is NOT sponsored and was written based on our honest experience as a mom and dad who love to jam together in a beautiful living space!
Since canceling cable and all streaming services last year, J and I have had a ton of time (and money!) to invest in new hobbies and adventures.
One of those hobbies is playing the guitar – after 20 years away from it, my husband got me hooked on playing again and I love it even more now than I did as a teenager!
I really appreciate what beautiful art pieces they are so I designed a music area in our living room to accommodate our newfound love.
I can’t wait to share what we did plus some other tips for how to design a guitar room or music space.
Keep reading to see:
- How to display a guitar in a room
- Guitar decor ideas
- Tips for living room, bedroom, and music room
- How to make a music room at room
- What makes a good music room
- Our favorite music room furniture
- Tips for families who share a love of music together
Disclosure: Affiliate links are used throughout this post. You can read our full disclosure here.
7 Guitar Room Ideas for Your Living Space
An inviting area makes such a difference when it comes to doing the things you love.
And playing music is no exception!
Since we purchased these guitar wall hangers for our living room, we pick up our guitars almost every day.
They look beautiful and we love the secure auto grip system that locks when you place your instrument on it.
We found that this size worked with all of our acoustic and electric guitars as well as with our Ukulele, tamburica (Croatian mandolin), and daughter’s mini acoustic Loog guitar.
Music is such a wonderful way to bring everyone together and I’m so happy with the way our little space has improved the use of our downtime.
Seven cute ideas to create a nice music room in your home include:
- Add a variety of instruments
- Hang your guitar or mandolin
- Choose furniture that makes playing a joy
- Add shelves to hold accessories
- Display your pics and accessories
- Display your music and books
- Add plants and other decor
1. Variety of Instruments
Do you or your family members play a couple of different instruments?
Placing them together can create a nice cozy vibe in your music room or living area.
My oldest daughter loves to play the piano too and honestly, I’m getting back into it now as well – Isn’t it amazing how our children inspire us to relive the things we loved doing as kids?
We have our larger Marshall amp on the right-hand corner of the piano.
We don’t plug in the electric guitar every day, so it stays here as a decoration even when it’s not in use.
2. Hang guitars or mandolins
Our guitars are one of the first things you notice when you come upstairs and it always gets our family and friends talking – and often, playing with us!
We live in a split-entry home, so our kitchen table is just to the left of our music room.
Here’s what our guitars look like hanging next to a collection of our wedding photos – it’s a really nice vibe upstairs!
I plan on adding a fourth guitar wall hook next to my guitar when the kids get a bit older.
Our two-year is way too curious right now and has already knocked down the pictures above our couch once this year.
Related: IKEA Vallentuna Sofa Review + Living Room Tour
3. Choose furniture that makes you want to play
Having guitar-friendly chairs and stools for your piano makes you want to enjoy them more!
Personally, I prefer something with a high back over a stool though so these basic Mid-century style chairs are just about everywhere in our house.
They’re affordable, look great, and don’t have chair arms that get in the way when you’re playing or switching your instruments!
4. Add shelves to hold accessories
Shelving makes a great addition to any music room and provides a fantastic way to keep all of your books and accessories together.
These natural wood brackets are versatile and solid!
I chose two different lengths of these IKEA shelves for our wall.
We keep our mini Marshall amp on them too – it’s a cool little battery-powered amp that works when you’re outdoors, camping, or will be playing at a relative’s house for a special occasion.
We had fun with it at my mom and dad’s last Christmas!
More Renovations and Room Ideas for your home:
- How We Transformed Our Ugly Outdated Kitchen with an Amazing IKEA Remodel
- 15 Ways to Convert Your Home into an Urban Homestead (and Save Hundreds on Food!)
5. Display your amps, pics, and accessories
If you have lots of pics, you can display them in a small clear glass or store them in a mug from a concert you enjoyed – that’s what we did!
That one’s from Roger Waters.
After we’re done playing, we’ll fold wires and hang them in the center of the brackets to keep things together and organized.
We’ve also attached a couple of capos to the brackets on our shelves – I keep the 12-string capo on the shelf above though since clipping it to the bracket would keep it open and warp its shape.
I don’t have that issue with the Ernie Ball capos that reach their closed positions over the bracket though.
The piano has also come in handy as a shelf for books I’m currently reading, my music binder, our larger Marshall amp, and on the opposite side, the pedal board.
I usually sit on the side of the couch next to the amp when I’m reading and having my coffee in the morning!
Unfortunately, our two-year broke our guitar stand (we had one of these) but we don’t like that style or guitar stands in general enough to replace it – thank God the guitar wasn’t on it at the time!
A couple of years ago, my niece knocked off both of my mom’s guitars from her stands (same style) and they both have cosmetic damage now as a result.
Lesson learned – combining toddlers and guitars within their reach is a dangerous game to play!
We usually only keep the Telecaster in that corner when all of the other ones are in use since our 2011 Martin has a nice hard case to store it in – AWAY from little ones.
6. Display music and books
Even a homemade music binder will add a nice touch to your space and it’s functional.
I often play my guitar on the same side of the couch (the right side of the photo above) since my daughters love to join in and play the piano when they hear me.
You could also store an iPad here if you or your kids use apps like Chordify, SimplyPiano, SimplyGuitar, or the Loog guitar app.
If you know a song by heart or have it in a printed music book, you can play it alongside your kids while they use the app.
How to Make a Music Book
1. Lead guitar/guitar-only book option:
I used to print off songs from Guitar Tabs dot com 20 years ago and can’t believe how far this website-turned-app has come since then!
If you want to print off several guitar songs for your music book quickly, this is a great app to do it.
2. Lyrics and guitar chords:
Now, if you love to sing AND play like we do, you could find the lyrics first and format your music sheets in a way that makes sense to you.
To do this, you’ll first want to find the correct lyrics – there are so many mistakes online!
AZLyrics is a good option for English songs and Cušpajz is great for Croatian songs since lyrics usually include special characters.
I went with fonts sized 14.5 to 15.5 and double-spacing since my mom has an easier time reading this too – she’s in her 60s and this makes it easier for her to view.
If you play with friends and neighbors (our neighbor and his son both play), this makes it easy for everyone to see if you’re sharing and playing a song that some people haven’t memorized!
After you have your lyrics in front of you, you could either try the Guitar Tabs app for rhythm guitar or check out Chordify, which is what I recommend.
Bar chords are still a bit challenging for me so I prefer playing as few as possible.
I use the Chordify app to find a fret where I can put a capo to simplify things!
For instance, instead of playing Hotel California with an F#, a Bm, and then an F#7, I’ll put a capo on the second fret and play an E, an Am, and then an E7.
Chordify helps novice musicians figure this out way more quickly than using your ear – something that comes with experience.
We’ve also used it for group guitar sessions!
I screen-shared from my iPhone to my LG TV so everyone could see the chords for songs few people or no one had ever played before.
It was a lot of fun!
Recommendations:
- Ultimate Guitar Tabs (1.1 million songs to choose from on the phone, tablet, and desktop versions)
- Chordify (mobile versions available on your phone and tablet and a desktop version for computer)
- Ernie Ball Six-string Capo (easy to clip on and adjust)
- Kyser 12-String Capo (best modern option, I’ve found other ones buzzy)
7. Add plants and other decor
We chose plants that require minimal sunlight for our space.
A couple of options for your space might be:
- Spider Plants
- Pothos
- Cacti
- Succulents
- Fake plants!
We also have a tamburica on the top shelf behind our spider plant.
To the left of the tamburica are our kids’ Usborne puzzles – I actually put them up here to prevent my two-year-old from spilling them and mixing puzzle pieces together!
We all love these puzzles (and they’ve kept my 6-year-old entertained for hours) but after the experience, I can tell you that building seven different puzzles simultaneously to find out which pieces go together is not something we recommend.
Kids Music Room Ideas
Getting kids excited about music is a fantastic way to establish a family hobby early on especially when there are so many ways to make it fun and easy!
I bought monster piano stickers for my oldest daughter when she began learning how to play with both hands.
They’re really cute and got her excited about doing something more challenging.
Books filled with characters and simple songs like Disney’s My First Songbook are another fun option to make learning piano fun for kids – it also makes for a great gift for young aspiring musicians.
Now, if your child wants to learn how to play the guitar, I can’t recommend Loog Mini enough.
This simple little three-string guitar is tuned to GBE and uses the same tuning and first three strings as a regular six-string guitar.
So, for instance, when I play a C on my guitar and my daughter plays a C on hers, we’re making an identical shape on those same three strings.
And if she sees me playing an unfamiliar chord, I can quickly show her how to play it on her guitar.
This cute little guitar sounds similar to a ukulele but doesn’t require Mom and Dad to learn how to play another instrument themselves!
It’s way easier to teach this way and sets up little kids with small hands for success.
When you use an app like Chordify, your child can get excited about playing music by learning the songs they love to hear – SimplyPiano and SimplyGuitar don’t offer that kind of variety.
My daughter found playing a six-string difficult and frustrating at her age (kids’ hands are still growing and developing at this point) but loves to play her Loog Mini!
Our two-year-old plays with (more noise than music, haha) the Ukulele we bought secondhand now – I originally got it for my oldest daughter when we realized the six-string was too advanced for her at this age but having to learn myself and then teach her afterward seemed silly to me when a product like Loog exists and I already know how to and prefer playing an acoustic guitar!
When she gets older, we’ll upgrade her to the six-string Loog Pro – it’s recommended for ages 9 and up.
Related Kids Room Ideas: Our Honest Coco Village Kids House Bed Review
Final Thoughts: Guitar Room Ideas for Your Living Space
Displaying your guitars and creating a music room space in your living area will make for a great conversation piece that will encourage practice daily!
Will you place your guitars on stands or hang them on the wall like we did? What other instruments do you play?
We’d love to hear from you and see your photos of your space on Instagram!
Happy decorating, friend!
