I am a long-time fan of displaying guitars on walls. I think they are such beautiful instruments – so sculptural! It’s nice to have them out and handy, too. We play them so much more when we can see them often.
I’ve used the standard fare guitar hooks before and had three of them in our brownstone, but I knew I wanted to have at least six hangers in our music room. I could have just bought three or four more hooks, but they always seemed like eyesores and I wanted the guitars to seem like they were sort of floating on the wall.
I picked up six unfinished wooden plaques from a craft store for about 50 cents each and six of these gray vinyl-coated screw-in utility hooks from Home Depot at less than a dollar each. I measure and marked the center of each plaque, drilled a pilot hole and screwed in the utility hooks by hand.
I laid out the guitars on the ground and figured out the best horizontal spacing for our new guitar hooks, based on the width of the instruments.
Then I hung all the hooks on the wall with drywall screws (either two or four screws each, depending on the weight of the guitar) right through the plaque and into the wall, all at the same height.
Then we painted the plaques and the screws with left over wall paint (Farrow & Ball’s Green Blue). I decided to leave the hooks gray because the color was not all that different from the wall and I didn’t want any of the paint to rub off on the instruments (some of them are really heavy). This was a last-minute project before the Domino shoot – if I had had more time I might have tried spray the hooks with my critter sprayer or something so they’d all be a uniform color. But we were up against a time crunch and the gray is hardly noticeable in person.
They are super secure on the wall – we’ve had no problems with these, unlike the “real” guitar hooks we bought at a music store, which would bust out of the wall all the time, or the prongs would flip over. The vinyl dip gives a great padded grip on the guitar necks, and somehow work on even the skinny necks of the ukelele and the banjo. And of course I love that these hooks pretty much disappear on the wall. DIY wins again!
The bust was a Homegoods find! Can you believe it? I LOVE it.
Awesome idea
Hi Jenny! Could you please tell me where the awesome bust vase is from? Thanks so much for any help!
-Meredith
The bust was a Homegoods find! Can you believe it? I LOVE it.
That's a beautiful Gibson!
Love this – clever, simple, and let's the guitars shine, rather than the hanger. Love the bust vase – so want to steal that. And the filigree bowl? Beautiful!
Love this. The "real" guitar hooks are a bit pricey when you need several, somive never pressed the issue of hanging the guitars, but now…
They look beautiful! Do you play? I feel like I don't know much about you; except that you are an amazing decorator ;)
What a great solution! I was thinking of hanging my son's guitar! Pinning for later :) thanks for sharing!
Great job! The guitars really add a lot of visual interest to the room as you see it from the entryway.
I'd love to know more about your piano stool. I have one that is identical, but it is in its 'original' condition – black claw feet and wood. Any chance you'd do a tutorial – or at least a 'how I did it' – on yours?
Thanks much!
The guitars look like they are simply floating. It's so creative and such a neat way to show off your beautiful instruments. And I really love the new wall color for the music room!
Well, I guess I better get started if I want to be finished by Xmas! thanks for the heads up on the store-bought ones; my BF would have died if his guitar fell off the wall!
I was upset when you painted the piano bench, but now I can see it goes really well in the space next to the black piano. Why did I doubt you!? CTD
P.s. You can also paint electrical and hvac outlets to match the wall for a really seamless look. Just my personal pet peeve that so many don't think of doing.
Well, I guess I better get started if I want to be finished by Xmas! thanks for the heads up on the store-bought ones; my BF would have died if his guitar fell off the wall!
I was upset when you painted the piano bench, but now I can see it goes really well in the space next to the black piano. Why did I doubt you!? CTD
P.s. You can also paint electrical and hvac outlets to match the wall for a really seamless look. Just my personal pet peeve that so many don't think of doing.
Aha – just found the mongolian lamb stool post. :)
Jenny, this post is so funny because I don't think I will ever need to hang a guitar but I LOVED IT that you came up with such a clever solution. They really do appear to float on the wall – at least in the pictures. :)
OH these are great! You barely notice them. I love instruments on the wall as art, and your bowl for the picks is adorable. Great job, Mom :)
http://www.designsbykaty.com
But where, oh where, is violin?
This is a great solution! I look forward to getting our guitars and ukelele off the floor and on the walls. Thanks!
Colleen @ http://www.58waterstreet.blogpost.com
I thought the hooks were transparent at first because they blend in so well! I love that you use your instruments as art. The house is coming along beautifully.
Great job! I think it's so cool to display guitars as art, I do the same in my place! :)
x Lily
whilemyboyfriendsaway.blogspot.com
Okay so that is a serious guitar collection…I think we're going to need a video clip of them in action in your stunning music room! :)
Friday night jam session…perhaps?
I thought the music room was blue? Did you change the wall color?
I love your blog! So many great ideas! I've had my guitar sitting in a case on our floor for years, meaning to hang it up. Definitely doing this soon! Thanks for sharing your work!
Hi! So I bought the hooks you suggest, but they don't fit around the neck of my guitars. They're perfect for the banjo though. Did you have any issues with this? If so, did you widen them some how? I've tried but those suckers don't want to budge. :( Any suggestions would be much appreciated! Love your blog, can't wait to see the new website that's in the works!
You always have such great ideas. I've been meaning to hang up our instruments for ages but I've always gotten stuck on the how of it. Thanks for the clear instructions!
When you say you used drywall screws, you mean just the plain drywall screws that are designed for attaching the drywall to the studs, right? How are they holding up? I'm scared to do this without using any kind of drywall anchor or screwing into studs–I have images of guitars and ukuleles coming crashing down out of the blue–but if you say yours are still plenty secure this way, I'm going to go for it!
Terrific idea! I'm going to do this today, music equipment is everywhere, great way to display the guitars, some of the guitars seem to have a bit larger neck so going to see it I can get someone to open it a little larger. Thanks for sharing!
How did you get the guitar necks to fit within that sized hook? My standard size acoustic Washburn won’t fit. Neither will my boyfriends electric. Was hoping to get all our guitars up today but it seems to not be working. Can you reply for some help if possible? Thanks so much, Carrie
Hi Carrie! I’m sorry you’re having some trouble! I didn’t have any problems with finding hooks that fit. I think I bought a few different sizes to bring home and try and theses ones from Lowes worked great. Best of luck with your project!
I sent my husband to HD with specific requirements to get THOSE hooks – lol – fortunately he’s a smart man and knew they weren’t wide enough. He picked up a couple of wider ones that fit.
Hi Jenny!
I LOVE these guitar hangers and I’m currently trying to make them…although none of our guitars fit the hooks! I bought the exact same hooks from Home Depot. Mine measure 2 inches across but still don’t fit our guitars. Did you stretch them out somehow? Thanks!
See my reply above- we had the same issue – apparently the author bought a few different sizes but linkedto the ‘type’ of hook he bought – not necessarily the actual size of the hook he ended up using.
What sizes plaques did you use 5” or 7”
Very cool step by step.. Love the archtop!
How did you attach plaques to the wall?