My husband Jeff used to be in a band in high school. Over the years his collection of instruments has grown to include 4 guitars, 1 banjo, and a keyboard. When we moved into our home we were using his old guitar stands that sat on the floor. That concept became a problem as our second child began to walk. The instruments were constantly being knocked over by curious hands and smudged with all kinds of who-knows-what stickiness. We found a number of wall hangers at the guitar store but they were not very attractive and definitely did not fit in with our decor. I wanted a way to get them up off of the floor and still have a decorative feel. Naturally I went to Pinterest.
Among the handful of solutions for my problem was a door knob hanger concept where you hang the guitars using a twisting method. It was perfect! I ran down to my local Hobby Lobby (I could seriously live there) in search of supplies to help me execute the design.
Supplies included:
3- 5"x7" Natural Wood Plaques (I choose a rectangle, but the options are endless!)
3- Decorative Knobs (The options for these are even larger.)
1- Spool Of Twine
Tools you will need include:
A Drill & Drill Bits
A Dremel
Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in the colors of your choice
Annie Sloan Clear & Dark Waxes
Paint & Wax Brushes
Metal Wall Hangers
Heavy Duty Glue (I prefer Gorilla Glue) and
Built-up Frustration (I'll explain below.)
Unfortunately I did not take a picture of this first part of the process but, it is the easiest part. I took my wood plaques outside and threw them at the ground (great therapy!). I choose an array of surfaces ranging from the concrete sidewalk to our gravel driveway and even the yard after they were banged up to get a little dirt down in the dings and dents.
After the distressing, I gave the first plaque 2 coats of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Old White.
Once the second coat was dry, I did a quick all over coat of Annie Sloan Clear Wax followed by Annie Sloan Dark Wax. Now be careful when using the dark wax. It is very dense and a little goes a long way. The first thing I did when using the dark wax was dabbing it on all of the major dents and dings. Really pressing it down into the crevices. Then I rubbed it on all of the edges. I very lightly brushed any remaining dark wax over the entire surface. Lastly I took a clean, old piece of t-shirt and rubbed the plaque down. Here is a picture of the before and after of the first plaque.
Once all of the plaques were banged up, painted, and waxed, I determined where I wanted the knobs to go. I chose to center them horizontally but to have them sit a bit higher vertically on the plaque. I used a drill to make the necessary size whole to fit the screw from the door knobs in. On the back of the plaque I used the dremel to create a large indentation around the whole so that when I screwed the nut onto the knob, it would sit down inside and be flush with the back of the plaque. This way when they hang on the wall they will be as close to laying flat as possible. See the finished product plaques below.
(From right to left the Annie Sloan Chalk Paint colors are: Old White, Coco, and Napoleonic Blue.)
The next thing is to glue the metal wall hangers onto the top of the backs of the plaques. There is an option to nail these with the tiny nails they come with but I prefer glue for fear of cracking.
Cutting the length of twine all depends on how you want the guitars to hang. I cut about 2 feet and then held the guitars where I wanted them and held the looped twine from where it would hold the guitar up to the knob and pinched it where I would need to make the knot. Knot the twine, hang it on the knob, and trim off the excess.
Hanging the guitars is a little tricky. I twist the twine one time creating a figure 8 and then slide the head of the guitar up through the bottom of the bottom of the 8.
Here is the finished product! Leave a comment below and let me know what you think!
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