Decorating with Musical Instruments

My husband has a collection of various vintage musical instruments. In a "if you can't beat em join em" move, I use more vintage music related items to decorate around his collection. Vintage organ pipes and autoharps continue with the music theme in this area

A few months ago my electronic keyboard loving husband, found a fabulous old church organ, and plopped it into our living room. It is a beautiful machine, but I was at a loss as to how to decorate around it... and then it hit me.

I can't remember exactly how I got this idea but I decided to find some old wooden pipe organ pipes and make some wall art. I found the perfect size on ebay, after much searching.

I think it works :)

Check out my pinterest page for some more pipe organ, pipe projects.

Use an old music holder as a photo display

The Base is 2 old faucet handles, and the photo holder is an old music marching band clip. I used my favorite, " Goop Glue" to hold it all together.

Back to main Trash to Treasure Page

I saw his project in an antique store last week. I am always wondering what to do with old piano rolls. Well they've taken it and added a graphic of an old player piano, placed the piano roll behind and framed it. What a neat project for that music room.

This is a beautiful display I saw at an antique store recently. It could easily be adapted for the home.
Credit to: "Not Your Typical White Trash", Lorraine White Owner

Salvage Chick shares these musical instrument ideas
You can see more at her store here

"I can't get the Little Drummer Boy song out of my head since I created this centerpiece today out of an old snare drum and some ornaments! It is the perfect complement to the Bass Drum I use for a coffee table in my sunroom."

"One year for Christmas I bought the sheet music from our wedding song "Until There Was You" from the Music Man, and then found a bunch in complementary colors in the stash in my shop. My husband was chuckling that I managed to put together a medley of songs like "Three O'Clock in the Morning", "Gee But I Hate to Go Home Alone", etc. There's even "Don't Fence Me In"... It turned out really cute!"

des arc ya ya, from Garden Web did this display above her cabinets in her kitchen.

Musical instruments on display in my Friend, Penny's house.

Nancy's Violin Case

Nancy is a fellow dealer at the Antique Mall where I had my booth. She covered this, less than perfect, violin case and made it, oh so romantic. Great project Nancy, thanks for letting me share.

Reader Contributions

mojojojogrlnj, from Garden Web made this table using old sheet music

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And lilym made this box with old sheet music

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Rosemary uses this Cello, fireside

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There is a great story behind this piano, I urge you to read it

When I saw your section for music I thought you would like to see what my husband and I did. Here is a little background about this piano. My mother's mother Ina Hattie died at a young age of 49, so the piano got passed to the second daughter who is my Aunt DiAnne, she inherited my Grandmother's musical talent so it was only natural that it should go to her. It remained in her family many years, her children and her grandchildren played this piano. Then one day my Aunt was on vacation when they had a big water leak destroying many things including the piano. When it dried out it they keys fell apart and it warped a little when I heard about it I told her to recycle it. Well it ended up in my garage. So one day we tore it apart , it moaned and groaned horribly. We have torn down house's before and this thing kicked our butts so to speak. We took what we could and made this trunk and got two lamps out of it , still have some of the wood left hope to come up with some more ideas for it. The more I thought about this piano trunk the more I knew it had to have a story to go with it so with some help from my sister we came up with a poem then inside of the lid I put my Grandmother's picture and the poem side by side. Then I gave it to my Mother for Mother's Day. Thank you for letting me share, Clydene

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Nancy's Instrument Display/Curio Cabinet

Nancy Writes: "The violin is a quarter size, played by my son, hand-made by his great grandpa. The guitar is my husband's. Since it is out of the case, he now plays it more often."

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Fellow Decorator Laura, uses a Psaltery to accessorize this entry hall table.

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Chella, tells the story of this Dulcimer displayed in her home.

"I'm not really liking the pics I took. The piano looks cheap. We left our upright grand behind at our last move. We want to get some old dulcimer music framed and hung by the dulcimer. Some of our family lived in Eastern Tennessee and brought this West with them. When I moved from idaho to Tennessee, I decided I needed this little treasure as a keepsake."

These 3 books are my favorites and they are full of inspiration and ideas

Table of Contents:

Main Projects Page

T2T Furniture Ideas

New life for old luggage

Projects with old shutters

Projects for old windows and doors

How to make lamp from almost anything

Projects for Old Balusters, Spindles, and Porch Posts

Garden Benches from Old Beds and Cribs

Quick Projects

Past Projects/Artists of the week