Music is a fundamental part of many people’s lives. If you’re a musician or a music lover who’s just moved house or is considering converting a little-used room into a music studio, you’re probably having an exciting time right now!
A music room can be a place to get away from it all and immerse yourself in the world of music without any distractions.
Choosing equipment, furniture and décor to furnish a new room can be a lot of fun. It can also be quite overwhelming.
Here is a compilation of items you must include in your music room to make it a truly amazing space in your house! Some of them are obvious, some less so. All of them belong on your shopping or digging out list.
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What the Experts Say About Designing a Music Room In Your Home
We asked 5 musicians what their favorite thing to have in a music room is and why. These were their answers.
David Andrew Wiebe, Music Entrepreneur HQ: “A whiteboard is my favorite thing to put in a music room because you can use it to scribble down ideas as they come to you, track your goals or even jump into spontaneous music theory lessons if you’re working with someone who doesn’t understand what you’re trying to get across. You can even plan out your entire music career on a whiteboard. It’s invaluable.”
Roz Bruce, Roz Bruce Guitar Tuition: “My favorite thing to include in a music room is an unusual music instrument (or several!). These can be great conversation starts and can really help to the room a unique personality.”
Tim O’Bryan, Share My Guitar: “My favorite thing to include in the music room is my unused guitar pedals that aren’t currently on my pedal board. I display them on a music room shelf.”
Adam Harkus, The Blogging Musician: “My favorite thing to include my music room is an acoustic guitar. It’s the ultimate pick up and play instrument, capturing your ideas when inspiration strikes. Some of the greatest songs of all-time were born on the humble acoustic guitar. An essential component of any music room.“
Dr. Matthew Welsh, Spiritual Media Blog “My favorite thing to include in a music room is a set of drums that I can play with my hands. It’s really therapeutic to make music and hit the drums with my hands“
1. Guitar Wall Mounts
Guitarists, budding guitarists and guitar fanatics. We bet you have a guitar or two (or few!) in your house. As this room is the new home to all of your instruments, you’ll need somewhere to appropriately store them.
Guitar wall mounts are excellent ways of looking after and storing guitars as they are up off the floor, unable to be knocked and visually pleasing.
You can pick them up dirt cheap from music shops and even some department stores and they’ll give your room a real musical feel.
One potential downside is that it will draw attention to just how many guitars you’ve purchased over the years!
2. Transformed Instruments
Something else that looks super-cool and doubles up as being highly functional: transformed instruments are a hip, eco-friendly way to make your room look great.
Do you have an old drum kit you don’t use anymore? Why not get creative and turn it into a table and some stools?
What about an acoustic guitar that’s past it? Could it hold a few CDs, or even be turned into a table.
Instruments from pianos to drums to cellos to ukuleles are transformed every day into artistic, functional pieces of furniture. It’s time to dig out that old clarinet from the loft. It could become a nice new vase!
3. Plants
While we’re talking about vases, it’s time for a surprising one. You’d be amazed how much good indoor plants can do for your music room!
As well as looking nice and adding a natural, homely feel to your music room, plants work as additional sound absorbers.
The bigger the surface area of your plant, the better a sound absorber it will be. Big, fleshy leaves, are excellent at soaking up sound due to their variable surface area.
When it comes to the placement of your plants, it’s best to have several small ones, dotted around the edge of the room. This increases the surface area of the plants and ensures that it’s absorbing it before it escapes the room.
4. Rugs
Not only are plants hugely beneficial to a music room, so are rugs.
Like plants and the soundproofing stuff you can buy, rugs both absorb sound and eat up the room’s natural echoes, stopping your music sounding messy.
There are some amazing rugs out there, some of which have pianos, guitars or violins on them. Or you could opt for something swirly and psychedelic. Groovy, man!
5. Actual Instruments!
Whilst not everybody who decides to have a music room in their house is a musician, a large chunk of them are. This is why this component is so important.
If you have instruments in your house, this room can be the home to them all. There’s nothing cooler than a room full of instruments that are ready to go.
Even if you just get a cheap acoustic guitar, this can bring the room to life. This room can be home to impromptu jam sessions, practice sessions, songwriting spells and more creativity.
Whilst we recommend that you have your instruments out and ready to go, some, of course, are best kept in cupboards or cases. Either way, this room is the place for them.
Don’t feel limited to only instruments you can play, try to include a range. If you create a space where you feel comfortable and new instruments are readily accessible then you’re much more likely to pick up something new to learn.
6. CDs and Vinyl
Similarly, this room should be the place for your audio collection.
A couple of CD racks, book cases or even purpose-built vinyl shelves will look great in your new music room. Having some framed vinyl on the wall will also look really cool.
Why not choose your favourites to do this with, or the ones with the most attractive covers? If you have any rare vinyl this is a good place to showcase it.
When you’re framing vinyl album art, remember to remove the disc so it doesn’t get warped. If you’re framing the disc itself, take care to keep it out of sunlight (for the same reason).
7. Gig Posters / Tickets
As well as the framed vinyl making your walls look great, a few posters of gigs you’ve been to, plus perhaps the tickets will look excellent in your music room.
Whilst posters themselves look good, you’ll get a more stylish décor if you put them in frames, particularly if your vinyl are already framed on the wall.
We recommend ensuring that you get some variety on your walls. Even if heavy metal music is your favourite genre, if you like other genres as well, show them on the walls. This room is a celebration of music in all its forms, after all.
8. Merchandise / Memorabilia
Adding special one-offs will give the room a museum-like feeling of value and novelty. It will also, like many of the things we’ve mentioned, look really cool and serve as a celebration of music.
9. Soundproofing
Soundproofing is an absolute must in your music room. If you want to play or even just listen to music at any kind of volume, you’ll risk disturbing others unless you invest in some soundproofing materials.
The best and easiest soundproofing material to go for is foam. Although this can be costly, it has the benefit of dampening your sound which can be extremely beneficial in a recording situation.
Instead of recording what you point at the microphone plus the natural reverberation of the room, these foam pads enable you to record just what you want to go through the microphone in the first place. It also looks really cool.
A budget-friendly way of reducing the echoes from your music is to stick egg boxes on the walls. Whilst this is reasonably effective, it’s less aesthetically pleasing.
If your intention is solely to stop the sound escaping and not disturb your neighbours, your best bet might be to stick some thick rugs on the walls, particularly in door cracks, over windows and anywhere else the sound might escape through.
10. Comfortable Seating
We’re assuming you want to relax in this room. If so, comfortable seating is a must.
Whilst it might be tempting to settle with the seating that’s already part of your instruments, like a drum stool, piano stool or a guitar practice chair, this will prevent you from enjoying the music room to the full.
A couple of bean bags, sofas or comfy arm chairs will make this room homey and comfortable, for you and your guests. You’re likely to spend longer in there if you’re relaxed and you’ll get a deeper experience as you close your eyes and drift away to ‘Dark Side of the Moon’.
11. Exotic Instruments
Something that can make a really interesting addition to any music room is a few exotic instruments. Do you like to travel? If so, next time you go, grab an instrument.
It doesn’t need to be anything as expensive as, say, a sitar. Many exotic countries have percussion instruments available at very affordable prices and you might even find some interesting woodwind or string instruments, depending on where you go.
Whilst you might not immediately intend on playing these instruments too much, they’ll make for great conversation starters when you have guests around and will give your room an original, arty feel. The instruments themselves might also be great fun to play.
12. Audio Equipment
Finally, the most obvious component on the list. For a music room to be a music room, it needs to have some kind of audio equipment.
If you’re using the room solely to listen to music in, any hi fi system that you can afford will be perfectly appropriate.
When positioning your speakers, ensure to have one on either side of the room (or more if you have more!). This will make for a sound that’s evenly spread and as the audio engineer for the album meant it to be heard.
If you’re looking to plug instruments in in the music room, it’s time to invest in a practice amp. You can get amps which are suited to just one instrument, or you can find those that will fit two or more.
If you’re going to be using more than one amp at a time, it’s important to spread them around the room like you would with your hi fi’s speakers. This will encourage a spread out sound and reduce the risk of feedback as you play.
Bluetooth speakers are also a great addition to your room as it will allow visitors to your space to easily connect and share their music from their phone.
13. Photography
What better way to inspire yourself than having photos of your favorite musicians on the wall while you play. We all love to be inspired by people we admire, and having photos of musicians can help you remember what you love about music and the people who inspire you.
If you have a photo of a musician on stage with the crowds cheering it can help you imagine you’re playing on stage. If you have photos of your idols you can remember the music that changed your life and help you to overcome writer’s block.
14. Books
Books aren’t just fun to read, they have a whole range of benefits for a music room. They can help offer better sound diffusion and absorption.
If you have a few bookcases with different sized books this can act as a great way of diffusing sound as they reflect the sound around. Books absorb a lot of sound and can help to soundproof your room if you’re worried about making too much noise.
There are lots of different categories of musical books to choose from. Autobiographies of famous musicians can be fascinating to dip into.
Music theory books such as tab books for different bands, scale references and chord guides are all really important to have at hand if you’re practicing music. Books about the history of different genres of music are also a really interesting addition to your music room.
Don’t think you need to be limited to books about music, any art books, novels or history books could inspire you to write your next song.
15. Solid Shelving
Maximize floor space and store your books, CDs and vinyl with solid wall shelving. Books and music equipment is heavy and you don’t want it to fall so this is an area you shouldn’t overlook. Make sure all nails are screwed in tightly and you’re using solid metal supports.
16. Color Scheme
Match the color scheme of your room to the type of music you want to play and the way you want to feel. If you’re looking for a vibrant place where you creative exciting new music, fill the room with bright colors that have a lot of energy and will help to lift your spirits.
If you’re looking for a peaceful room where you can practice your classical piano, you may prefer softer tones like blue or lilac to help you relax and wind down.
Rock musicians may prefer colors such as red, black and orange to offer energy and a darkness to the room.
Take the time to think about what the right color scheme is for you and will help you to get the most out of your music room.
17. Something for the Kids
It’s important not to leave your kids out if you’ve created a music room. If you have a room full of expensive equipment it can be tempting to keep it locked away from children, but you’ll be limiting their creativity where you have a great opportunity to let them flourish.
If your child is interested in music or is in the school orchestra, this gives them a perfect place to learn more about music and develop their talent. Set aside an area of the room just for them and allow them to practice and turn into great musicians.
Hopefully this can give you some inspiration for all the wonderful design ideas and decor that you can put in your new music room to make it the favorite room in your house.
So, now you know what you’re doing, happy decorating! We hope you have lots of fun and pleasure in your new music room.
