Music Room Ideas: How to Create a Beautiful, Functional Space for Music at

Adding a music room to your home is a great way to bring family, friends, and even neighbours together!

Whether you’re a homeschooling family, professional musician, or simply love filling your home with music and interesting instruments, creating a music room (or a space within your living room for music like we did!) doesn’t require much space or a big budget.

Keep reading for tips on:

Choosing the best space for your music room
Gathering the essentials
Storage solutions for small spaces
Decor and lighting ideas
Kid-friendly design tips
Organization and maintenance

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links and I could earn a commission if you make a purchase using them. This comes at no additional cost to you and all opinions expressed are my own.

acoustic and resonator guitar hanging on wall

Choose the Best Space for Your Music Room

It’s nice to utilize if you’ve got it but you really don’t need an entire room or basement to create a music space!

We live in a split level home with a house full of musicians (and extended family who comes to jam often!) so we have quite a few different instruments.

Here’s how we’ve organized everything.

Flex Room – Acoustic Guitars

Since I primarily play acoustic guitar and spend most of my time upstairs cooking, working, and homeschooling the kids, I created a small space for their instruments and my guitars upstairs.

I hang all of our guitars on the wall using these locking hooks – I just find it safer than using a floor guitar stand after my niece knocked over and damaged two of my mom’s guitars.

My music area is in the middle of the living room and looks like this.

We renovated our 1970s fixer-upper home so that it now has an open concept layout.

Because of the structural changes we made, our living room is now able to function as a family room, music space, homeschool area, and more.

And since our bedrooms are on the same level as the living room and kitchen, every morning I wake up, I see my guitars hanging on the wall shortly after opening my eyes. It’s a great way to feel inspired and immerse yourself in music even just as the day is beginning.

We also have a kids music area within our music space. So, when the kids wake up, they can choose an instrument from the music box, play the piano, or grab one of their guitars from their own rooms.

Want to see how we renovated? Check out my other blog, Inspired Plum, for home and gardening tips!

Basement Office – Electric Guitars

Soundproofing and volume were two other important considerations I made when determining where instruments should live.

Since my husband plays electric guitar, and we’re planning on getting a drum set in the future, our rec room now doubles as his office and our home recording studio.

Eventually we’ll add acoustic panels to the walls too but for now, here’s what his space looks like.

basement music room with 4 electric guitars and amps

Bedroom Corner

My oldest daughter is quickly becoming a great guitar player!

We hang her guitars up in her room rather than in the living room with mine to keep things minimal – because I feel like five guitars on the wall would just be a bit much here, haha.

She also likes to practice independently in a quieter setting from time to time.

I really can’t recommend these guitar hooks enough, especially for small spaces like hers!

Unlike other guitar wall hooks, they lock your instrument in place while it’s hanging so it’s safe and you don’t have to worry about anyone knocking them over.

Want to teach your child to play guitar?

Looking to teach your 8+ year old to play guitar? We recommend this budget friendly electric and/or acoustic guitar for kids that are just starting out!

Have kids under 6 that want to learn how to play guitar? Check out our Loog guitar review!

Check back soon for details on our new kids guitar curriculum.

Decorate with Music Room Essentials

We recommend starting with the basics and building your music room slowly.

You can do this as you and your family’s skills grow or as your budget allows.

You might also want to consider creating a space around your primary instrument and expanding from there.

Consider your instruments first – guitar, keyboard, ukulele, drum pad, etc.

Then think about seating. You’ll want a comfortable armless chair no matter what instrument you play!

For his recording studio/office space, I got my husband this office chair for the sole reason that the arms go back.

Upstairs, we have a piano bench for our keyboard and a stool for the guitars.

Another music room essential is a music stand.

I use our music stand with my homemade song books when we’re playing with family members and friends. By having sheet music ready to go, anyone can play or sing along.

My daughter also uses it when she’s doing piano lessons through Hoffman Academy. This allows her to do written work on the music stand while utilizing the piano music stand for the tablet.

If you share a wall with neighbours or live in an apartment building like we used to, headphones are another essential for your music space!

It helps keep noise down and can improve concentration during practice time.

Choose Smart Storage Solutions for Music Supplies

Messy music rooms are no fun! Keep your space free of clutter with these ideas:

Wall hooks for guitars, headphones, or cables – we use these Hercules hooks and the space behind works perfect or hanging headphones as well
Drawer units or carts for sheet music and accessories – we have these cube shelves and created music binders for each family member that’s capable of reading in our household. This keeps things much more manageable than random guitar tabs all over the house!
Magazine files or folders for organizing printables – these are great
Baskets or bins for kid-friendly access to fun percussion instruments and other music makers – these are cute and work well

We keep the kids’ instrument box next to the piano and have the following in it:

I’ll update this post as we add more items to the music basket.

kids instrument box with percussion instruments

Add Personality with Music Room Decor

Your space should inspire creativity! Some decor ideas could include:

Photos – get inspired with a photo of your favourite musician! I keep a photo of my mom in my acoustic space

Framed sheet music or musical quotes – these are really beautiful
Watercolor instrument prints – we created these based on our favourite instruments
Vinyl records – you can usually find these at Thrift stores or if you’re looking for something specific, Amazon has a large variety and cute shelves to showcase them as well
DIY Decor – you could paint records or add a chalkboard wall with song lyrics
Plants – or nature-themed touches for a calming vibe. We don’t have a lot of light upstairs but snake plants, spider plants, cacti, and Golden pothos seem to like it on these shelves.

Easy & Inexpensive Acoustic and Soundproofing Tips

You don’t need acoustic panels or a studio to improve sound quality at home. Try these budget-friendly upgrades instead:

Rugs and curtains will absorb echos. Both our upstairs and downstairs have carpeted areas, we can’t recommend this enough!
Bookcases or soft furnishings will muffle sound naturally – we keep plenty of pillow and soft furniture in our music spaces
Closed doors + door sweeps for quick sound isolation

If you do choose to pursue acoustic panels, these ones are a great option and have amazing reviews all around.

Lighting for Mood and Focus

Lighting can really effect how your space feels – we originally had an awful fluorescent light (the type you’d see in 1970s office buildings) downstairs and put in a set of string lights for a more relaxed vibe.

We love the natural light upstairs and it is nice for creating a bright warm space but be mindful of instrument placement near windows! You don’t want to keep them too close as it could damage them.

Task lighting for music stands or pianos is another nice touch – if you play a lot of campfire guitar, this is a big upgrade from someone standing nearby with a flashlight too!

If you’re going for a moodier feel, string lights make for a nice touch – it’s the vibe downstairs in my husband’s office. We also added two vintage lanterns (they’re battery powered which makes them super easy to move around as well).

Kid-Friendly Music Room Ideas

If your kids are learning or will be playing music with you, be sure to make the space feel fun and inviting for them too.

Keep expensive instruments up high where you don’t need to worry about toddlers damaging them! Create a fun collection of instruments your kids can enjoy down low so they are encouraged to make music and can pick up whatever they feel like playing.

You could also add:

Low shelves for little hands to reach instruments
Rhythm corner or a basket like we talk about above
Practice trackers or educational charts to keep it consistent

We have a stash of kid friendly guitar gear in my daughter’s room!

This includes:

Love learning at home? Explore these homeschool ideas:

Pick a Style or Theme to Inspire the Room

Choosing an aesthetic for your music space can help tie things together. Here are a few styles to consider:

Vintage studio: Old school prints, Edison bulbs, retro mic decor, vinyl records (my husband’s space has this vibe)
Boho: Rattan, cozy textiles, natural wood tones (our upstairs is kind of along these lines)
Minimalist: Clean lines, monochrome palette, floating shelves (again, our upstairs borrows from this)
Farmhouse: Rustic woods, metal bins and accents, hymn wall art, etc.

Organize and Maintain Your Space and Instruments Long-Term

Even the most beautiful music rooms (and instruments!) require some TLC. Get in the habit of tidying your space and maintaining instruments with ideas like these:

Weekly clean up: Dust instruments, put away and organize music books (especially if you print off new guitar tabs almost daily like we do), wind cables, put away guitar picks
Monthly reset: If you find a change of scenery inspiring, consider rotating decor or rearrange instruments for fresh inspiration on a monthly basis. Alternatively, you could consider adding a new plant or piece of decor if you’re building your music space slowly.
Seasonal swaps: Update wall art or introduce new instruments/activities with the seasons – this is a great idea for kids music spaces

If you have more expensive guitars at home and want to hang them up, please keep an eye on the humidity of the room you display them in!

We have humidifiers running in both guitar spaces (we love these ones because they have an automatic setting that starts up again once the humidity of the room drops below 55% and a water tanks that doesn’t need to be filled for a couple of days) in addition to using D’Addario Maintain Humidipaks kits in each acoustic.

This little four pack is nice if you have guitars in different spots or want to take a reading closer to your instruments while keeping your humidifier further away (like we do).

Final Thoughts: How to Create a Music Room You Love at Home

Creating a music space in your home isn’t about perfection – it’s about the joy and connection that making music at home will bring.

Whether it’s teaching, learning, worshiping together, or writing your own songs, your music room is bound to inspire your family as well as those you invite to enjoy music with you!

Have you started your music room setup? Which instruments do you and your family play? I’d love to see it! Find me on Instagram @nikkislivarich or leave a comment below.

Happy decorating, friend!

– Nikki

About the author

Nikki

I'm a homeschool mom of two, wife, self-taught musician, and entrepreneur. I help moms and dads learn how to incorporate music into their home education plans while balancing daily lessons and building an online business. My goal is to help families spend more time learning, exploring, and creating together!