Ryan has always wanted his guitar collection mounted on wall hangers – for easy access – and to make his space feel like more of a “man space”. Unfortunately, we’ve never lived anywhere long enough for him to have his own space…until…. NOW!!

Last week, I sacrificed a workspace of my own, for Ryan to have his own, full out, man room. So, I built him guitar hangers on the wall, just like he always wanted… love you xoxo

DIY Wall Mount Guitar Holder

First Step: Go to Home Depot and gather your materials.

– Heavy-duty screws & anchors

– Heavy-duty utility wall hooks -found in the garage organizer section (make sure it won’t damage the finish of your guitar).

– Some sort of wood! Ryan bought these bull-nose caps, used to cap edges of stair treads. They were quality wood, cheap, and the perfect size. Just over $2 bucks apiece.

– Paint – whatever you have laying around. I used some black spray paint – House&Canvas Chalk Finish Furniture Paint works as well!

These things are just $2 bucks at Home Depot

I chopped the wood pieces in half using my chop saw. They weren’t all a perfect length, and some had round edges, some have straight edges. It really doesn’t matter since the guitar will be hiding the wood piece. I am soooo not a perfectionist!!!

Then I painted them black – you may prefer Shadow.

Then I drilled holes for the screws. I measure about an inch and a half from the end.

Then I drilled massive holes to fit the wall hook. I wish I had a drill press for this, but my handheld drill did its job eventually. You can see where the wood split a bit on the edge of the holes. I just sanded it out nice and gave the pieces another coat of paint.

I love using painters tape to measure out hanging the hardware on the wall. I spaced the hooks about 18″ apart.

First I screwed the wall hook into the piece of wood. Then to get them on the wall, I drilled a pilot, hammered my anchor into the wall, and screwed the piece in place. Make sure to use a level to ensure it’s straight.

Yup, looks good. Three more to go. This particular wall hook is a bit big but it holds a standard guitar just fine. Make sure that the wall hook that you get has adequate padding – an alternate step is to buy vinyl tubing from Home Depot and slide it on the hook – then cut to size. On some more expensive guitars, it might be with the extra care to make sure the goop that sometimes occurs with wall hooks – stays off the guitar.

So, here they are all up on the wall. You can snap a chalk line or use a fancy laser lever. I just used a 4-foot level and painters tape to line up the tops – and then used the level to get the wall hook support bracket (the black spray-painted piece of wood) – level from side to side.

Rock Star…

My son James: yells “MOMMY! The guitars are hanging up!” He was seriously astonished. Confidence booster for me. Who cares if it comes from a 4 year old!

They look awesome from the hallway!

That’s it! I never said it was rocket science!! Way cheaper than the store-bought wall hangers and they look just as good!

Each wall-mount cost less than $4 bucks to make – add another $1 if you are going to be cutting the vinyl hose to fit over the hook (highly recommended to protect the neck of the guitar from getting goop on it). These retail at the store anywhere from $20-45 – the store-bought units do have the added security of locking automatically when the instrument is placed on it – some swivel – which can be important if you are hanging a collection of guitars. The DIY wall hanger is a cheap and easy way to get your guitar collection up on the wall – once you live with them you may want to upgrade to the fancy expensive ones!

DIY Guitar Wall Hanger – Update 2019:

So after mounting these hangers my husband added 4 more. They work great. As mentioned in the above tutorial – depending on the type of wall hook you buy you will benefit from vinyl hosing or some other solution (perhaps black duct tape) to ensure that your guitar, banjo, or whatever else you hang doesn’t get damaged. With a standard home depot “grip tape” type hook, humidity changes cause the glue and grip tape to get all over the neck of your guitar. Test out different hooks at home depot – keep in mind that your instrument is going to go on and off that hook a number of times – make sure little bits of gooey stuff is not a problem by examining a few different hooks.

We had these hanging in our house until early last year. My husband ended up buying guitar wall hangers from a music shop – they lock and swivel which is important for him and his collection – after 4 years he took down the DIY hooks and upgraded to Hercules “auto grip” wall mounts. He also bought a 5 guitar display stand because he likes having a few “laying around”. The five guitar stand could have easily been built with PVC piping for half the cost. Possibly an idea for a future DIY post!

If you are going to buy a hook from home depot to build a DIY wall mount. I recommend one with a vinyl coating like the one by Everbilt. The DIY wall mounts work great – just make sure you don’t skimp out on a quality hook – your instrument will thank you!