Painted Guitar: Americana Style

Tuesday, April 7, 2015

Painted Guitar: Americana Style

We have a few "first guitars" hanging around our youngest son's room. I'm currently working on a complete room makeover for this tween and decided to upcycle a couple of these tattered toys. My first victim of this particular DIY is this one...

Our little man... well not so little now, but he was at the time we bought this guitar at a thrift store... is helping me sort through his keep-toss-donate process of his bedroom.

I have total permission to upcycle this cheap learner guitar to do as I wish.

So I really ripped into it with a plan.
First with a good distress sanding...

And a quick grab of a music book for just a page (don't worry, it's not valuable; missing pages and cover, etc., so it's totally upcycle worthy )

Tearing up the page into several pieces...

just to burn the edges... ( don't worry... safety is first! Each piece was dropped into the sink and into a glass baking dish filled with water)

because...

those amazing burned edges are making a nice affect while I decoupage them onto the face of the guitar.

(Insert big smile here...the plan is working so far!)

Here is a trail of burned pieces like a map of my creative mind... quite scattered.
But with a purpose.

The Mod Podge was quickly drying so I flipped the guitar over and taped it off to stain half of it in a blue... Indigo by Minwax...

wipe on...

wipe off!

A gorgeous blue stain with a perfect distressed look.

Then the other half is done with Minwax "Crimson"... a beautiful red stain.

Then I white washed the neck with a white acrylic.

After going over the white wash on the neck with a little Crimson... I used the same on the distressed head stock.

For "Americana"... the stars and stripes are a must!

So I taped off the guitar with my design to paint over the burned music. I used the very same Indigo and Crimson but watered down to make it more translucent.

I was super stoked to use this star from The Crafter's Workshop to make the guitar Americana perfect. I used just the center part for the blue section on the base of the guitar.

I taped it strategically to get a full star and a part of it on each side.

Once my stars and stripes were dry, I gave the entire surface another coat of Mod Podge as a sealant.

Then I used coconut oil to seal the rest of the guitar, which brought out the colors more and protects the wood.

After re-stringing, I asked for some critique ...

The Ace-Man loves this! He said it's soooo cool!

You can see the music sheet and burned edges peek through the white, crimson and indigo colors. It IS kind of cool!

I think the new tween room theme is off to a great start! He is really excited over it and is being helpful with the decisions.

I can't have him too involved because I have some surprises for him. I was just lucky the first item was a hit with him! (Pssst... wait until he sees the headboard! I hope it turns out as crazy awesome as I have it in mind!)