Project | Measure twice cut...twice.

On a warm day last summer, I moseyed my way into a local large and religious secondhand establishment.  Upon entering I headed straight toward the locked glass cases to peruse the "finer" wares available for purchase.  As I approached, my eyes widened and my heart fluttered.  Locked behind the sliding glass doors was an honest to goodness Oscar Schmidt autoharp.  While waiting for someone to come free my future talent for purchase, my mind floated off to visions of June Carter-esque performances.  Well, apparently another customer was in a thrift store induced hallucination of his own, because while he was pushing through he absently rolled his shopping cart right over the top of my sandaled foot.  With the pain in my toes bringing me back into reality, I realized I needed to move fast.  A scene had been created, after all.  And I didn't want anyone other than myself paying attention to the instrument behind the glass. 

After a quick purchase, and an even quicker tune up from the helpful blokes at Acoustic Music, the harp was home.  And though the lessons haven't started, I have enjoyed it very much.  The only problem has been finding a place to put it.  After a few seasons worth of moving it from surface to surface, I suddenly envisioned it somehow hanging from the wall, on display and out of the way.  I figured some sort of bracket and frame concoction would do the trick, but knew I would need some help.  Lucky for me I have a live in handy-man who's always up for a project.  After some rudimentary sketches had been produced and some measurements had been taken, we were off to the hardware store for supplies.  Here's what happened at our house for a few hours last Sunday morning:

And, voila! A beautiful wall piece that is easily removable from it's frame. All it took was some aluminum, some regular and dry wall screws, some wood we had lying around, and of course, some tools.  We made a mistake or two, but luckily we had enough metal and patience to see us through to the end.  Ever since hanging this thing on the wall I seem to be looking at everything and wondering, could I hang this up?  I'm sure the answer will be yes.  What types of things do you want to hang on your walls?  I'd love to find out.  Big thanks to Hubby!

H.