When K and I moved in together, we had seven stringed instruments. Keeping seven guitar cases around the living room wasn’t the décor we wanted. We got by for a while with several common rickety black metal stands. I knew we could do better by these instruments.  

After several searches for inspiration fraught with prosaic designs, I had second thoughts. Maybe a simple and graceful design hadn’t been achieved. With a couple of sketches that would require joinery well above my skills and running short of time to whip something together before Christmas, I stumbled upon an Etsy shop with something right going on. Long curves that highlight the tighter lines of a guitar, space for multiple instruments, and practical joinery that wouldn’t take weeks to cut. Heavily influenced and making a few adaptations to match available materials, I set off.  

Get ready; here is the classic “this wood is special, really” cliché. I bought the piece of walnut that makes the body of the stand at some point in high school. Before I knew that professional lumber yards sold wood not by the piece but by the board foot. I learned a practical lesson when the board rang up at more than $70 instead of the $9.50 that the chalk sign below the bunk advertised. Too embarrassed to admit my misunderstanding, I sat on a very sore wallet for the long ride home. Not counting the gas for an hour's worth of driving, that board cost me more than I would make sitting in the lifeguard stand the following day.

 I have no idea what that long piece of walnut was supposed to be used to make. It was probably intended to be a handle for one of the knives I was earnestly grinding out of my grandpa’s tool steel stash. I can only assume I had aspirations of a knife-making empire to think I needed a 12’ piece of 6/4 walnut for knife handles. The yellow cedar rails are milled-down fence pickets that were stacked in a shed when K and I moved into our Juneau home. A cute enough wood selection and intersections of life moments for a Christmas gift, right? I wish I could tell you I put that much thought into it at the moment.

The build was simple. An MDF template for the verticals, some freehand curves on the bandsaw, a few long glue joints, a sketchy drilling fixture, and plenty of sanding later we had a guitar stand. It’s imperfect, certainly. I’m quite proud of this piece that sits quietly in our living room. Without reservation, I can also say that I would do most of it differently today. That’s the fun of progress and striving to improve next time.