Member Upcycling Ideas | Upcycled Guitar

Here at Themissingduck, we love to repurpose unwanted everyday items, into beautifully unique furniture for our customers. This is what happened after we were faced with the challenge of upcycling a second hand acoustic guitar!

After much head scratching, doodling and viewing the acoustic guitar from different angles like a beautiful piece of art, the team decided upon a football table! I'm still not sure how we came to that decision... but this is how we faced the challenge.

The Design & Upcycling Process

Now the team had to put the the scribbles into practice. All upcyclers will know this is the most exciting, if not slightly daunting, part of the process. The raw reality of the item you are working with challenges your theories of how it can be improved.

So, to begin we very carefully cut the top off of the guitar being careful not to cut through the neck of the guitar. We couldn't have the guitar equivalent of a broken neck now could we! Once that was done, the team sat back and admired how the guitar was constructed. It's at this stage your scribbles are challenged.

Once the top was off, the team fixed wooden blocks inside the bottom of the guitar to be used as a fixing point for the legs. For the legs we decided to use a second hand bar stool. "How appropriate" we thought - a band, gig venues, pubs and clubs... bar stool! The legs would be fixed up through the base of the guitar into the wooden blocks inside the guitar.

Next we found a piece of MDF and shaped it to the guitar. We then laid and fixed this into the base of the guitar, using the wooden blocks as fixing points. Now we had the basis of our vision. Hooray! The next step was to use a couple of metal rods that would be used to attach our superhero 'footballer' figures too. Our customer was a mad superhero fan (particularly Spider man), so it seemed a shame to have standard footballers for this special football table. Off to the toy shop!

So we now had Spider-Man and his arch enemy The Green Goblin (so I am told by my nephew). We drilled through both figures and through the metal poles, attaching the figures using a simple screw and nut. Either end of the poles we added rubber stoppers and springs. The team then painted and decorated the inside of the guitar with the football stadium effect.

Finishing Touches & Finished Product

Now for the finishing touches! We decided the top should be a thick Perspex sheet that was clear, but able to withstand any drinks being placed on top. This was cut, gently sanded around the cut edge and then very carefully and attached to the guitar. To finish the project we used old bathroom pull-cord light handles, and attached them to the poles. The team replaced the guitar strings and gave everything a wipe down and polish. Job done!

The team packed all of the tools away, locked up the workshop and went home rather pleased with our work. Isn't upcycling fun!