Double Bass Wanted: Interior decorating advice

[robert_stuart]

Does anyone here have a living room or family room with your instruments, and you like the layout enough to share?

We just bought a new house, have no furniture yet, and are trying to figure out where to place these things: electric piano, 2 or 3 double basses, bows, a flute, etc., etc. We have a basement where the louder instruments will go. Here are some pics. You can see, we've just got junk furniture for the time being that we'll get rid of:

 

[Chris Fitzgerald]

That’s a great room! Our house has mostly single purposed rooms, but since you asked for pics, my music room was posted here: Messiest Office/Studio/Practice Room Contest

 

[Don Hergert]

Wow, starting new. Amazing, the open space. Do you have kids yet?

If it were me, I'd only get a few bean bag chairs, throw them in a corner for when needed for relaxation, and just fill the room with instruments

 

[vanderbrook]

Congrats on buying a house in Denver!

(My bass lives in one half of a humidified coat closet.)

 

[fdeck]

That looks like a nice space. For a time, my family's living room harbored a bass, cello, etc. Those were the easy things to deal with. We moved the furniture "inboard" to make space along the edge of the room for instruments.

What I've noticed over time is that the "little stuff" is what's harder to deal with: Books, rosin, etc. Especially playing bass, you want some of that stuff to be within arms reach, but also a quick way to get it all organized. Also, invariably a computer will enter the picture. For this reason maybe some shelving along that wall with the 3 windows (for example) would eventually prove useful.

Don't know if you're new to the house experience, but my one piece of advice is: Never trust a basement floor. At least through a couple years of seasonal cycles, you want to be damn sure that your basement is dry. We propped things up on shipping pallets, blocks, etc. Thank goodness because we discovered the house had "problems" due to the outside drainage. Leaks can also happen inside.

 

[DirtDog]

Nice space! I don’t know much about DB maintenance but I do know about gas fireplaces. They can throw a LOT of heat and dry things out quickly.

Conversely, the kitchen can generate humidity at times (and smells).

Would there be issues in where you have your basses and where the fireplace is? And to a lesser degree, proximity to kitchen.

Just with that in mind, I’d be second guessing using that space for my main music room.

 

[Ed S]

How many people do you expect to play at one time? How many folk do you entertain? Do you need all of your instruments available at the same time? Do you plan on using the fireplace a lot?

To the extent. you can, I'd suggest trying to carve up the space into separate music and entertaining/dining/vegging areas. The trickiest part in that room would be keeping the instruments out of traffic patterns, and possibly away from the FP and windows. Does the area behind the French doors have to be an office? If you HAVE to keep all of your instruments out all the time, that really limits things.

The TV placement determines your couches. I think how you have it is pretty much best. when playing, you can spread into the couch area.

Looks nice. And cool pups. What part of Denver?

 

[Cdnbassnut]

Great space. Only one suggestion.
That piano must go nearer the wall. Not necessarily on the wall, but either the back or one side of the piano could be closer to a wall.
It seems a bit obtrusive where it is now.
Perhaps a small table located where the piano is might work.

Again, great space. Congratulations and good luck.

 

[DaveGinNJ]

Does anyone here have a living room or family room with your instruments, and you like the layout enough to share?

We just bought a new house, have no furniture yet, and are trying to figure out where to place these things: electric piano, 2 or 3 double basses, bows, a flute, etc., etc. We have a basement where the louder instruments will go. Here are some pics. You can see, we've just got junk furniture for the time being that we'll get rid of:

View attachment 4462197 View attachment 4462198 View attachment 4462199 View attachment 4462200

I feel like its up to the dogs to decide. They seem to be watching over the instruments

 

[JayLaughlin]

I love having our instruments in our living room. The layout, however, does change a bit based on the season...(Xmas versus the-rest-of-the-year).

For most of the year, my "arco bass" lives next to the fireplace. But that's only because that's when we're not using the fireplace for fires. During the Xmas season, I move that one into another room.

My rockabilly slapper lives next to the piano on the opposite side of the same room. I have found that with both basses right in the middle of things, they get used a lot more often. Not just for official "practice time" but many times throughout the day I'll pick one up and play a riff or two, or work on a quick idea.

Honestly, it may take a while to settle on the layout. You know, live with one iteration for a while, then tweak it based on use/needs. I still don't think this is the final solution. There is, afterall, another bass in the house. lol

 

[Ed S]

We were REALLY lucky. When we bought this house, the previous owners had put up an addition. It was unconditioned, so we essentially used it as a 3-season room. With COVID, we wanted the extra space year round, so we installed a ductless HVAC unit and made it our dedicated music room. The space is large enough that we can use one half of it as a seating area, while keeping the other half open for music.

That's Lincoln - namesake of our Lincoln Quartet!

We only keep out the instruments we play at home the most. Namely 1 fiddle, 1 banjo, 1 bass. Any of the others could be pulled out and put to use in no time. For the quartet, we bring 3 dining chairs up from the basement, I use one of those stools, and we set up right where the dog is. Works really well for a 7 piece BG jam as well.