floor racks

So I seem to have started a bit of a monster...

I posted in an earlier thread that I was replacing my cheap Donner mandolin with a better quality one; I ended up with a Kentucky KM-276. The original plan had been to take the Donner to Goodwill, but lo and behold, my 6-year-old stepdaughter picked it up and began trying to learn how to play. So, we are now a two-mandolin household...

...plus my husband's student-era classical acoustic guitar, and an octave mandolin I picked up, and (when they're here for visitation) my 10-year-old stepdaughter's violin. Not to mention the sheet music bag and folding music stand that we now have.

Since we do not have a dedicated music room, this means the instruments are starting to take over the living room. I have managed to find a bit of floor space where I could put an 24-30" instrument rack to hold them, but here's the problem...all the racks I find online are for guitars and are likely too short to hold mandolins/violins. I am not handy enough to make one myself.

Anyone have any suggestions for storing multiple instruments, preferably in a combination of hard cases and gig bags?

(With them being "out" in the living room, I don't want to store them without their cases on, which rather negates the idea of hanging things on the wall. The fact that the violin travels quite a bit is also an issue. Plus, my living room also has the exterior front door, so while I have some control of temperature and humidity in there, it's better to have things stored in cases where it can be more closely controlled.)

Thanks in advance!

All I've ever seen are individual mandolin stands.

Wire racks in chrome or black are available at Target, WalMart, HomeDepot, Lowes, etc. They will come with four shelves. You can get high ones and low ones. The single cross bars are available at The Container Store and other kitchen type stores. They generally come in 36 and 48 inch lengths.

Crazy huh? You can reconfigure it for something else when the crisis is past.

Thanks! I was needing help thinking outside the box.

My wife's company was getting rid of a dozen or so racks. I gave a few to friends and just saved the rest. I had to buy pieces like this, two for each rack, one in the back for the top of the case to rest on and one for the lower front to keep the case from sliding out. I bought mine at the Container Store.

We have a wicker linen basket that was knocking about & got repurposed to keep various instruments under control. Not quite wide enough for my son's Hummingbird dreadnought case, but everything else fits.It's had violins, trombones & mandolins in there at different times.
Attachment 186024

There was a thread a while ago in which somebody built a rack from plastic plumbing parts. (Most people out there will be able to find it more easily than I can!)

One thread from a few years ago is here

Thanks all! I ended up ordering, of all things, a garment rack (those things you get when you don't have a closet). It turned out there was a nice bamboo version available that had two shelves and a cross-bar about 20" above the uppermost shelf. Since this is going to be up against a wall, we can fake it a bit if we need to. If anyone's interested, I'll put up pics once it's in.

A DIY of using wooden dowel lined (reinforced) Plastic Plumbing fittings
Glued together with the adhesive made for the purpose is out there on the InterWebs..

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Originally Posted by collingwest

Thanks all! I ended up ordering, of all things, a garment rack (those things you get when you don't have a closet). It turned out there was a nice bamboo version available that had two shelves and a cross-bar about 20" above the uppermost shelf. Since this is going to be up against a wall, we can fake it a bit if we need to. If anyone's interested, I'll put up pics once it's in.

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Please do, I'd like to see a picture. And please give that sweet cat in your avatar a pat for me!

Best wishes,

Bob

My family room/studio is fairly large and did not have a closet. I framed in one with sliding doors on the studio end. Now I have dividers built in for a variety of guitar and mandolin cases, plus shelves for misc. It really tidies up the space.

You can put each in a case and slide the cases under the sofa if they fit. They will stay protected in the case and that's a good habit for your daughter to begin with.