How to Turn Music Memorabilia Into Home Décor

In the age of streaming, it’s common knowledge that making music doesn’t quite pay the bills as it did for the superstars of yesteryear. As a result, dedicated fans are turning to other means to support and give homage to their favourite musicians. From hand-signed merchandise to extensive vinyl collections, there’s more memorabilia going around nowadays than most of us know what to do with.

However, when it comes to collectables and one-of-a-kind pieces, you’ll want to make sure that you’re preserving them to be displayed in all of their glory. This is where we come in — Soho Frames are happy to assist you in framing and installing your prized merchandise as décor, so that you can safely show it all off in your home. We always recommend professional framing services rather than trying to frame possessions with sentimental value yourself, as you’ll want to use only the best materials and techniques to ensure those keepsakes remain safe.

So, if you’re looking to celebrate the music that means the most to you, here’s our guide to the different ways that you could have your music memorabilia turned into statement home décor pieces.

Album artwork

Our favourite acts in popular music have given us some of the most iconic images of all time: from infamous zebra crossings, prism spectrums, all the way up to babies chasing dollar bills through swimming pools. These classic albums are forever immortalised by the millions of records they sold, but they also make for great wall art.

By framing albums to make a decorative centrepiece, you can design a feature wall of your favourite music. As most album covers are square in design, this is easy enough to achieve by having framed a print of the cover you like. However, for a more dynamic piece, you may wish to instead use the very sleeve of your favourite record mounted alongside its flagship vinyl (or with it left spinning away on your turntable).

Sheet music

Framing sheet music is the way to go if you’re after a timeless aesthetic for your musical wall art. Sheets can also be mounted with personalised messages as thoughtful gifts for the music theory buffs in the family.

By framing sheet music, original copies with sentimental value are protected against wear and tear, and can be enjoyed for years to come. Similarly, vintage and hand-signed sheets may benefit from professional framing with high-grade UV-protection glass, to minimise the ageing of ink through the years. While no line of defence will completely prevent ink from bleaching slightly over time, our anti-reflective art glass can block up to 99% of UV rays, so is the best solution if you want to hang any kind of ink-based print or artwork.

Portraits

Another option is to take a classic poster, magazine spread, or even a tour photo that you’ve snapped of your favourite artist, and have it printed to go on your wall. Using our professional printing service, you can achieve gallery-quality colour and detail replication, on paper or canvas of your choosing. We can also frame anything you already have printed — our team have years of experience mounting vintage posters for the perfect end result.

Artist portraits are particularly adept at capturing the lively spirit of entertainers in their element on stage, and can add a welcome dose of character to your walls. For recommendations on how to hang artwork effectively when decorating, check out our comprehensive guide.

Song lyrics

We all have our favourite lines from an artist’s back catalogue: those lyrics that we’d be happy to sing in the shower or shout along to in a crowd, but might have never fully committed to having tattooed. So, instead, framing typography prints may be a welcome (and decidedly less painful) alternative.

Framing lyrics for wall art is a great way to remember the songs that have the most meaning to you — they might be from the first album you ever bought or the first dance at your wedding. Whatever their sentimental value, they can be printed from your own designs or even framed if you’ve had the privilege of an artist writing them out by hand for you. It might be the case that these words are tucked away in an old notepad, or scrawled on the only napkin you had to hand at the time — but whatever the format, they hold memories that deserve to be kept alive.

Unique items

What with years of touring, promotion and producing weird and wonderful merchandise, your favourite artists may have some less traditional-shaped memorabilia to their name. At our central London studio, we have a lot of experience in mounting with unique frames, specifically designed and tailor-made to fit any shape of item that you want to enshrine. One particularly pertinent example is a cut-out of the continent of Africa we framed, complete with a shelf to hold three glass bottles of African rainwater. This paid homage to the song of the same name by Toto, and was signed by members of the band.

For these more complicated projects, we’ll consult with clients and produce 3D mockups of their ideas, before putting together the final product. Taking on items of any scale, we’ve done everything from drum stick to guitar framing, and even the odd cymbal too.

Fancy getting some of your musical mementoes framed but not sure where to start? Get in touch with us to book your consultation, and leave the rest in our hands.