Anyone have a music room?

[deplorabelle]

Our various musical instruments have taken over our dining room and to make more space we are planning an extension.

Currently the music room is tiny and has an archway to the kitchen (no door which means very loud when I'm trying to cook and the drumkit is being played). We are planning an extension with a configurable open plan space that can be divided off with pocket doors. It will be music room / kitchen / dining room / family room.

We don't want to seal the music room off completely as we want the option for musical accompaniment at dinner / sit in family room and listen. We have a separate living room for tv and to get away, and we are also resigned to noise and own good earplugs.

What else do I need to consider? What would you recommend we include/avoid in a music room space?

It sounds like you know how you’d like to live.

Our instruments are in a separate room on a different floor but they’re all string instruments so could be easily brought downstairs for a party.

I’d hate drums in an open plan living area, though. When you do the extension, I’d consider things like sound proofing if you have neighbours nearby. I was in a semi the other day and sb was playing the drums in the other house - I could barely hear my own thoughts. Even if you’re detached, it could probably travel quite a distance.

We had a drum room studio built in with full soundproofing. It came flat packed and we just assembled it in the room.

None of our other instruments warrant the soundproofing but they're kept in the same room outside of the drum pod. With piano being the exception, we are a bunch of musical roamers- I like having the choice of playing anywhere in the house- but find it easier to keep everything in one place.

We are about to have an extension built and turn our dining room into a music room . Which will be separate but I bet Ds still plays his trumpet anywhere and I might keep the piano in the lounge anyway . The music room will also be the kids den and somewhere for my husband to keep his Dj decks . I'm just looking forward to not looking at the mess of instruments and sheet music in the lounge !! I don't really mind where they play - but 2 spaces is useful and they rarely practise upstairs

I'd be considering whether steam from the kitchen could be a problem with any of your instruments and how good the sound insulation is with the pocket door.

Our playroom has basically become a music room but there's no design involved, it's just a stage when they've outgrown toys as such but we haven't taken the plunge into turning it into a den. By den I mean basically 2nd telly!

Thank you all. We are detached but I do acknowledge the drums are audible from outside the house. I'm planning to put floor to ceiling bookshelves on the outside wall as a kind of soundproofing. I am vaguely considering getting portable soundproof screens to go round the drumkit, but essentially as a family we accept noise within the house because of the benefits it brings.

Steam is a good point. I'm hoping there will be sufficient distance between the stove and the piano. Presumably an extractor fan helps?

Would also like to know what instrument and music storage solutions work well

Studio sounds amazing Troll. How big is it?

We went for a biggish one so it wasn't a kick off of 7k. It's been worth it though. Moved house once and it came with us.

demvox

some sound system to listen to and play backing tracks.
A piano is always an asset.
sheet music storage.
It's nice to invest in a nice music stand too if you can.

We have a music room. It’s the room with no underfloor heating or open fire. It has the piano plus big tuned percussion instruments, plus the other smaller more portable instruments. And piles of sheet music. It seems beyond the dc to ever put the music away. If they want a music stand the siblings music just gets thrown on the floor. It’s not like there is only one music stand either. We have ceiling speakers for using Sonos sound system and a nice sofa to sit on. The drum kit lives in the basement. We have floor to ceiling book shelves which do give pretty good sound insulation.

Aftershock about the sheet music that's what it's like here too ( really looking forward to not having to look at the mess anymore!!)

Thanks all. Had a meeting with our architect today and we've moved the music room further away from the kitchen.

Oh wow, some good tips in here. But as I came into this thread I realise that it could not be a solution for me for two reasons. One, we live in an apartment. Two, only me and my daughter play instruments.

Questions is that we like to play them a lot but still do not want to disturb the rest of the family nor the neighbors. This is why after considering many options we finally decided to buy a soudproof booth from www.huddlestone.es/en/.

Just writing it down in case it might be useful for anyone. Going back to play my trumpet!