Our oldest son drummed on everything. It started when he was a toddler and it seemed to continue with no end in sight. He would drum on pots. He would drum on boxes. He would drum on the table. He started asking for a drum kit and our response was always no. Why? Because drums are loud!
As parents we encourage our kids to practice their musical instruments, but let's be honest, sometimes it's brutal! There have been a lot of screeching notes and the same song on repeat more times than I would like to remember!
Learning music is tough, but it's so important. Find out how you can make it a little less painful on everyone in the whole family!
Our son started the fifth grade and joined the band at school playing the clarinet. He learned how to read music and he taught himself how to play the guitar, but he never stopped drumming. Several years into middle school, he became a TA for the younger grades. He was still playing the clarinet, but kept asking to play the drums. His teacher would let him play the drums at school and he finally pulled us aside and said you know, Aidan is better at the drums than he is on the clarinet. He should give them a shot. We finally gave in and for his 13th birthday, Aidan got a drum kit and started lessons.
You know what, that teacher was right. Aidan is an amazing drummer and it's been fun to watch him turn into an awesome musician. Though it doesn't change the fact that drums are loud! Heck, any instrument is loud. I know some of you are in that same boat with me.
We sometimes feel like we live in a nightclub hearing drums playing all the time. It helps if we close the door to Aidan's room, though it doesn't help as much as these acoustic tiles do that we were able to install recently. I promise you, if you are a parent of an aspiring musician this may be the help that you need to survive some of the noise.
I knew that I wanted to do a checkerboard pattern on the wall, so we ordered these 12x12 acoustic foam tiles with a sticky back and matching design foam in the same size. We ordered 16 of each for the size area that we were planning on covering. Because Aidan's drum kit is in the corner, we wanted to cover two pieces of wood that would absorb the noise directly behind the drums.
We picked a 4x8 sheet of plywood at Home Depot and had it cut in half so that we had two 4x4 sheets of wood. Then we marked off 12x12 squares so that we knew where to place each tile.
I laid out the tile pattern on the boards. Notice the design foam tiles are white because I haven't covered them with fabric yet.
I labeled the wood with an "A" where I wanted the acoustic tiles to go.
I picked up three yards of cotton fabric in black. I cut the fabric slightly larger than the design foam tiles and peeled off the adhesive backing. Place your design foam tile down on your fabric, adhesive side up. Then wrap your tile like a present, pushing in the corners of the fabric and covering the tiles.
Then stick your tile to your board following your pattern.
I left the four corners of my board open so that the board could be screwed into the wall.
The holes were pre-drilled in the board and the boards were hung in studs.
Screws mounted the boards in all four corners.
I completed placing the tiles on the boards in the corners after the board was hung.
This is what we see when we walk past his room. Side note, he loves flags and license plates.
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