Door Harp

I was looking for a project to make that was going to be something we get to keep and that was unique. I’ve seen many door harps and door harp patterns, but I wanted some thing just a little different. This is my design for our Mandolin Door Harp.

Many years ago, someone gave us 8 pianos that were in total disrepair – so we salvaged many pieces and parts and scraped the rest. Some of those parts was the ivory from the keys and the ebony keys. They worked out perfect for this project. I used the ivory in some of the inlay and the ebony key to string the striking balls from. We made the mock fingerboard and headstock from one piece of Wenge and added brass inlay for the frets. The sound box we used spruce (smelled just like pencils!) and the front and back skins were 1/8" Baltic birch ply. Then we veneered the top skin and I put it in the laser to add the design for my inlays. Last thing we did was add the guitar strings across the mandolin and place the striking balls.

Had a blast making this door harp and really like the way it turned out, right afterwards, we made a Piano Door Harp!