How to Make a Painted Pineapple Ukulele
This pineapple ukulele plays perfectly! Learn to make a DIY ukulele with an easy and fun tutorial. It’s an incredibly fun project idea to try with families and kids.
Trivia time! Did you know that my major in college was music? And after college, I taught high school choir and then worked as a musical theatre performer in NYC for another few years before making my way into the world of blogging.
Music still is a huge part of my life — I play a whole mess of instruments and I sing, too. So today we kind of have two parts of my world colliding with this project as I show you how to make a painted pineapple ukulele!
A DIY Ukulele that Actually Works
Ryan and I pull out the ukelele all the time to play and sing for the kids, and I kind of had an itch to make a cool little uke that we could have just for them.
A ukulele is a great family instrument — easy to learn, fun to play, and perfect for sing-a-longs. In fact, after you learn how to make a painted pineapple ukulele, you can learn to play a bunch of songs with the lesson series we put together! Here they are:
- Guide to four basic chords: Ukulele 101 // Part 1
- Learn an easy strumming pattern: Ukulele 101 // Part 2
- Put your chords and strum together to learn a quick song: Ukulele 101 // Part 3
Now let’s make this thing and start strumming!
Why Make a Pineapple Ukulele?
As a music teacher, I’m a huge proponent of including music in your life in any way that you can, especially if you’re raising kids.
Involvement in musical activities has been proven to have so many benefits for young people — it improves interpersonal communication and teaches teamwork, it touches on a myriad of disciplines (science, mathematics, art, etc.), bolsters mental processing and problem solving skills, fosters good hand-eye coordination, and the list goes on.
A DIY ukulele like this one is a perfect intro to the musical world, as it’s a simple instrument to pick up and learn a couple of chords. It’s an instrument that has a low barrier to learn and a high reward factor.
It’s also really fun to use socially, for fun sing a longs or with your family and friends.
What You’ll Need to Make your Own Ukulele
You can find lots of DIY ukulele kits online, but we hacked one specific kit to turn it into our pineapple ukulele! See the list below for links to the exact materials we used.
Materials
- DIY ukulele kit We used the smallest size for this project because I made it to eventually give to our kids. If you’re making it for yourself, consider one of the larger sizes.
- craft paint You’ll just need two shades of yellow and two shades of green.
- craft paintbrushes Whatever you have on hand will most likely work!
- painter’s tape Masking tape would work as well.
- light grit sandpaper Make sure it’s not too gritty; this can damage the instrument.
- wood sealer A good idea to make sure your paint job stays fresh!
- gold paint pen See the link for my favorite gold paint pen of all time.
- ruler Or anything with a straight edge!
Make Time
5 Hours (Plus Drying Time)
- Your kit should come with all of the uke pieces you’ll need. Start by masking off the sides of the body with painter’s tape and painting the front of the uke yellow. It may take a couple of coats to get even, opaque coverage. Add coats until you’re satisfied with the coverage.
- Once the yellow is dry, paint a lighter shade of yellow, following the curve along one side of the body to give some dimension.
- Use a ruler to create a criss-cross pattern over the yellow once the paint is thoroughly dry. We placed our lines about an inch apart; the same width as the ruler we were using. Add a dot to the center of each square that you create.
- Paint a random leaf pattern in a light green on the headstock of the uke. Once the light green is dry, use a thin paintbrush tooutline the leaves with a darker green.
- Allow all the paint to dry thoroughly. We recommend at least 24 hours to dry and cure. After the paint is dry, then you can assemble your uke according to the directions on your specific packaging.
- If necessary, sand any rough spots on the uke. Cover with a sealer and let cure.
How to String a DIY Ukulele
Once your DIY pineapple ukulele is dry and assembled, you’ll want to get the strings on so that you can start playing!
Your ukulele kit will most likely come with instructions for stringing your instrument. But if you’re a visual learner, I think this video does a really great job of explaining. This particular video also demonstrates how to string with different types of headstocks and bridges, so it’s a great resource to bookmark.
Make a DIY Strap for Your Pineapple Ukulele
I don’t use a strap when I play the ukulele, but if you can’t quite get the hang of holding it (or if you’re making one for kids), a strap can be useful!
This macrame camera strap tutorial can easily be adjusted to make a ukulele strap that would be super cool! Or if you’re not into macrame, here’s a painted strap tutorial that would also work perfectly.
More Colorful DIY Ideas For Your Family
If you love the look and vibe of this DIY, we have a whole series of family-friendly DIYs for making games and toys! Check out some of my favorites, below:
- Make a Wes Anderson Guess Who Game
- Make a Wooden Toy for Kids
- How to Make a Shut The Box Game
- How to Make a Cactus Slingshot Toy
- DIY Battleship Sweets Game
- Make a Painted Mancala Game
- DIY Kids’ Balance Game
- DIY Painted Puzzle for Kids
- Chinese Checkers Game
And that’s it, folks — how to make a painted pineapple ukulele! Do you play any instruments? Be sure to check out our Ukulele 101 series if you don’t know how and would like to learn to play. The tutorials are super simple and will have you strumming in no time. Have fun! xoxo
How to Make a Painted Pineapple Ukulele
A pineapple ukulele that looks as good as it sounds! This is a fun and colorful DIY to try with your family or friends.
Materials
- DIY ukulele kit
- craft paint
- painters tape
- gold paint pen
- light grit sandpaper
- wood sealer
Tools
- paintbrushes
- rulers
Instructions
- Your kit should come with all of the uke pieces you'll need. Start by masking off the sides of the body with painter's tape and painting the front of the uke yellow. It may take a couple of coats to get even, opaque coverage. Add coats until you're satisfied with the coverage.
- Once the yellow is dry, paint a lighter shade of yellow, following the curve along one side of the body to give some dimension.
- Use a ruler to create a criss-cross pattern over the yellow once the paint is thoroughly dry. We placed our lines about an inch apart; the same width as the ruler we were using. Add a dot to the center of each square that you create.
- Paint a random leaf pattern in a light green on the headstock of the uke. Once the light green is dry, use a thin paintbrush tooutline the leaves with a darker green.
- Allow all the paint to dry thoroughly. We recommend at least 24 hours to dry and cure. After the paint is dry, then you can assemble your uke according to the directions on your specific packaging.
- If necessary, sand any rough spots on the uke. Cover with a sealer and let cure.
Notes
I don't use a strap when I play the ukulele, but if you can't quite get the hang of holding it (or if you're making one for kids), a strap can be useful!
Check out our macrame camera strap tutorial can easily be adjusted to make a ukulele strap that would be super cool! Or if you're not into macrame, we also have a painted strap tutorial that would also work perfectly. Type "strap" into the Lovely Indeed search bar to find both posts.
I really love this! I don’t play, but I sort of want to make one just for decor!!!
Ain’t nothin’ wrong with that! 😉
agree, i like the pinaple design of ukulele.
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I LOVE this DIY. What a great idea! Pineapples and flamingos are a thing for me right now.
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I hear ya! They’re both so summery! 🙂
Yes, times a million! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve thought about “borrowing” my husband’s old guitar and doing something similar!
Dooooo it!
Cute Chelsea! And your singing video is cute. What a beautiful voice!
Thanks doll! We’ve been having a blast with this little project. 🙂
This is SO adorable!
Thanks doll!
Well, this is FUN!
I love that you’re a music major! I’m not but have played various instruments since I was a kid. Let’s start a blogger band!
And my gosh, this ukulele has to be front and centre of it because it is too gosh darn cute!
Yes to the blogger band! I love it!
You did such an amazing job on this! cutest ukulele ever!
Paige
http://thehappyflammily.com
Thanks Paige!
im working on this right now! Did you put sealer on the sides and back of the ukulele as well?
Yep! Seal it all! We did a sealer coat, then a light sand, and another sealer coat to get it nice and smooth. Send a photo when you’re done! ?
Great DIY project! Good to know we have an option if we should ever use one of ours! We’ve shared this on our Facebook page!
Thanks for sharing!
Did painting it effect effect the sound?
I love this idea!! Hope my sister let me try this 🙂 She has ukelele
I love this idea!! Hope my sister let me try this 🙂 She has ukulele
How cute!!!!
I am working on this right now! Hope to success like you 🙂
great article . thanks . cheers
A really nice looking ukulele. Great idea !!! Thanks for sharing.
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Ukulele is from Indonesia. Country in the SEA
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I love the color and new diy painted design, I can follow your tutorial in home
I love the color and new diy painted design, I can follow your tutorial in home
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Thank you for the good and practical training. Good luck
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