Lewis, the talented rapper, producer and 17-year-old son of the Word clan, gives a tour of the new room he can enjoy right along with his other siblings -- LaShayna, 18, Maiché, 9, Shane Jr., 7, and Kennedy, 4.

As you may remember from a couple other videos posted during the Word family makeover, the Digital Wall Harp is the same metal thingie Alison and Brian were drilling and fitting one day, and that Alison and Lloyd were making funky noise tests with the next. It's a one-of-a-kind instrument, with musical technology usually only seen in science museums. 

And Guru Brian toiled away at The Lair for dozens of hours, getting a head start hand-crafting the Bellows Chair out of nothing more than a fixer-upper antique wooden chair, some leather and some hardware. It's a gorgeous piece of furniture, beautifully finished, and it's a unique musical instrument -- again, of a type usually only seen in museums.

The Techno-Gurus really put their hearts and souls into the Musical Playroom, especially these two incomparable musical inventions. I especially love how one could have been made two hundred years ago, while one seems like it could have been beamed to us from some future culture -- old and new, both coexisting elegantly in the same space. (Well, I guess part of the elegance sorta depends on how hard you plop down on that chair...but either way, they're both fun!)

Believe it or not, this musical dreamland was once a humble one-car garage. Poppa Shane had recently converted it into a separate room, but thus far it had been used primarily for storing kids' toys and tools. Here's what it looked like on the first day of shooting:

Pretty incredible transformation, huh?

But the best part is still coming up: getting to see (and hear!) the even more incredible transformation this new music room will have on the lives of Lewis, his talented singing sister LaShayna, and the rest of the family.

No longer will Lewis have to spend days upon days making beats on a rickety old computer, then trucking everything over to an expensive studio to lay his tracks down properly -- he can now do it all right from the comfort of his pro-caliber home studio.

I, for one, can't wait to see what this talented family does for their encore...

Keep your eye on the DIY page, where the Gurus will be showing step-by-step instructions for the Digital Wall Harp and Bellows Chair, after some other cool projects they've been working on.

The Gurus would like to thank:

Posted by Jim 2.0 | tagged: Interactive Wall Harp, Bellows Chair, infrared, Word, makeover, furniture, music, photos, home theater, after, video