TO STEP inside "Cars and Guitars" is like stepping into a teenage boy's dream. There is a highly polished, customised Toyota MR2 gleaming in the middle of the room, while the walls are brimming with every conceivable shape and style of guitar.

There is hot coffee brewing in the corner, and a few enticing leather sofas where customers can sit back and get to know the guitars a little more intimately or ogle the cars from a safe distance.

The store is probably unlike anything you have ever seen – an unapologetically sexy cross between a car showroom and a guitar shop.

This man-magnet of a store is the brainchild of Gary Bond, who has been running his main business, MoT garage Bond Motor Services Ltd, together with business partner Gavin Ward, pictured inset below, in the neighbouring building since 1993.

But when the late Victorian drawing office next door came on the market, Gary and Gavin couldn't resist it.

"At first the idea was to have it as a little car showroom," Gary says. "People knew we were here as an MoT garage, but many of our own customers didn't know we also sell secondhand cars, so we wanted to make it a bit more obvious.

"But then I had an idea for a way I could get double the use out of the space. At home I had a collection of 150 guitars. I'm no great guitarist, but I'm a bit of an obsessive collector – so I could see this would be a good way of freeing up some space in my house."

Gary brought more than 140 of his guitars into the building, and mounted them all on the walls of the swish new showroom – they're all for sale.

On top of his own secondhand guitars, Gary has added some of the latest guitars for sale from companies such as Fender, Tanglewood and Rickenbacker.

"As a business move, bringing together cars and guitars seemed like a marriage made in heaven," Gary explains.

"It's a bit like a restaurant where they sell artwork on the walls. Here we sell guitars on the walls.

"How else would we be using the wall space?

"To me guitars are essentially works of art anyway – there are some beautiful examples here.

"The idea is that the two halves of the business will be able to complement each other perfectly.

"If you're a guitar fan, and you have to get your MoT done and sit somewhere for an hour while it's being carried out, why not come to a place where you can spend that hour in a guitar shop?

"Also, because we're the only guitar shop for miles, we're already getting lots of musicians coming in because they're interested in buying a guitar – or even just a set of guitar strings, and that then encourages them to use our garage services when they need somebody to look at their car."

The fascinating old building features wooden beams that once formed part of the superstructure of 17th century ships, which were recycled after being broken at Bristol Docks.

"It's a lovely old place, but we've done a bit of work on it to give it a comfortable modern feel," says Gary, who as a singer with local band This Time, is also able to use a stage area at the back of the showroom for band rehearsals.

"We're planning to start a series of jam nights, where musicians can come along and play together," he says.

"We're also now starting to think about what we can do with the upstairs rooms – one of the options is more formal rehearsal rooms that local bands could hire, or possibly an area for music lessons, and perhaps a salesroom for drum kits or keyboards.

"It's the way the business has grown since I had the first idea just a few months ago – almost organically. We're making it up as we go along, but it seems to be working brilliantly."

In fact, Gary only agreed to start selling the guitars after his accountant pulled him up over a detail in his accounts.

"Before we developed this new building, I'd bought a guitar on the business and had it in the reception area. But my accountant said I couldn't do that – I couldn't buy a guitar on the business." he laughs.

"I said, could I do it if I was going to sell the guitar? He said yes of course, so I wrote out a quick sign – "For Sale" – and stuck it on the wall next to the original guitar.

"But things have come on a little way since then," he adds, looking around the room at the shining rows of polished instruments. In this day and age, with the economy the way it is, you have to do whatever you can to try to do something a bit innovative with your business," he says.

"You can't just plod on as you've always done.

"As it is, we've already started selling guitars – and I think we're rapidly developing a following among guitar fans, so who knows where it could lead to?

"If nothing else, it makes coming into work each day a real joy."

● For more details, visit www.bondmotorservices.co.uk or call 0117 9608500.