We Painted Our Piano – How To Paint Your Piano

Yup. It happened. We painted our piano & it’s glorious. Glorious meaning, we love it & it feels like our piano now. This piano has been well loved through the years & now it’s our families turn. You see the piano came with this big beautiful 1800’s farmhouse of ours & Mr. LMB was actually the most excited about it. It’s a player piano & is quite magical. I love that I can turn it on & it plays music for us while we are around the house. It has come quite the conversation piece when we have people over. I know there are a TON of people who love oak which I realized when I expressed interest about painting our piano, but it just wasn’t us. Many expressed the piano losing value or not being their favorite, but that didn’t really matter because we don’t always go with the flow & we don’t keep anything in our home that we don’t love just because it would be “worth money” or we fear someone else might not like it. I hope that I can inspire you in some small tiny way to do the same in your home. To go against what the “popular opinion” is & do what you love so that your home becomes a place you can enjoy to the fullest. Of course these things are done over time because there are things called budgets & priorities, but if you want to paint that piano of yours that is sitting in the living room, I say go for it…

Here is what the piano looked like before I painted it…

Seriously it wasn’t bad at all & it was a very pretty piece unpainted as well. It fit in very well with the current oak trim of the room, but again it wasn’t our style. We have done nothing to this room yet, but yes, the oak trim will be leaving as well as that wall color. The newly painted piano will fit in even more once we start working on this space. The piano is in our large “sliding door” living room as we call it that was the old garage & that is where this heavy beast will be staying…

I was very intimidated our piano because it seemed like it was such a big deal, but it was honestly so easy. It didn’t take me too long & the biggest issue was working around all of the details like the keys, legs, pedals, & other things.

Here is how I painted our piano & how to paint your piano as well:

1. Tape off all things that you don’t want to paint. The peddles, keys, & all of that jazz.
2. Lightly sand a majority of the piece to remove any impurities.
3. Clean the piece with TSP to remove any grease & residue.
4. Prime. You will be thankful you did this. It stops the bleeding & makes the paint go on better.
5. Paint! I used the Magnolia Home Paint in true white & it worked wonderfully.
6. Take your time. There are a lot of crevices on a piano so work slowly adding your paint.
7. Seal your piece with a coat of polyurethane or furniture wax to make your piece durable.

& lastly, don’t freak out if you don’t like it. You can always strip painted furniture later on. So don’t freak out! This piano had a lot of imperfections & the paint didn’t hide them all, but I think the paint & all the imperfections makes it more of a charming piece & it fits in well with our style now. The one bad thing about painting this piano? It’s made me want to start making over this entire room & that’s going to have to wait a while. So for now I will decorate it a little & get to the big stuff later.

So, there she is, our painted piano. Oak or painted I think she is a stunning lady. I styled her quickly for now, but I’m sure that will change when we start on this room. For now we are enjoying her as is & this room is slowly becoming one of our favorites to lounge & watch TV in. In fact, I’m blogging in this room right now. This piano is only going to look more amazing once we start putting our touch on this big living room of ours.. can’t wait! I hope you guys enjoyed seeing our painted piano & hearing a little more about how we did it. Thank you so much for stopping by my blog today & be sure to follow me on Facebook & Instagram. xx

 

Some room sources:

Pillows: H&M
laundry cart, seltzer bottles: antique finds
Chairs: Twin Fibers
Tray: Painted Fox
Paint: Magnolia Home
Antique sign: The Found Cottage
Large sign: House Of Belonging
Bench: DIY [here]
Plants: Ikea

 

*We were gifted Magnolia Home paint to try, but as always, all opinions are my very own.