CLICK HERE FOR FREE BLOGGER TEMPLATES, LINK BUTTONS AND MORE! »

9.23.2012

Piano Makeover

My piano Makeover!  Four years ago we inherited Vic's parent's piano that was as beat up as they come.
We 1st left it in the garage so we could refinish it, but it was too intimidating so we finally brought it inside & I always hated what an eye sore it was.  When we moved to Indiana I was determined to leave it in the garage until I refinished it so there it sat the last 9 months. Last week I went to visit teach a family & the little kids were so excited to show off their piano talents that I realized it didn't matter how ugly my makeover turned out to be, I wanted our piano in the house.  I originally planned to sand it down & apply a new stain, but after I started sanding I realized that would take a lifetime so I settled for spray paint!
 Here's a close up of how beat up it was!
 Yup, that is a star engraved right on the front.
I had a really hard time finding someone that didn't pull the entire piano apart so I thought I'd do a quick how to of how I did it.  I read all about spray painting on the All Things Thrifty blog, did a light sanding, taped off the keys & petals, & then primed it with 4 cans of primer.  I can't believe how much better primer covered everything. (You can see in this picture I practiced my final look on the bench first as I was nervous!)
 Then I spray painted it my final color & it looked like a brown blob. I played with the idea of glazing it since that is so trendy right now, but I already had the stain that matches my other furniture so I decided to save $20 & use that. I am happy I did as it gave it a very different look.

 To get that streaky wood grain look I had to use sponges & press down with 3 fingers for every stroke. My hands were very sticky with stain, but I am very happy with the outcome.  Had I known it was going to turn out so well I would have followed the advice to put wood fill in all of the deep gashes & chips to have given it a sleeker  smooth look, but I'm just happy it is sitting in my house without sticking out like a sore thumb!


4 comments:

Emily said...

That looks awesome! I have done the whole take the piano apart and refinish thing and it is soooo hard! It took me half a year to completely finish the thing even with my dad's help.

Ben and Becky said...

it looks so good. you did an amazing job with it!

Unknown said...

Hi! I love this transformation. It turned out so beautiful and I love the color stain you used. I came across this post while searching for ideas on how to re-stain an old piano. Would you mind telling me what products you used? What kind of spray paint / primer and stain? I am hoping to get the same dark wood effect that you created.

Thank you! :)

Nancy said...

Rosie, you never left a way to contact you so hopefully you read this old post to see my comment! I went to Wal-Mart for their paint & made sure I bought the brown primer as I read that on the "All Things Thrifty" blog... which is great. It covered amazingly well. Not sure what brand it was, whatever that blog recommended. Then just picked a brown spray paint of the same brand. I don't think that those ones matter as much as the stain does. I got it from Home Depot. It is MINWAX brand (yellow can) & it says "Wood Finish" w/ color "Dark Walnut 2716" Then the biggest thing is that you use a sponge to press your fingers against the wood to create the streak/ wood grain look. Good luck! I get lots of compliments on mine!!