Fate.
That is what I believe happened the night I met my piano.
The hubby got home from work and I was desperately needing a break so I ran off to Hobby Lobby. Unfortunately, I forget they close at 8:00 so I turned to my ultimate sanctuary...the DI. I love to go there anyway, but without kids it is 100x better. It was close to closing time so I was just planning on browsing for a second and maybe pick up a few frames to add to my never ending collection. I walked in and started down the furniture aisle and boom, there it was.
It was obviously old and had obviously been through a few attempted paint jobs but it was love at first sight. I immediately called my husband and told him I wanted to buy it for my birthday. His first question was "what does it look like?" to which I responded "exactly how a piano from DI would look". Surprisingly, he wasn't sold on the idea but I had a hold tag put on it for me just in case.
When I got home, I somehow convinced Rob that my life would end right then and there if I couldn't have that piano so he gave in. I ran to DI the next morning only to find a few people gazing longingly at "my" piano. A few even had the nerve to start touching the keys. There was a keyboard salesman who tried talking me out of buying it. He told me it was trash and that I could get much higher quality sound from one of his keyboards. Sorry buddy, I'm a piano gal to the day I die. This madness had to stop. I quickly found a DI employee and had them mark that baby up as sold.
I called my dad who brought his truck down and the lovely DI employees loaded it up for me. Which was great, until we got it home and realized it then needed to be unloaded. How exactly should we go about this? It does have wheels on it so we thought maybe we could make a ramp and roll it in, but we quickly realized the wheels were in terrible shape and would have scratched the crap out of our pergo floors. Instead, we just decided to ask some neighbors and see who was willing to risk their lives for my piano's sake. Four men, some serious sweat and a majorly bruised leg later (thanks honey!) it was in. Beautiful, no?
So now it was here, but what to do next. I knew I wanted to paint it, but I wasn't sure what color. I had originally been inspired by Design Mom's green piano, but the ivory color was kind of growing on me. My husband has a pretty classic style, so he was encouraging me to get it to the original wood and stain it. A few months later, I went to a get together at my crazy stylish friend Heather's and noticed their sideboard which they had painted a beautiful teal/turquoise/blue. I knew immediately that was my color. Heather was kind enough to share the info with me and a few days later, I was headed to Sherwin Williams to pick up a gallon of Superstitious.
Painting the piano sounded like fun. Getting the piano ready to paint was not. I started with some stripper that would bubble the paint and then I would scrape it away. Some of the paint stripped off easily, other sections did not so the stripping took a lot longer than I was expecting. After hours of prep work, it was time to get painting. When I had picked up the stripper and my supplies from Home Depot, the paint guy had suggested thinning the paint with water to eliminate brush strokes. Me being the obedient person I am, decided to listen to him and I will never paint furniture another way! There are virtually no visible brush strokes on my piano. (I've tried Floetrol and think the water method is actually more effective.) After two coats of paint, my piano was ready to show off.
Ta-da! I was immediately in love with it and am happy to say that months later, I still am. It is my all-time favorite piece of furniture in my house. Not only do I love how it looks, but after years of living without a piano of my own, I am so grateful to have one I can play at my leisure.
How about a before and after for you...
Do you like painted pianos or are you planning a revolt against the painting furniture world?
