reviving the piano

So, you may remember our horrible piano. It doesn't sound horrible, aside from one sour G in the upper octave, but it looks HORRIBLE. Photographic evidence of the horrors:

 We got this piano from Dave's dad. It was in the house we lived in Montpelier, Idaho, that was owned by Surveyor Scherbel. Scott said that the company wasn't interested in keeping the piano and that we could have it if we wanted it. I have always felt like our house needed a piano, so we kept it and moved the poor thing to Texas and now Michigan. It is so nice to have a piano, and yet I really dislike how awful it looks. Peeled-off stickers, scribbles, and partially sanded, because clearly, someone else hated the way it looked too.

 Oh, yeah, and a horrible burned spot too. Finally I could bear it no longer, so I made the absolutely INSANE decision to paint the piano. (Some paint samples visible above)

 I attacked the sides and legs first. I did the whole thing with a hand sander because I felt like it would be easier to control and so the sawdust didn't get completely all over the house. I sanded both sides and then Dave came home and helped me take things apart so I could sand outside, and so the sawdust wouldn't get into the insides of the piano. 

 Ahhhh, SO much better already!

 Jed was totally enthralled with the inner workings of the piano. He and Hank had lots of fun playing (okay, banging) on the piano, and Hank kept taking the keys out and I'd have to get after him. But Jed also had fun seeing how the hammers worked on the strings and experimenting with different sounds he got by playing the pedals and playing harder or softer. It was fun to see him learning.

 Poor Dave--I always come up with a good project for myself and he ends up getting involved, usually because I bite off more than I can chew, and he has to help me out. But he is really good to help out happily, and I am so grateful. We had a good time sanding and painting together and I couldn't have finished without his expertise.

 Ugh, the lid with the burn! It was just so ugly! It took me forever to sand down so it only showed a little.

 The last thing I worked on was the lid that goes over the keys. I felt a little bad sanding off the label, but I didn't really have a choice. Everything had to come off so it would take the paint!

 After we got everything sanded, we vacuumed everything really well to remove all the surface dust, and then I wiped it down with a damp rag to get off any remaining dust. We let it dry overnight and in the morning I took the boys to the hardware store to get the paint! I was a little nervous committing to a color, but I have loved turquoise for so long and I kept seeing it places and it just seemed like the piano was asking to be painted that color. So, I went for a lovely turquoise called "Julep" from the Do It Best line that was latex paint and primer combined. We started painting after the boys were in bed.

 We gave up floor space in the basement to paint the rest of the parts, because I didn't want the boys tripping over or playing with them. Dave and I would usually paint at night after they were in bed, or get up early in the morning and paint before they woke up. We tried letting Jed help out on one piece, but it was so nerve-wracking, between the worry that he would spill, or get it on his favorite shirt, and my concern that the brush strokes go with the grain. I found myself wringing my hands in a very unfortunate and uncharacteristic way, and after he was done with one section, that was the end. I was happy for him to have a little part in the project, but I was also happy for him to be done.

We did 4 coats of the Julep, and then we started on with the Minwax Polycrylic High Gloss finish. It protects and also adds that shine that I was after. I found myself wishing we had a paint sprayer. The gloss was hard to work with--it would puddle and turn brown if it was even slightly too thick, and then we'd have to wait for it to dry and sand it off and try again. Finally, poor Dave figured out a good technique of applying a medium amount of gloss and then spreading it out over a huge area and just brushing back and forth and back and forth. He was much better at this than I,so he ended up doing all the gloss, because we wanted it to look GOOD. Poor Dave--he ended up doing 4 coats of the gloss before we were satisfied with the shine.

 Well, it may have been a trial, but LOOK at that SHINE!! Even though by this point, we were just ready to be done, it was very satisfying at the same time to have it look so good.

I took the felt off several of the piano parts when we sanded it, because the glue was horrible and it was peeling off anyway. So when we were all done painting and glossing, I cut some half-inch wide strips of felt and hot-glued them into place.

 I know the royal blue is kind of a wild color choice, but I wanted to use what felt I had on hand, and I figured with a turquoise piano, I might as well do some crazy felt color.

 We also took the time to use some Brasso on all the little brass parts on the piano--the music stand holders, the knobs, the pedals, and the wheels and their surrounding parts. Everything cleaned up really well and looked so good when we were done.

 I LOVE the way the felt looks, peeking out from under the lids. And the shiny brass looks so beautiful against that gorgeous turquoise!

Ta-Da! It is hard to see the shine in this picture, but I promise, it is very glossy.  I was like a little kid on Christmas morning when I got up today--I ran right downstairs to take another look at our beautiful piano.

The breakdown:
about a day's worth of sanding--probably around 8 hours altogether
4 coats of paint
4 coats of gloss (with some sanding in between coats)
$32 for a gallon of premium Latex paint/primer
$16 for a quart of Minwax Polycrylic high gloss finish
$5 for sponge brushes
Brasso and felt already on-hand

The finished product?

For me, worth absolutely every bit! I am so much more excited about playing it and singing with the boys, too, and that's really the reason I wanted to redo it: so we could get more joy out of something that had previously just been a fixture in our home.