Making Room for More- The Things You can do with a Piano

My first major purchase when I moved to San Francisco was this beat up but loved baby grand piano. I think it cost $1300 which was a massive amount at the time, but I knew that venturing into this brand new life and city would be easier with the comfort of my music. My friend's friend was moving to New York so I jumped at the opportunity to buy this piano. The smallest grand factories make, this 5' beauty is aptly nicknamed a Boudoir Grand.

[caption id="attachment_1874" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="My studio in the Marina was my first laboratory for decorative painting. Every wall- and I do mean EVERY wall- had a different finish."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1875" align="aligncenter" width="476" caption="Every period movie I saw and Historical home I toured seemed to feature a beautifully painted harpsichord, so when I ran out of walls to paint in my studio, I set my eyes on my little grand. I had recently seen Amadeus and decided to paint/write the soliliquy offered by Antonio Salieri when he first hears young Mozart play for the Emporer of, I believe, Vienna."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1876" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Early on my marketing technique was to create these inexpensive postcards and snail mail them to every designer I could find in the phone book- seems so long ago now! This photo is taken on the opposite wall of the first photo in this post. I told you I painted every wall with a different finish!"][/caption]

My piano remained like this FOREVER! Then when it finally hit me that my current dining room needed my piano, center stage, I knew it was time to paint again.

[caption id="attachment_1877" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="I decided on a whole new direction- I wanted to paint kind of a graphic 80's pattern on the body, but decided to go somewhat symmetric and balance the chevrons in my bedroom with a similar pattern out here in the dining room. After a light sanding and good wipe down, I started with this basecoat, Sherwin-Williams 7645Thunder Gray"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1878" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="While deciding on the pattern I wanted to create, I got started on the walls."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1879" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Here's where I forgot to take process shots. I got so excited about the pattern that I jumped in without even thinking about the camera. Basically, I drew a pencil line around the body halfway down from the top. Then I decided on the thickness of the stripes and and marked the top, bottom, and center line. I connected the dots with tape and used Benjamin Moore's outdoor Black for the stripes"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1880" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Et Voila! A modern theme built on a classic practice. Maybe one day I'll paint a "real" traditional period theme... but, mostly likely I'll go with my 80's idea first! (Thank you, Lilias Pettit-Scott for this beautiful photo)"][/caption]