Play it again, Sam: the life of a piano

Many of you know that my mom taught me how to play the piano...

I grew up plunking away on a Baldwin Acrosonic spinet, the same piano my Mom's been playing since she was seven years old. It's still in her living room...

When I moved to San Francisco, a found my own, a little Grand, through a friend of a friend...

[caption id="attachment_3690" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="I don't know how I scraped together $1300 back then, but having my own piano made San Francisco feel like my real home. I had everything I needed."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_3691" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Recognize the big mirror in the background? People say I purge a lot, but certain things feel like home no matter where I live."][/caption]

This is the same apartment where I painted the deep red wall AND my piano for my marketing postcard. The wall behind me in the photo above is the one I painted red adding the first stencil I ever designed...

I painted the words to a soliloquy from the movie, Amadeus, where Salieri first hears young Mozart playing the piano and can't believe his ears. I kept my piano like this for years because it looked great in all the places I've lived after that first apartment in the City.

Notice how the "red wall" vignette inspired this arrangement in my current home?

Of course, now my current home looks like this and my piano gets center stage in my dining room. I think my little Grand has earned that position for sticking with me all these years, don't you? :-)

[caption id="attachment_3700" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="And we arrive here. I've had my piano for about 16 years now and it's still one of my favorite pieces. I'm thinking about adding a thin yellow stripe to the chevrons next, but stay tuned- I could end up painting a landscape instead!"][/caption]

Bottom line is this: life, love, and design are all a work in progress. You start somewhere making your rooms look the best they can for your circumstances and let everything grow from there. Don't just make do, but do appreciate the things you have- no matter how humble or simple- the things that bring you comfort over the years because they speak to something you love- family, music, good memories, vacations... As you love and care for your things, you begin to love and care for yourself and your life. You strip away expectation in favor of experience and eventually, you just breathe...

Find a piece that you love and give it a little TLC today- a photo, a desk, a blanket, some curtains...a piano perhaps? Add new life to an old good thing and see what happens...