Chalk-Painted Piano {Re-Invented & Re-Styled}

I now have a painted piano...revamped with homemade chalk paint and love. 

And a flirty new lamp that screams cha-cha-cha!

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I know piano painting can be almost as controversial as political topics these days. There are a lot of piano-purists out there that may want to string me up after this one {my own mother included. Thankfully, she still doesn't think my blog exists beyond its Facebook page and won't see this post in its entirety. Bless her.}.  

I'm kind of in love with the new girl. She's my kind of sassy. 

Here's where we began. I'll go ahead and preface this by saying, this piano was not a family heirloom {although according to my mom, every piano is someone's heirloom}. This was given to us by some very kind friends when our kids started lessons. When we picked it up, I made them fully aware of my painting intentions...and they were super cool with it. {Thank you, Birchers!}

It was a well-loved piano. I'm sure it has lots of great stories of kiddos learning to play on it. It's full of character with dings and chips and everything that holds a story...I LOVE that kind of thing. I just added to her story with a layer of paint.

I used my homemade chalk paint recipe. I want to be completely up front and let you know that my recipe is thick. It's definitely not for everyone. But, I like a good, thick chalk paint to be...almost like a paste. I love the coverage and the age it adds to a piece with its salty, texture-y self. I do sand lightly between coats. But, I also {almost} never leave chalk paint as the final layer to a piece. After it's applied, I completely mess with it with wax or sanding or that sort of thing. 

My recipe is two parts latex paint {flat works best, but you can use eggshell} to one part Plaster of Paris. That's it. I, personally, do not add water to mine. I think it makes it too thin for my taste. If it's too thick, I add a little more paint. It does take me a while to mix...I even bought an old hand mixer that I use just for chalk paint {it has really sped up the mixing process}.

After mixing it, I let it sit for about ten minutes or so. It thickens up and then I remix. 

Then I just paint. This chalk paint does leave brush strokes...which not everyone loves. I do. But, I know I may not always have the same tastes as everyone else.

I used a small artist's brush to get in the tight spots {this is just the first coat, so the coverage is pretty meh at this point}. There's a lot of fellow piano painters out there {see, I'm not alone in this crazy adventure} that have, literally, disassembled their entire piano to paint it. Lord, help me...I think that would give me a slight panic attack. I'd be terrified I would never get it put back the same {kind of a Humpty Dumpty situation I'd have on my hands}. So, I meticulously took my time...used artist brushes here and there...and didn't touch the innards with a ten foot pole. No way, no how, man.

And yes, I painted it inside the house. I lined my floor and away I went. Moving a piano=way more effort than I wanted to deal with.

This was after two coats of the chalk paint {sanding lightly in between coats}. And...if you'll notice I didn't use my usual "oops" blue. Don't worry...the sky is not falling...it's certainly not for a lack of trying, though. I went to the big blue box store with the trickle left in my last can of original oops to get a remix. The guy behind the counter was brand spanking new and mixed it incorrectly. He was falling all over himself apologizing to me. I just looked at my new color and said "You know what, friend? I *think* I love it more than the original. You're a paint mixologist wonder boy." He looked at me like I had two heads and moved on to the next customer. Some people just don't get me. 

All that to say...I *think* I may have just found my new color. After a two year color obsession...can you believe it? It's an oops of an oops paint. I call it my Beautiful Oops Oops Blue. Or BOOB for short. 

I may need to work on a better acronym.

It's times like these that make me glad my mother can't seem to find my actual blog. Not only did I paint a piano...I did it with BOOB paint. Niiiiiiice.

After it was dry, I sanded the edges to get a little worn look.

I used a lighter color of wax on top of the chalk paint. This just seals and protects it. I may still go over this with a darker wax, too...still thinking on that one. It would just age it even more. 

Wax on. Wax Off.

I use an old boy's undershirt to apply and buff wax.

{To be clear, the boy wasn't old. His shirt was.}

Be still my heart. These mercury glass knobs are from HobLob. Swoon.

They are the perfect jewelry for my girl.

And I'm super excited about my new lamp! Lamps.com recently contacted me to see if I would give one of their lamps a review. Since I'm a total lamp-lover, I was all over it. I picked this one...called the Dimond Lamp {I did not misspell that!}, from their HGTV collection. Love it. Like, for reals, y'all. Click here to see this lamp on their site. To check out all of their lighting, click here {it's all breath-taking}.

Two thumbs up on this one! The rectangular shade alone is crush-worthy. Because I totally crush on lamps.

So...painted pianos: love them or loathe them?

I think the changes totally brightened up the space. 

And loving the pop against our dark floors.

I ditched the bench and grabbed an antique chair that my late uncle refinished for me several years ago. We all fell off that bench more than once. Weird. 

{I may take down the angel above the mirror and replace it with something else. 

I'm not 100% sure that it goes here now. Thinking on it. Opinions welcome.}

Can you see my dog in the above photo?

Yeah...she's totally digging the painted piano, too.

This post was brought to you by lamps.com.

I was compensated in product for my above review. 

All opinions expressed are completely mine.

{i linky-party here}

and at Coastal Charm and Savvy Southern Style

Neglect your chores like me and don't miss a thing:

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