Chalk-Painted Piano {Re-Invented & Re-Styled} | i should be mopping the floor
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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!

Chalk-Painted Piano {Re-Invented & Re-Styled}. Includes full tutorial and simple chalk paint recipe.
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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.}.  

Chalk-Painted Piano {Re-Invented & Re-Styled}. Includes full tutorial and simple chalk paint recipe.
I'm kind of in love with the new girl. She's my kind of sassy. 

Chalk-Painted Piano {Re-Invented & Re-Styled}. Includes full tutorial and simple chalk paint recipe.
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.

Chalk-Painted Piano {Re-Invented & Re-Styled}. Includes full tutorial and simple chalk paint recipe.
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. 

Chalk-Painted Piano {Re-Invented & Re-Styled}. Includes full tutorial and simple chalk paint recipe.
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.

Chalk-Painted Piano {Re-Invented & Re-Styled}. Includes full tutorial and simple chalk paint recipe.
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.

Chalk-Painted Piano {Re-Invented & Re-Styled}. Includes full tutorial and simple chalk paint recipe.
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.


Chalk-Painted Piano {Re-Invented & Re-Styled}. Includes full tutorial and simple chalk paint recipe.
After it was dry, I sanded the edges to get a little worn look.

Chalk-Painted Piano {Re-Invented & Re-Styled}. Includes full tutorial and simple chalk paint recipe.
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. 

Chalk-Painted Piano {Re-Invented & Re-Styled}. Includes full tutorial and simple chalk paint recipe.
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.}

Chalk-Painted Piano {Re-Invented & Re-Styled}. Includes full tutorial and simple chalk paint recipe.
Be still my heart. These mercury glass knobs are from HobLob. Swoon.
They are the perfect jewelry for my girl.

Chalk-Painted Piano {Re-Invented & Re-Styled}. Includes full tutorial and simple chalk paint recipe.
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.


Chalk-Painted Piano {Re-Invented & Re-Styled}. Includes full tutorial and simple chalk paint recipe.
So...painted pianos: love them or loathe them?

Chalk-Painted Piano {Re-Invented & Re-Styled}. Includes full tutorial and simple chalk paint recipe.
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.}

Chalk-Painted Piano {Re-Invented & Re-Styled}. Includes full tutorial and simple chalk paint recipe.
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.







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




28 comments:

  1. Love! My son has my piano I learned to play on as a child. It looks VERY much like this one before the paint job. I'm sending him a link of your post to "encourage" him and wife to PAINT it if they want too!

    Thanks for posting!

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  2. I love the painted piano! I've been thinking about venturing into the chalk paint world...

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  3. I love your BOOB paint and piano! Personally, I'd use that boob-paint everywhere, then you could say that you have boobs all over the house! Of course, some people say that I'm not quite right aka crazy, so take that with a grain.

    I don't think the angel likes living there anymore. I say, pull the glitz up the wall - maybe a pretty silver platter or some such thing.

    anywho, I'm off to buy some spray paint!

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  4. This looks great! It's very rare to have a chance to redecorate a piano like that!

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  5. Great BOOB job!

    I say the angel is ready to move on and become guardian of something(one) else. Hard to tell scale, etc. in pictures but I don't know that I'd replace her with anything.

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  6. Love the boob paint!! haha. i would either take down the angel or the mirror. too much a the same "color"....or you could paint the mirror!!!

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  7. Kristi, I just loved reading this post! First, the piano looks amazing and you did a fabulous job! I had to laugh so hard about your Mom not getting the blog beyond FB - my Mom has never even been on a computer and even though she listens and smiles, I know she has absolutely no idea what a blog even is (and probably is pretty shaky on the internet in general!) Please don't change the Boob acronym, it's perfect! I want some boob paint! :) Thanks for totally making my day!

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  8. It looks amazing! Who says you can't paint a piano?? You made it look so much better!

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  9. LOVE it. Looks awesome. If I had been drinking milk, I would have snorted it through my nose with the BOOB paint comment. lol

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  10. LOVE it. Looks awesome. If I had been drinking milk, I would have snorted it through my nose with the BOOB paint comment. lol

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  11. That lamp is gorgeous! And I love the paint color.

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  12. I love that! The piano has a whole new look and that lamp looks like it was made for the piano!

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  13. Adore that lamp Kristi, and the piano looks gorgeous! Fab job!

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  14. Wow! The transformation looks amazing, Kristi, and I love that lamp!

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  15. I think you are brilliant!!! BOOB paint? Love it. Lamp? Two thumbs up. Truth to tell though I find the angel face kinda creepifying. But then again I can't stand the doll faces with the eyelids that open when you sit 'em up and close when you lay the doll down....eerie/icky/general yuckiness. Jes sayin....

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  16. Oh Kristi! It just looks lovely. I love all the details. And as always, you make it look super easy. :)

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  17. Beautiful! I've got an old piano that needs painting although I'll have to hide it because my mother in law will throw a fit! It needs pain though, badly. Your's is just gorgeous!

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  18. What a HUGE improvement!!! Love it!

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  19. Your piano looks awesome!! Really, you've done a beautiful job with that! We have a piano too (got it for $50 from the church across the street from us - all it took was a bunch of strong men to bring it over), I really want to paint mine too now - thanks for the inspiration!!

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  20. We have my hubbies old piano in the basement - it could use a makeover like this!
    Kelly

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  21. This is the first time I've seen your blog (I clicked over from TidyMom) and I have to say, you had me at "painted piano". I wanted to paint our old piano, and then we moved cross country and didn't have room to take it. Now we've just picked up a nice (not chipped up) piano, and I'd love to paint it, but not sure if I should. My style is what I've dubbed "Farmhouse Funky", which my hubs doesn't get at all. And I love the BOOB acronym, too. :)

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  22. Hi Kristi! Just popping in (again!) to thank you so much for sharing the absolutely awesome project at Best of the Weekend and I am featuring it at tonight's party. Plus - kind of wanted to read great post again! :) Hope you are having a great Friday!

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  23. Your piano looks amazing and that lamp is so cute! You're really lucky being able to pick one to review! I love lamps as well. I'm actually in the process of searching online for piano lamps for my home.

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  24. I love it! I have been wanting to paint our piano. It's actually a digital piano, and the body is MDF, covered in a wood laminate. The laminate is coming off. I am going to encourage the rest of it right off of there, and paint it.

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    Replies
    1. How does it turn out? I'm so nervous to paint my digital piano!

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    2. How does it turn out? I'm so nervous to paint my digital piano!

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    3. How does it turn out? I'm so nervous to paint my digital piano!

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  25. Now-a-days time is more valuable than other things. If you want to buy best digital piano from market, you have need lots of time. If you want to save your time, you may visit our site. Just select your expected piano and buy it instantly.

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