Can you paint a piano? According to every paint brush wielding chalk paint enthusiast that answer is yes. I can assure you that the process is not at all difficult, and the sound quality has not been destroyed.
*I am in no way a professional piano tuner. If you have a valuable family heirloom, you may want to speak with a professional.
The Before
Before I painted my piano, it really wasn’t what I would call ugly, it was just starting to cramp my style. The old girl needed a face lift. Considering the fact that this piano was a freebie, I didn’t feel like it was a big deal to experiment with chalk paint.
Sand A Little
Even though one of the greatest things about chalk paint is the claim that you don’t have to sand, I went ahead and lightly sanded my whole piano with 120 grit sandpaper. We do love our piano, so I didn’t want to get too much dust in the case in fear it would wreck the sound quality.
Rust-Oleum Chalk Paint
After I had sanded and cleaned my piano, I applied two coats of Rust-Oleum Deep Navy chalk paint, which you can find information about here.
I had planned to get a fancier brand name chalk paint that I had used before, but at half the price, I think the Rust-Oleum brand has been just fine. So far, even as it has been curing, I haven’t noticed any scratches or rub off. And four little monsters gave it the immediate work over.
Dark Wax
For the wax, I used this dark wax by Chalk-tique. It was my first time ever using a dark furniture wax, and I must say, I am very impressed. This wax went a LONG way! I was able to wax my whole piano and piano bench using only half a container.
I didn’t invest in a specialized waxing brush, but rather just used a rag to apply a generous coat of wax. This brand uses the typical wax on, wax off technique and didn’t take too much elbow grease to look smooth. Soft wax can take up to 16 days to fully harden, so try to keep traffic on your project to a minimum for a while.
I also applied the wax directly onto the raw wood of the bench seat that I sanded down. It was a great time saver to stain/seal at the same time, and it has a nice smooth feel.
Gold Leaf Detail
In order to think outside the box and try something different, I ordered gold leaf off Amazon for some fun glitz. You can find the stuff I used here. Rather than buy the spendy gold leaf adhesive, I opted to use Mod-Podge and it worked great.
Here is what my legs looked like once I had stuck all of my gold leaf on. This was my first time using gold leaf, and let me tell you, this stuff is sooooo delicate. It took me a bit of extra time to get the coverage I wanted on my legs because of all the grooves and detail. The kids’ heavy mouth breathing over my shoulder as they ogled at the gold stuff helped spread tiny gold flecks all over the house. Magical!
Application
To apply the gold leaf, I spread a thin coat of Mod-Podge onto my piano leg with a paintbrush, working in small areas at a time. I found it easier to apply little pieces of leaf rather than try to maneuver an entire sheet.
Once I was happy with the look, I let the leaf dry for a couple hours. When all of the glue is dry, you can use a clean dry cloth and rub all of the loose leaf off of the area. I just scrubbed around all over the leg until the gold leaf was nice and smooth with no rough flaky spots.
To achieve the rustic aged look with the gold leaf I really didn’t have to use any special technique. By using small chunks of gold leaf rather than whole sheets it just kinda came out like this.
Using wispy brush strokes when applying your adhesive to where you want the gold leaf to end, will result in a rough edge that looks like it has been worn away over time.
Once the gold leaf is applied, dried and smoothed out, it needs to be sealed. You can opt to use Mod-Podge again as a sealer if you want. I used my dark wax to tone down the shiny gold look and give it a more aged vibe.
The Finished Look
You might notice that I didn’t paint along the keys. I really didn’t want to accidentally drip paint in places I couldn’t clean up. I also really like the contrast of the dark wood. If you opt to paint this area, just make sure to tape up your keys really well.
Because of the limited space in our tiny house, we opted to face our piano into the room. You are not supposed to have a piano against a window or even an exterior wall if you can help it. I actually love this look! After reading a few articles about piano placement, I learned this arrangement will give an upright piano a clearer and less muffled sound since the music isn’t bouncing off the wall.
Make sure you do not paint the sound board which is the wooden space you see in my photo. Painting this could change the sound your piano produces.
So there you have it folks. That’s our chalk painted piano, and I would highly recommend this easy painted piano project to anyone. It definitely didn’t affect the sound of our piano, and I’m pretty sure I would notice since I live in a tiny house and piano practice noise (I mean music) is pretty impossible to escape from.
Feel free to leave any questions in the comments!
