Good Vibrations



Time to roll up the sleeves and start sanding.  Luckily most of the areas could be done with an electric orbital sander or palm sander but there were a few stubborn little areas that had to be done by hand.  I'm not sure why some areas had thicker layers of gunk to get off but they did.  Those areas I used a heavier coarse of sandpaper 100-150 grade then finished off with something a bit smoother 200-220.  Worked out real nice. 

 

 Now that we've got the piano sanded down and ready to go, let's have some fun, shall we?  I purchased an elegant stencil from Hobby Lobby (using my half price coupon of course), some white craft paint (made for wood) and a cheap roller.  I taped my stencil on with some scotch tape and lightly coated my roller with  paint.  I tested this out and liked the results although I goofed a little and didn't tape off the areas I didn't want to paint so I accidentally got a little extra stencil on there that I didn't want.  No Problem-o.  I sanded it off and did it all over again.  Took like 5 minutes to re-sand it.

 

Woops!  A little too much there on one side.



 I went through all of the pieces and stenciled more areas on the piano.  This piano is a little rough so the stencil will pull your eye away from the imperfections and only see the beauty! 

Tricky Tricky!

I had another stencil that I used to add some contrast.  Too much of the same stencil isn't always a good thing.

Before staining, I lightly sanded the stencil to remove any imperfections and smooth the edges.  I dusted it off with a napkin/cloth and was ready then to move onto the stain.  We used a MiniWax stain with dark auburn color.  This would be applied right on top of the stencil to give it an antique finish. 

It took the stain quite a while to dry since the weather was humid outside and the temperatures were dropping, but we were in no rush so we let the project sit for a couple days.  Then we came back with 3 coats of polyurethane using a clean brush.  This dried fast!  We were able to get all this done in just a couple hours.

Here it is all put back together!  We also chose to change out the wooden knobs for a more decorative look.

I ordered some used billiard cloth off ebay to replace that old purple stuff I had ripped out earlier.  Cut it to fit and glued it in place!

Hope you enjoyed watching the progress on this project!  Enjoy the finished piano below.

  

Recovering the Bench

The piano was missing the original bench, however, my husband's Aunt offered up this vintage sewing machine bench.  It needed to be recovered but I thought it was unusual and would add a little character to the overall look.

Before I started, it looked like someone had tried to recover the bench but didn't finish and the material really wasn't the look I was going for...so I had to remove the material which meant using a screwdriver, some pliers, and patience to pop out a few hundred staples.

Surprise!  There was another layer of material but this time it was the original stuff.  No clue how old this was but I decided to leave most of the first layer since I wasn't interested in changing out the cushion or removing the nails.  Guess back when this was done, the staple gun wasn't around?

Finally time to start adding the new fabric.  This was some fabric that I found on clearance at Hobby Lobby.  A little more elegant and neutral in color.  

The finished product!

Piano Thrash Day 1

My daughter has recently taken up piano lessons and is currently using a Casio keyboard for practice.  I don't expect her to become the next Beethoven and I really don't want to shell out any more cash than necessary for a piano, however, my husband's Aunt Patty has a really cool thrift store (Ken & Patty's) on SE 44th & I-35 in Oklahoma City and she offered this piano to us for free if we'd come get it.  We took a look and saw it had some potential as a great beginner's piano.  It's a Baldwin Aerosonic, and from what I gathered it's from the late 40's or early 50's.  

Here's what we started with after we unloaded it.

Dust bunnies and few deep scratches here and there but overall, it was in good shape.  I knew with a little a TLC this piano could look pretty decent, and I've been dying to try a new stencil technique that I spotted on Pinterest.  This would be the perfect project to try it out.

Before I spent a great deal of time fixing this up, I had a man who tunes pianos come out and look over it, just to make sure it was worth my time.  He said it was in pretty good shape but it did need a full tuning.  He suggested we finish our project and once we get it in place in the house, he would come out and tune it for us.  If you tune it now then move it, it may need to be tuned again...so better to wait and fix it up first.

The billiard's cloth that was adhered to a few places inside the piano was in pretty poor shape.  It was faded and torn.   The piano guy said if we wanted to replace it that vinegar would dissolve the glue.  I decided it was too ugly and needed to go.  The vinegar worked really well, I soaked it pretty good and although it took it a while, the mess finally came off with a little sweat and elbow grease of course.

It was a big, stinky, purple, mess.

Ta daaaa! Now its ready for the new cloth to be installed, but that will have to wait until the outside is finished.  No need to put it on now, it would just get all dusty and dirty. 

Next, I decided to take off a few of the pieces.  Surprisingly, the pieces were easily removed.  A total of 2 screws had to be taken out to remove the top lid.

I discovered a few other small places, where the billiard's cloth would need to be replaced.

After using my husband's air hose on the inside and outside, I did discover a few unusual treasures inside.  A random spoon, 2 beer bottle lids, and a plastic thing.  I was really hoping for a priceless coin that would have made me rich, but no such luck.

                                                            























There are few brass pieces on the piano that were heavily tarnished.  A little Brasso and they polished right up.


I plan on using a polishing tool that my husband has in his shop somewhere to buff these out better.  They should be sparkling when I'm done but I can't find the tool!  Guess it can wait until tomorrow.