Repurposed a Baby Grand Piano

[Leo Graywacz]

Had a client come into my shop as asked if I could make his Starck Baby Grand Piano into an entertainment shelf/bookcase. I of course said sure I could.

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[Bruce Page]

Now that’s something you don’t see everyday! Very unique and very nice!
The photography is excellent!

[John Coloccia]

Leo, my first thought was what a sin to take a piano and turn it into shelfs. That said, you pulled it off brilliantly. Nice job.

[Leo Graywacz]

The piano had been refinished twice. The piano had been in storage for who knows how long and mice had gotten into the hammers and chewed them a little. The ivory keys had been replaced with plastic on one of the former refinishes. The owners already have 2 pianos and wanted to see if this could be done. Well what do you know...it can. :cool:

[John Coloccia]

The piano had been refinished twice. The piano had been in storage for who knows how long and mice had gotten into the hammers and chewed them a little. The ivory keys had been replaced with plastic on one of the former refinishes. The owners already have 2 pianos and wanted to see if this could be done. Well what do you know...it can. :cool:

Did you reuse the legs or did you make new ones? That detail was very smart and really makes it work. I don't know that I would have thought of doing that.

[Leo Graywacz]

I made new ones. The originals were in poor shape and by the time I would have gotten them to good condition I would have made new legs. The originals were poplar with mahogany veneers, just like everything else.

The ones I made were traced from the originals. The back legs were the top of the original legs and the fronts were the lower half, but they were shortened to work with the back legs. Plus the originals were much beefier and would have looked off.

[Tom Giles]

Great job. I'd love to see it in in place and setup.

[Paul Saffold]

Now that's creative. Nice job.

An unrelated question. How are you able to get 15 pictures in one posting? I thought there was a much lower limit. I think it's great not to have to break up a posting into several parts.
Paul

[Mark Valsi]

Holy cow !!! that is the work of a genius !!! I salute you, sire !! AMAZING INDEED !!

[Ernie Miller]

As an ex-piano rebuilder I've seen several case conversions. This one is by far the best...nicely done!

Warning! Old pianos have become increasingly available for the taking as restoring them is almost never financially feasible. If anyone is tempted to re-purpose an old piano case please take the following necessary precaution.

The strings on a piano have a combined tension of between 30,000 and 60,000 lbs. This can be very dangerous if you attempt to cut the strings off or, worse yet, go after the piano with a sledge hammer, sawzall, etc. For safety sake, spend a few bucks and buy a cheap piano tuning hammer. Starting at the left end of the piano, loosen every 5th string all the way up to the top by turning its tuning pin counter-clockwise. Then go back and loosen every 4th string and so on until all of the tension has been eliminated. By doing it this way you will be reducing the tension gradually over the entire width of the instrument, greatly reducing if not eliminating the risk.

[Leo Graywacz]

Now that's creative. Nice job.

An unrelated question. How are you able to get 15 pictures in one posting? I thought there was a much lower limit. I think it's great not to have to break up a posting into several parts.
Paul

I was as surprised as you about the amount of pics I could post. They aren't uploaded. They are hotlinked to my photo site, maybe that is what makes the difference.

[Art Mulder]

Was there any discussion about putting a back on it? In your shop, it seems to me that it'd look better with a back. But in the client's home, maybe it'll look different.

I must agree, that is an amazing transformation!

[Mike Wilkins]

Now that is slicker than snot on a doorknob. Nice to see it was turned into somethins useful instead of feeding it to the landfill. I did a project similar with an old floor model TV. Removed the electrical innards and turned it into a storage cabinet.
Some fine work there.

[Tim Byars]

Really nice...a conversation piece for years to come, no doubt.

[Jim Becker]

Very nice work! I saw a similar setup in a picture posted by a friend of mine on Facebook last week, but it was setup as a "piano bar". Wonderful way to preserve an instrument that's no longer playable, but still beautiful or potentially beautiful.

[Leo Graywacz]

Was there any discussion about putting a back on it? In your shop, it seems to me that it'd look better with a back. But in the client's home, maybe it'll look different.

I must agree, that is an amazing transformation!

The back was damaged when I took it off. Plus they were thinking of using it for something else, hang it on a wall I think. I don't know what happened to the back after I gave it back to them in 3 pcs.

[Chris Padilla]

Well that is pretty darn cool and certainly unique! I do love how you handled the legs...they just work!

I would have been tempted to "work" the innards a bit more to match it better but I'm guessing the client wanted it that way?

[Leo Graywacz]

The lower section was the Oak which held all the tension of the strings and the inside support band was Poplar but the beam was Maple. So I made the support band Maple to match the beam. Yes, it's how they wanted it. Try to keep the piano looking like a piano.

[Raymond Fries]

Very Nice Job!

What a cool way to save something to live on.

[Gus Dundon]

You did a really nice job. That is just very creative and genius! You should be very proud.