Since coming home from my summer vacation I’ve had a hard time getting back into the groove of thing. My brain is thinking of new projects I can do to jazz things up around here.

Yesterday I painted my front door a boring black. It needed it and looks better than it did but at the end of the day it left me with an incomplete since of satisfaction. Now I’m wanting to paint something more fun… something bright and cheerful.

How about a piano?

I’ve been wanting a piano for a while. I’m not a pianist by any means but my parents had me take lessons and I can play a handful of songs and read a bit of music. Now that I’m a parent shouldn’t I make my kids take lessons as well? Every kid should be tortured with having to practice for hours on end (oh, maybe it was only 30 minutes). It’s good for them, right? I’ve survived. And yes, I wish I’d stuck with it.

My front room is the perfect place for a piano. In fact I’m dying to get rid of a couch or two but I can’t get over one issue. I don’t care for the way pianos look. They are so big, so imposing and so noticeable. I know, it seems so superficial but if the piano is going to be the first thing people see when they walk in my house, I want it to look good.

There’s one problem. I can’t afford a good looking piano.

And then I saw this:

And oh my gosh, I fell in love. I didn’t know you could just paint a piano. I’m sure there are people out there who are moaning and groaning but I love the idea of a bright fun piano. It makes me want to play it. I searched the internet and found a whole bunch of cool inspiring pianos.

Here are some of my favorites. (images linked)

I think that this green is a perfect green. Greens can be tricky but this one looks modern and fresh. I like that this is a normal upright. I guess it doesn’t have to be a vintage piano to be worth painting.

This yellow one is so cheerful and cool looking. I wonder if I could pull off this color in my house.

This whole room is darling. The white piano isn’t exactly my style but I think it really looks good in this chic space and I think it’s a good example of what can be done.

I like red too. It’s probably the most doable color in my house but maybe not the most fun color.

So now I’m dreaming about what color I’d paint a piano if I had one.

I’ve been searching the classified and there are a lot of pianos to choose from. I’m nervous about buying a piano though. I want it to work. There are a lot of cheap ones out there and they could just be garbage. My piano doesn’t have to be concert worthy but I want it to sound nice, hold it’s tune and hold up to the kids banging on it.

I do have my eye on a beautiful vintage one and even went to check it out. I was so disappointed to find that it was in bad shape and had about 10 or so broken keys. I called some piano guys about fixing it up and heard some negative responses. First of all, it would be expensive. Second, you don’t know if your buying a lemon or not and thirdly, major parts could simple just snap when they tried tuning it. So sad. I did talk to one guy who seemed happy to fix up old vintage pianos and said that occasionally he’ll find a diamond in the rough. That gave me hope but I’d have to put money into it to find out if I found a diamond or not. Risky, eh?

So here is the question. Do I buy a cheap ol’ crappy piano that I don’t feel bad painting or do I spend a little bit more money and find a decent piano that my kids can learn and play on for years? If I bought a nicer piano would I feel bad or weird painting it? See the problem? I guess I need to find a middle of the road piano that needs a little tlc but still sounds good.

So what do you think about painted pianos? Would you dare? What color would you choose?