NMMR: Built-ins and a piano

hoffse · November 2015

Alright, H and I are starting to talk through our "big" project for next year.

Our house is a ranch that's been added onto a couple times. When you walk in the front door you are in the living room with a coat closet immediately on your left and then the living room space to the right. In true ranch fashion, the living room is VERY long and relatively narrow. I don't have the exact measurements on me, but it's something like 30' long and 13' wide. Perfect rectangle.

If you walked through the front door and looked to the right, the wall at the end of the room should be the focal point. However, there is no fireplace or anything right there currently. This is one of the 13' walls. H and I want to add built-ins there to give it a focal point and also to give us more book storage. We have plenty of storage for everything else, but we are book lovers and need more space for those.

Here is the complicated part. My H's grandma has a piano in California that she has given to him. It's an upright. We need to get it inspected to see if it's worth moving to Alabama, but if it is we will probably be bringing it into the house next year. If it's not worth moving, we will probably sell it and put the proceeds toward a used upright that we can buy locally. I have no idea where to put this thing. We have a separate family room where it would fit, but I have two big issues with having it back there: 1) the back family room isn't super well-insulated, and big temperature fluctuations can damage the soundboard on a piano and 2) if/when we have kids, that's where we will spend a lot of time. I'd rather not have a toddler climbing all over a piano, even if it's used. They are awfully expensive to fix/replace.

So that really leaves the space where we are planning to do built-ins or some random place in the house like a bedroom or the basement. My mom thinks that instead of doing the entire wall of built-ins, we should do two narrower built-ins on either end and leave a nice big gap in the middle where the piano would eventually go. If we left a foot of space on either side of the piano so that it didn't feel cramped, I'm thinking we could have a pair of 38-40" wide built-ins on either side. That would probably be enough for the book storage we really need, and it would be significantly less work than doing the entire wall.

I'm just worried it will look really weird since the piano is an upright and not a baby grand or anything more showy. Basically instead of a fireplace, the focal point in the room would be the piano if we did that. What do you guys think?

julieanne912 · November 2015

I actually think that sounds nice. You could also hang a really nice piece of artwork over the piano to make that part of the focus instead of just the piano.

CuriousKiddosMama · November 2015

I think it sounds nice too. I would go for the two bookshelves, and leave space for a piano. Like pp said, you can always get some really nice artwork or whatever to put up above the piano to add to the wow factor of the space.
I do agree that the other family room doesn't sound like a good option with kids in the future.

kmurphy2131 · November 2015

I think it could look awesome - I just did a google search and there were two different styles of pianos with built ins that I saw. In some, the shelves were on either side, and in others there were shelves above the piano too.

I don't love the look of shelves above it, but I am super super clutter adverse and it just looked like too much to me. But the ones with shelves on either side, and a piano in the middle with a picture or something above looked really awesome. One even had some lighting that was above the piano and it looked awesome.

http://www.home-shelving-guide.com/built-in-bookcases-project.html

AprilZ81 · November 2015

I would go for it! You can also do a bridge over the top between the two so they are integrated more. I would also add some canned lighting right against the wall so that it shines down on the piano and eliminates the needs for a lamp on the piano itslef.

hoffse · November 2015

Yeah I don't like the look of shelves above the piano. I saw those too and don't get it, especially when they are built low. The music comes out of the top of an upright, so having shelves immediately over it will dampen the sound. It's like people who put a vase of flowers on their baby grand... the lid is supposed to be open for the best sound, and baby grands will run you about the price of a new car. Seems like they should be displayed and oriented properly to create the best possible sound.

I'm thinking a nice big mirror or piece of art over the piano would balance the space without blocking the sound.

I've just never really seen a room oriented like that in real life. In my head it looks good, but I don't always visualize well.

Not going to lie, saving ourselves more than half the work on the built-ins is a huge motivator too. We are going to do them ourselves, and building more than 13 feet of them floor-to-ceiling is a bit daunting (and also $$).

I might get out my measuring tape tonight and see how wide we could make the built-ins before a piano would look cramped. We really do need the shelf space for books.

hoffse · November 2015

AprilZ81 said:

I would go for it! You can also do a bridge over the top between the two so they are integrated more. I would also add some canned lighting right against the wall so that it shines down on the piano and eliminates the needs for a lamp on the piano itslef.

That's a good idea. We have canned lights in that room already, but doing a couple just for the piano would make a lot of sense. My parents' piano nook has that, and it's awesome. Theirs is on a separate switch.

OK one question I have is whether the whole thing will look odd centered on the wall, given that the living room furniture (that will be in front of it) is not exactly centered because we need a walkway?

Sorry I'm obsessing over this. We thought we had the design roughed out, but then we remembered the piano and it all got turned on its head.

AprilZ81 · November 2015

hoffse said:

AprilZ81 said:

I would go for it! You can also do a bridge over the top between the two so they are integrated more. I would also add some canned lighting right against the wall so that it shines down on the piano and eliminates the needs for a lamp on the piano itslef.

That's a good idea. We have canned lights in that room already, but doing a couple just for the piano would make a lot of sense. My parents' piano nook has that, and it's awesome. Theirs is on a separate switch.

OK one question I have is whether the whole thing will look odd centered on the wall, given that the living room furniture (that will be in front of it) is not exactly centered because we need a walkway?

Sorry I'm obsessing over this. We thought we had the design roughed out, but then we remembered the piano and it all got turned on its head.

I wouldn't worry about it. It will be fine, and the shelves and piano will be a focal point so as long as you don't block the view of the piano you will be fine.

Is the only entrance to the room on the opposite 13' wall or is there one in the middle of the longer walls to another part of the house?

AprilZ81 · November 2015

I really like this!

PurpleBookmark · November 2015

I think that sounds super pretty. I love the idea of a piano as the focal point, especially with built in book shelves.

dragonstarjk · November 2015

I think it sounds awesome and like the perfect place for a piano. You guys are music/instrument people; why wouldn't the focal point of the room be a piano? Plus, I think it's actually better that it's an upright, because it's going to look good up against the wall in that space.

I think it should be centered and will not look weird that way, regardless of how the rest of the room is laid out.

hoffse · November 2015

@April, ok that's pretty awesome. I don't know if our woodworking skills are that great, but yeah - I think it could look really good. That's actually how our room is laid out right now, except the two chairs closest to the camera would be a couch. We do have two free standing chairs that would have their backs to the piano/built-ins if we kept all the furniture where it currently is.

The long wall that's perpendicular to it has an opening to go back to the laundry room and kitchen. So we need a walkway along that wall. The 13' wall opposite the one we are talking about has an opening to the hallway that takes you back to the kitchen and bedrooms. It also has a coat closet, so there's no room for the piano there.

The wall we are talking about is totally solid and completely blank right now. We have an air intake in the floor about a foot from the wall, but the built-ins could fit behind it, and the piano would not cover it. We have no vents or windows that would cause temperature issues for the piano. It's technically an exterior wall, but the garage is on the other side so that will reduce the temp fluctuations significantly. There are 3 outlets on that wall, and they are spaced such that the built-ins probably wouldn't cover them. Otherwise, nothing - not even a light switch.

I measured when I got home, and I think this could work. We could do two 38" built-ins that flank the piano, and there would be about 14" of blank space between each built-in and the piano so it wouldn't look too cramped.

OK now I just need to convince my H. I'm getting excited

cbee817 · November 2015

@AprilZ81 - good find on the pic! That looks awesome- even if the molding was more simple, it would look really pretty. That'll be a fun project @hoffse !

short+sassy · November 2015

I agree with the other PPs, I think a built-in on each side would look great. Plus, bookshelves next to the piano will be a perfect place to put music books also. Another hint, if you wind up with a lot of sheet music, I found it helpful to organize that in a binder when I used to play the piano.

NMMR: Built-ins and a piano

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