Chalk Painted Piano Tutorial

(This tutorial is for a chalk painted piano, but if you have a piece of beaten-up or just old furniture that you want to remodel, you can probably follow the same steps)

Chalk paint is all the go these days, and I've always wanted to try my hand at it. So, when my husband and I acquired a free, beat-up piano, I knew exactly how I wanted to fix it up. For those who are unfamiliar with chalk paint, the benefits are that it DOES NOT require sanding before you paint (whew! that saves a lot of time right there), it dries fast, and it can make a little bit of paint go a long way!

I found this great chalk paint recipe on pinterest:

1 cup of Plaster of Paris

1 cup of Water

2 cups of Paint in color of choice

I doubled this recipe, and it gave me more than enough paint to paint my piano AND a piano chair. I still have left-overs of the paint. If you are using this recipe for another piece of furniture, you can probably get away without doubling the ingredients. A little bit really does go a long way!

ONE TIP for mixing your own chalk paint:

• Because you are adding Plaster of Paris to your paint, your paint will dry lighter than what you think. Make sure that you choose a color that is slightly darker than the color you want.

As well as the ingredients for the paint mixture, you will need:

• a drop cloth
• at least 3 or 4 foam paintbrushes (get a small, medium, and large size mix)
• painter's tape
• a measuring cup
• 1 can of polyurethane
• sandpaper (for if you want a weathered look)

If your piano was as messed up aesthetically as mine was, you will also need:

• a filer
• all-purpose-filler
• sandpaper (for sanding down the filler)
• spackling knife
• screw driver
• a shop vacuum
• an applique (optional)
• wood glue
• clamps

Before starting, I put down a drop cloth in the room in which the piano was going to be kept. This is important! You should not paint a piano outside or anywhere where temperature, humidity, or weather is not constant. This can damage the piano and the sound it makes.

As I mentioned in a previous post, the piano was extremely water damaged on the front of the cover. (See picture on the right). The veneer was peeling and the veneer's stain had come off and the piano just did not look good at all. What I had to do was to break off the parts of the veneer that were damaged. A lot of it I could pull off with my fingers (I don't recommend this, though, you might get splinters), but I used a spackling knife to break off the veneer that was still loose but not enough to fit a finger under. On the bright side, I didn't have to take off all the veneer thankfully.

Next, in order to fill in the areas where there was no veneer, it was necessary to use some sort of filler. I used a material called Plastic Wood, but I DO NOT RECCOMMEND this product at all. It was terribly hard to work with. It would not go on smooth onto the piano's surface, and I had to give up and leave the surface bumpy - I figured I would let it dry and then sand it down. This was a horrible mistake. Plastic Wood was more like Plastic Stone - it was extremely hard to sand the surface where I had laid it down.

Above is a picture of the center of the cover of the piano where the veneer was extremely warped (this is about a 16 inch area left to right that I had to fill in with Plastic Wood.). Even after I sanded it down and painted this area, it still looked horrible. I ended up getting an applique to cover this area.

(Instead of Plastic Wood, I suggest using an all-purpose filler instead. I have heard that it is much easier to work with).

After applying the Plastic Wood and letting it dry, my husband and I ended up using a file to sand down the filler once it was dry because sand paper was not getting the job done. The picture below is my husband working his magic on the cover of the piano. We had to apply A LOT of filler - there was just so much water damage on both ends of the piano's cover, so it took a long time to file it down.

Here came the fun part: painting! I had to apply at least 3-4 coats of my homemade chalk paint onto all the surfaces in order to get an opaque color that completely covered the brown veneer. I painted the piano itself a dusty rose color (we actually wanted to paint it a slightly [light-ish] coral color, but as I added in the tip above, the Plaster of Paris makes things lighter than the original color.) We weren't disappointed, but I am happy how it turned out. Heck, it was a cheap can of Oops! paint from Home Depot, so I can't complain! 

I also taped off the keys and painted them all white. I'm not sure if you can see in the picture below how the keys on the right more yellow than the painted keys on the left - the picture makes them look less, well creepy, than they were. Yuck.). I got the white paint color as a 50 cent sample of Oops! paint, also from Home Depot.

 (Always check the Depot for the Oops! paints, and if you see colors you like, stock up. You never know when they'll come in handy for a future project). 

You have to be really careful painting the keys, however, so that paint doesn't drip in between them. It could possibly damage the sound quality and the playability of the piano. For this project, I just put as little paint on my brush as I could and just waited for a coat to dry and worked on another part of the piano before applying another one to avoid drips. If a drip happens, keeping an old envelope or piece of paper handy is great for sliding between the keys to wipe up the excess paint.

After your piano, or piece of furniture, is completely dry, it is now time to seal it up! This is where the polyurethane comes in handy. I applied about 3 coats of the polyurethane over everything, even the keys (also being careful with drips). It is really important that everything is dry before you apply the poly, because it will cause a chemical reaction with wet paint and will essentially discolor it. Also, be careful that you don't apply too much poly at one time, because when it drips and dries, it turns brown. Yuck. If you have any drips, just keep a dry brush ready to wipe it up. Also, if you have the brown dried drips, just sand it down with a fine grain sandpaper and paint over it, no one will know any better.

On the front cover of the piano was a square indentation, so I filled in the area with white paint to make it look interesting. I also added an applique very last (the scroll design that you see below). I had not made my mind up about whether or not to leave area alone or cover it up since I wasn't really happy with how the filler had dried. You can buy these appliques at Home Depot in the moulding section in a variety of styles and shapes. This one was about $6 for a 16 inch applique - they are very affordable! I love appliques!

 I painted this applique white and added poly before gluing down with wood glue. I would just suggest some clamps or a few heavy objects (depending on the location of the applique) to hold down the applique as it dries (it takes awhile). And voila! It covered up that ugly area and made a whole lot of difference in how the piano looks.

I also found an old, sturdy chair from a local thrift store for $10 because the piano didn't come with a bench or stool. I painted it the same colors as the piano while I was waiting for the paint layers to dry on the piano.

Lastly, if you would like a weathered look, just take a piece of scrap sandpaper (or anything you have laying around) and sand all the edges. So easy, and the results are amazing!

Overall, it took about 10 hours to complete this project, but it was totally worth it! There is something extremely rewarding about fixing up an old piece of furniture, giving it new life, and seeing its transformation take place.

Please let me know if you have any questions!