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Last week I finally tackled painting my piano. It’s something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time.

The piano belonged to my husband’s great grandmother, then was passed down to his grandmother, and eventually to us. The piano isn’t tuned, and we’re honestly not sure if it can be.

But it has sentimental value to my husband and he has asked that we keep it. It was in storage for a few years until we moved to our current place. And now it is prominently displayed in our living room.

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It’s pretty much the first thing you see when you walk in the house. Bugs has decided that it is his personal racetrack, so the top of the piano is pretty dinged up now too. I knew it was finally time to paint it.

We have a small shop uptown from where I live that sells Annie Sloan Chalk Paint and she paints a number of her pieces in this beautiful blue color. Last time when I walked by there was a piece with this blue color and gold handles and I fell in love!

I knew that was the color I wanted for the piano. The color, of course, was a special mix. It’s one part Napoleonic Blue to one part Florence. So I got all the supplies and mixed it myself.

Mixing the Paint

It was pretty easy to mix the paint. I bought some syringes and added the paint 60ml at a time. I tried to mix the paint really well with a stir stick.

A few things to note, it’s important to put the paint in a container that can be closed and is air tight. I bought a plastic paint storage container at Ace.

You’ll also want to make sure you stir the paint as you are painting to make sure that the paints don’t separate.

Painting a Piano

After cleaning the piano, protecting my floors with a drop cloth, and taping off the keys, I started painting. I painted the piano in the front room exactly where it sits so that we didn’t have to move it.

That meant mainly painting when the kids were asleep, which is part of the reason it took me so long. You should only need two coats of paint.

To be honest, it was pretty well covered with only one coat, but I put a second coat on to be safe. This is where I messed up. It was the middle of the day, it was very hot, and the paint became thick.

I forgot to stir as frequently, so I ended up with some darker areas of paint. I ended up having to do a third coat to correct this.

If something like this happens to you, don’t panic! All I did was add some water to the paint to thin it out and then put on a third coat. I mixed super well every few minutes to make sure the paint didn’t separate.

The water helped to make sure the paint went on smoothly and took a little less time to dry. This fixed the darker spots.

Waxing the Piano

I let the paint dry 1-2 hours between coats, and before waxing. After the third coat of paint, I waxed the piano. The wax helps to give it a little bit of a shine and just finishes off the piece. It also protects the paint.

I find it easiest to use a wax brush. Put a little wax on your brush, and then apply the wax to the piano in circular motions. Make sure to get the wax into all the brush strokes.

In the picture below I have the wax freshly put on the right and not yet waxed on the left. The wax will darken the piece slightly as you apply it, but once dry it will leave a slight shine.

In this second photo you can see what I’m talking about. The top portion has been waxed, but the bottom has not.

Let it soak into the paint for a minute before wiping it off with a lint free white towel. I like to wipe it off in strokes with the paint. You want to buff the wax a little bit.

You don’t want the wax to be tacky to the touch, but rather give the piece a smooth finish.

There you have it! The easiest way to paint a piano.

What do you think? Do you think that you will tackle painting your piano?