how we painted our piano

As you may know, over the summer we painted a piano yellow. Many have asked how we did it, so I put together this very long post with iphone pics I took over the month long process. It’s not the prettiest post, but for anyone curious, it should give a lot of insight into the process.

So here’s how to paint a piano, just like we did it:

Obtain a piano. This one was about 30 years old, in GREAT shape, in tune and given to us free. YAY! It needed to be picked up pretty quickly as the giver was moving across the country that week. So being the independent types not wanting to bug people with manual labor and not wanting to wreck the piano, we paid a piano mover $200 to move it.

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Dissemble as much of the piano as you can, taking care to save all hardware.

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We kept playing it through out the process, which was fun. Yes, we were terrified we were going to screw it up royally.

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Tape and plastic off the mechanics.

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The foot pedals needed toothpicks to jam the tape into the velvet.

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I decided not to paint the back as it was natural wood color.

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Sand everything to be painted with 220 grit sand paper. We used both a power sander and sanded by hand.

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Ok, finally ready to prime. Cover the entire area you will be painting with plastic. Like SERIOUSLY cover everything. Lay all your pieces out.

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At this point we were doing this project during some pretty intense summer heat and humidity. We took a few days off and let a dehumidifier run in the garage to make sure the wood wasn’t too damp.

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We had the garage door locked so we wouldn’t accidentally open it and mess up the plastic. So of course, we locked ourselves out of the house and had to pay a locksmith $80 to bust into our house.

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Hang a piece of plastic over the piano while you paint the pieces to avoid errant spray.

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Have a super awesome friend use their airless sprayer to spray the piano for you. Also, make him work amongst your messy garage and don’t even consider moving your child’s bike out of the way.

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Two coats of primer, with sanding with 400 grit sand paper in between coats. Yea, this part really sucks. I mean, my husband, when rolling into bed at 2 AM after sanding would tell me that part of the process sucked.

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Time to paint! Then sand ONE more time and add one more coat of paint. Yay!

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Go spend the night at your friend’s house, otherwise you will sprout a third eye or something while inhaling those crazy fumes.

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If you lost count, that’s two coats of primer, sanding between each coat, then paint, sand again and paint once more.

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Thank God, we can FINALLY open our garage door and get some fresh air in there!

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Let the final coat of paint dry for a week before bringing it inside.

We smartened up about asking friends to do manual labor, so John and Ken, our awesome piano sprayer, used some tricks involving 2×4’s wrapped in old T-shirts, a wheeled cart and some floor mats to move it inside.

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Yes, it did get stuck at one point.

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The piano finally made it in and then it had to be put back together. I’m talking the wooden parts screwed back in and the brass pieces screwed back on. There were 9 million little pieces. Bless these guys!

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Done! Now wait 30 days for the paint to cure in your house before putting anything on it or closing the top lid all the way.(I closed the lid for this photo.)

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Ok, let’s see a before and after shot. Details shots of finished piano can be seen here.

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Now it’s part of our everyday life and we couldn’t be happier to have it!

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Cost rundown and details:

  • Piano: free
  • Piano mover: $200
  • Plastic, tape, oil based primer, paint and an airless paint sprayer NOZZLE that worked with our paint: $106
  • sandpaper: $15
  • Locksmith because we got locked out of our house: $80
  • Airless paint sprayer, ventilation mask and filters: owned by our friend who ran it for us.
  • Labor: Me, John and our awesome buddy Ken (BLESS HIM!)

Total: $401

Paint Info:

  • Primer: Interior multi-Purpose Oil based Primer-Sherwin Williams. (Low odor, though that’s debatable.) 1 Gallon

  • Paint: Sherwin Williams ProMar 200 Interior Alkyd Gloss Professional Finishes. 1 Gallon

  • Color: Honey Toast. Gloss finish.

I was originally inspired to paint our piano by this blog post. (This is what gave me the guts to take our piano apart.) I first thought I would be painting the piano with a brush by hand. That’s when our super friend, Ken, stepped in and said, “Oh no, you need me to spray the piano, but you’ll have to sand it yourself…” and I immediately agreed that was a great plan. I LOVE the paint color she used, but for us, a pale sunny yellow has been the perfect choice. I’m really proud of myself for picking it all by myself too! (Choosing a good yellow is very daunting!)

So if any of you are inspired to paint your piano because of us, please let me know. I would love to see your final product! Best of luck! More than anything, you just have to stay motivated or the enormity of the project will get you down!

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  • Lisa~August 27, 2011 - 12:36 am

    It is fantastic! You picked the perfect yellow, I am impressed. And the friend with a sprayer, GENIUS! (I cracked up over you locking yourself out though…oh what we won’t do for a beautiful home)

    My piano is still blue/green and still one of my favorite things in the house. I am so excited you’ve joined the club. Lisa~

  • KelliAugust 28, 2011 - 11:25 am

    Wow! You guys did an awesome job!

  • jovonyAugust 29, 2011 - 2:02 pm

    Hmmm, this makes me rethink getting rid of an old upright that I have been talking about giving away for years! If only someone in my family played piano! Love that you had the guts to paint it!

  • AprilAugust 29, 2011 - 11:40 pm

    Dude. You are ambitious! It looks gorgeous – job well done! I want to paint ours, but after seeing the process, I think I’ll stick with the dark wood a little longer 😉 Yep, I’m just that lazy…

  • MayaSeptember 10, 2011 - 10:27 am

    Love how it came out! Totally worth all the work!

  • MonikaSeptember 13, 2011 - 3:52 pm

    Maaaan, we got a free piano last spring… it’s currently still sitting in our garage and I was playing with the thought of painting it. But now I’m second guessing myself. That sure looks like a lot of work!!! Your piano looks fabulous though!

  • HeatherSeptember 25, 2011 - 4:32 pm

    I love it, and I appreciate your step by step tutorial as well. Our piano is destined to be painted a high gloss red, and I hope to get it to our new home soon so that I can do it. Your tutorial will help me make it look the best it can.

  • Laura BrewerSeptember 9, 2012 - 11:29 pm

    HI! I am thinking about painting my piano…yellow! I have a question. Did your piano have veneer on it? Mine does and I am not sure about sanding it. I cannot wait to get started on the project, although it looks like a tough job!!! Thank you for posting some great informative pics. It has inspired me even more!

    Laura Brewer

  • ashMay 18, 2016 - 10:44 am

    My piano had veneer on it. I used a power sander equipped with the coursest sand paper I could find (at walmart) to get through it. The problem was it melted like honey onto the sand papper and wold start leaving streeks or small puddles of melted veneer where I was sanding. If this happens to you don’t worry, just keep sanding over the same area (you don’t even have to change the sand papper) and it will come off. If your having a difficult time getting a puddle of it off go at with by hand with some sand paper then back over it with the power dander, and that should do the trick. Once you get most of the veneer off the piece you’re working on put a brand new piece of sand paper on the power dander and go over the whole piece again to actually sand it. It takes longer but it’s completely doable!