Good Morning!  It is another beautiful, sunny, not-too-hot day in Ohio.  Middle Sister stayed with Grandma last night.  Little Sister just got up and came over to my room to see what was happening.  The Teenager hasn’t stirred yet.  A couple of you asked to see our piano when I posted about my cupboard revitalization.  So yesterday I took some photos to show off  ‘Miss Piano’.

Here she is!  I thought I had posted about how we acquired this piano but I’m not finding the post so I’ll add a bit of info here.  I didn’t think we had enough room for a piano.  But after our oldest, Emma, started piano lessons, using a borrowed keyboard for practicing at home, I decided I really had to try to figure out a way to fit one in.  You can read about how I played ‘musical furniture’ here.  My husband and I started looking on Craigslist for old upright pianos.  I wanted one that was old but pretty.  I really wanted a white one but they are few and far between.  I only saw a couple in all our months of searching.  And they weren’t old uprights.

Still have not ordered the replacement ivory for the 3 keys that need it.  I’m such a procrastinator.  After months of looking on Craigslist, going to see a couple pianos, and calling about several, I was getting rather discouraged and Emma was not enjoying using the keyboard for practice.  She wanted the real thing.  I didn’t blame her.

Enter the listing right in our hometown.  And I almost didn’t call about it because it listed it as faux painted.  I was picturing roses or worse.  But then I thought – ‘it’s right here in town, you should at least call about it’.  So I called.  And it was my next-door-neighbor!  Go figure.  I hung up the phone and marched myself next door to check it out.  And said ‘We’ll take it!’  The person who owned it before my neighbor had faux painted it to look like wood grain.  No it’s not white but I like it.  A lot.  She did a great job.  I’ve had more than one person say, ‘Are you SURE it’s painted?’

We got a couple of our muscled friends to help Travis and our neighbors son ‘walk’ the monstrous thing from the house next door to our living room.  And there she sits.  We love her very much 🙂

If you read my post about moving the furniture around  you know that we gave away our matching couch and love seat and bought a $25 old sofa that I slip covered.  Now the only thing that really is too crowded with Miss Piano in the mix is the cupboard that sits in the corner beside her.

It just seems crowded to me.  The original plan when we put the pendant light there was to put the big leather chair Trav wants in that corner.  But that leather chair has never materialized.  So the cupboard ended up there and I really like it there.  I like the height in that space.  But I don’t like the two big pieces of furniture that close together.  It’s not terrible I know but I don’t love it either.  Not ‘magazine worthy’ and you know that is my driving force don’t you?  (please say you know I don’t mean that!  most of the time anyway 🙂 )

   Chair was a steal from a school sale.  No we didn’t really steal it but it kind of felt like it!  Another guy had bought a whole set of plastic chairs and they threw this wooden chair and 2 others like it in with them.  We didn’t want 50 plastic chairs we just wanted one or two wooden ones. So Trav asked if he wanted to sell a couple of the wood chairs.  He didn’t want the wood ones as he was shipping them to a school in Africa and the wood ones were way heavier.  So Trav paid him $4 for 2 of the chairs and the guy said you can have all three!!  So yes it felt a little like stealing.  I love these chairs!  We do want a piano bench eventually – Trav has drawn up plans to make one.  But for now this works 🙂

Not too bad from this angle.  It’s livable.  But I do have some plans – we will see what develops – my plans tend to change the longer I have to wait for my hubby to help me with all my brainstorms!

Decor on top of the piano.  Trav can’t figure out why I have to put something on top of it – he likes to open up the top now and then when the girls are playing.  It’s a man thing – he will never totally understand my decorating mania!

Did  you notice the red ranunculus flowers I added to the cupboard decor?  It is all I can do to leave them there!  They aren’t white!!  But I am making myself leave them.  A little color is NOT a bad thing, Jill 🙂

I added some of my hydrangeas to my end table by the couch.  I’m just loving having these beautiful blooms to bring in my house!

This white bench made a reappearance in my living room.  I really like how it looks with this basket on it.  The basket holds our Bibles – easy access, neatly contained, and it looks good.  The bench, Travis made for me out of  the old wood that was the outside window trim on our house.  He replaced the wood before we had new windows installed.  And in case you are wondering I am VERY aware that my living room still needs the window trim and baseboard.  VERY VERY aware.  I’ve tried to convince myself this is the new ‘in’ look, having no trim, but I just can’t convince myself.  Soon I hope I won’t have to try convincing myself any longer.

So what do you think of Miss Piano?  And her too-close neighbor the cupboard?  What would you do with this scenario??

Sew a Fine Seam

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