A bold furniture decision

When I was in my early teens, my family made the most wonderful decision to get a piano, so that my siblings and I could learn to play this distinguished instrument. Both of my parents were very musically talented, and were key members of their church choir for decades, but neither of them had been given the opportunity to learn the piano. My sister and I both became quite proficient, and I kept the family instrument for many years, giving it up only when I moved to a place where I felt there was not enough room. This was in an apartment block, so I was also conscious of the sound travelling and disturbing my neighbours.

My older daughter had piano lessons for a while as a child, but while she enjoyed playing, the style of teaching did not align well with her style of learning. With most things, she plunges in at a very advanced level and simply straddles the gaps until she is competent, an approach which has served her very successfully in skills as diverse as needlecraft and statistics. In her teens, she continued to play, teaching herself and following her own path through pieces and genres that suited her taste, to a point where she had become proficient, playing some quite demanding classical and modern pieces. 

Along the way, she was given an electric piano, but neither she nor I ever really came to terms with the instrument - interesting because it even had touch simulation, so should have felt exactly like playing an acoustic instrument. To this day, we have not been able to work out why it never really appealed, but the result was that both of us felt that we would need to work very hard to revive our previous level of skill.

My daughter's electric piano

A short while ago, she bought the house of her dreams, a double-storey with a beautiful wooden staircase and wooden floors throughout the ground floor. It has very generous space in the reception areas, open plan, but with subtle spatial clues to divide it into different zones, such as a level change between the living room and dining area.

One of these areas on the ground floor, she immediately designated as the "music room", initially housing the electric piano, her guitar and space for all the music books. Some months back, she started looking into buying an acoustic piano, partly to see if this would stimulate her interest in playing keyboard again, and also because it has always been her dream, ever since we sold the family piano all those years ago.

One of the instruments on sale was a Rosler baby grand, that was within her budget, and would fit perfectly into her music room, with minimal rearrangement of the furniture. The wooden finish of this piece would also blend with the natural wood floors and staircase detailing.

The baby grand is the focal point of the whole of the ground floor open-plan space

There seems to be consensus in the music world that a grand piano is superior to an upright in many respects, but particularly the sound quality. This is enhanced if one has a carpet under the instrument, which improves the acoustics. There are two considerations: price and space - the grand can be somewhat more expensive, but worth it if one views it as an investment.

From a space perspective, there is a wealth of literature and advice on how to furnish small spaces, but very little on large spaces - presumably people with this "problem" are expected to call in the interior designer! There are really two strategies that I have found useful: the one being to have at least one piece of furniture (it may even be a carpet or artwork) that is compatible with the scale of the room. The rest of your furniture can then play a supporting role with the large piece as the focal point. The other technique (which can be used in combination) is to keep to a theme of either colour or type of material (such as natural wood or hand-woven textiles) for all the smaller pieces. Likewise, if all your artwork is a bit small for the room, you could look at re-framing it so that the individual pieces read as being part of a family.

In the end, the most important thing in any space in the home is that it reflects your taste and interests: while it may impress the once-off visitor if you have pieces that are merely for show, your close friends and family will be less taken in, and would rather your house reflected the authentic you! My daughter found, just within the first couple of days of owning her new piano, that not only her interest, but importantly her skill in playing revived very quickly, making it a deeply valuable investment and asset to her home.

The piano completely open, with its most dedicated fan