{to that time I painted a piano - in a garage!)
Last fall in the midst of renovating and expanding her massage therapy clinic, my good friend Lisa acquired a piano. . .
. . . and although it wasn't really in the best of shape, she knew this piano could be beautiful! Renovations were in full swing at Hands in Demand Therapeutics so the piano was brought home to my friends garage for some love.
Enter Mango Reclaimed.
The plan was to restyle this piano in a soft creamy colour so that it could be used as a decorative piece in the newly expanded clinic. Even though the piano was covered in scratches and had quite a rough finish on it, I shared my friends vision and was really excited to get to work on this piece for her. I started out by roughing up (and subsequently smoothing out) the existing finish on the piano. Since it was mostly large flat surfaces I used my orbital sander to get the job done quickly. Here she is after sanding:
We decided that the soft and creamy colour of 'cashmere' from the van Gogh paint line would be the perfect fit for his piano. After wiping off all the dust, the next step was to get the first coat of paint on. I used my medium wax/paint brush for the entire thing as I love how much paint the brush holds, allowing me to get excellent coverage in just one coat! After just one coat I could already tell it was going to look great:
A lot of colours in the van Gogh line only require 1.5 coats of paint for excellent coverage. The first coat goes on beautifully and then the second coat (or 1/2 coat as I like to call it) is just a chance to touch up some areas that aren't quite perfect yet.
Because this piece already had so much character (read: marks, dings and scratches), I chose to lightly distress it overall using a fine sanding block. This also really smoothed out the finish so it was soft to the touch. I then applied van Gogh's natural beeswax overall and french caffeine beeswax to enhance all the pretty details. Here she is all finished and on display (thank you for the beautiful flowers Lisa) in the clinic:
Here are a couple of detail shots showing the mild distressing and just how gorgeous the details look when enhanced using the french caffeine wax. I love using both waxes together so that I get a clean and true 'cashmere' look overall and also the benefits of detail enhancing and antiquing just where I want it!
If you're in Whitby and want to check out this piano in person - or you are in need of an excellent massage - you should stop in at: Hands in Demand Therapeutics.
If you do stop in, make sure you say 'hi' to Lisa for me!
10 Meadowglen Drive, Unit #10, Whitby, ON L1R 3P8 - 905-665-5033