Piano makeover!

Mostly everyone knows that I play music. I play piano, guitar and ukulele. I have a few guitars, a few ukuleles and recently got a new beautiful ukulele that I lo0o0ove but keyboards are really expensive (even for the cheapest non weighted keys, mono audio junk) and pianos are even more.. usually :)

I got this baby about 4 years ago for $99 plus $54 to rent a truck to move it home.. and I did the reinvention almost a year ago but it's too good not to share. Here is the "before".

This picture was taken at least a year after I bought it and after we had already moved once. But in the original state, it was simply FULL of spider webs, bugs, yucky stuff.. It's hard to tell in the picture but it had a TERRIBLE stain to the wood that someone had failed miserably at, that was drippy and uneven. Not to mention several permanent sticky spots that I can only assume was from old/gross stain? I don't want to know! PLUS a bunch of white paint had been splattered up in the under belly part. The cover wasn't attached and it had a missing knob. Really ugly/nasty/smelly fabric on the bench and let's be honest.. it's not a steinway.

It plays beautifully. It's not in tune but it is in tune with itself which makes for a cool sound. And I knew it had the potential to be reborn! I had seen a lot of piano makeovers on different blogs and websites but I always thought that painting a piano would never look better than the wood would (hehe)and the whole thing seemed like too big of a project for me.. 
But when I found this enamel paint for half off in just the color I had imagined the piano to be?? It was a sign from above.
SO to spruce it up, I cleaned it, painted it and covered the bench.

I'm not going to pretend it was easy. It was super hard to get it painted with no brush strokes. I used small foam brushes for all the crevices and tight spots and a small roller for the top, sides and belly. 2 coats and a touch up coat. I let it dry for 24/48 hours (I don't remember) and then got to work with the polyurethane. I used the same technique as I did when painting. 1 coat on the whole thing and 2 extra coats on the top and everywhere that gets touched a lot. Another 48 hours or so of drying time and I put it all together! (and painted the room)

 I just stapled the fabric over the top piece of the bench but there's room inside of it to store music books so I plan to put some hinges on the top and change the fabric. One thing at a time. :)