Design & Decor

Music Room Design Plan

June 12, 2020

Happy Friday everyone! As many of you may know, I hop around from project to project in my home (to avoid boredom) . It just works with my personality. And yes, I always get them done… eventually. 😉 A while back I was sanding and painting the pillars to the entrance of this little room to make it feel grander… is that ringing a bell? I was wearing my crazy bright orange comfy pants… I’m so classy when I work. 🙂

This little room is the first thing you see when you walk into my home, so I figured it would be fun to elaborate and share my plans for this space. I actually just ordered everything for this space! So now I am waiting patiently (well, trying to wait patiently) for everything to arrive. I’m pretty excited to finish this room. Anyway, this room has had its challenges: it’s very small and square, but it’s been really fun to design and I’ve got a great plan to tackle this space and pull it together. Click through for some “before” pics, process images, my vision for this space, and my thoughts on how it will look and function once I’m totally finished.

As I mentioned before this room is first thing you see when you come into my front door. Let’s go way back and start with some before images (please excuse the crappy photos). This is what the room looked like when we still had the older upright piano that we brought with us from our previous home…

This room was never really finished… There were so many things that needed to be adjusted, but I worked with what I had at the time.

Small rooms can be a big challenge. It’s very easy to design them incorrectly and make them look even smaller. Our natural instinct says, “Don’t put too much in a small space. It will look cramped!” But that’s not always the case. In this instance it’s the rug that’s making this space feel even smaller. Do you see it? Having the correct size rug in VERY IMPORTANT! Yes, they are more expensive, but it’s worth it so your space feels balanced!

Please know, I loved my upright piano, so before it went into the woodchipper, I pulled off some of the more ornate pieces and I hope to use them as part of a DIY in my laundry room, but that’s another project for another day.

Vintage upright pianos have no value now days, so if someone is trying to sell one, skip over it. You should be able to find one for little or no cost. Even mine, as ornate and beautiful as it was, had no resale value. Schmitt music said it’s wasn’t worth a penny. But, don’t overlook vintage upright pianos though, because they are FREE and awesome (as long as they still work). The only downside is moving them. YIKES! 😉

Here was my initial plan for making the entrance to my space feel bigger and taller.

As you can see, the room is already feeling brighter and moving in the right direction.

I went with a white piano, rather than black (even though you know how much I LOVE black) due to the scale of the room. It would have acted like a black hole in such a small space and made the room feel so much darker.

I also went for a large soft chandelier (TEARDROPS CAPIZ CHANDELIER) to make the space feel much grander.

Also, I love the calming wall color. It’s all through my house so that’s not changing. It’s Martha Stewart™ MSL119 River Mist. This is also the same color on my front door.

Seating is also very important. Don’t skimp on this. Nate and I both agreed that we needed better seating. My goal was to provide comfortable seating for 4 people in this space (excluding the piano bench, of course).

Long story short, Nate and I got a new couch that comfortably seats three adults with plenty of room so thighs aren’t smooshed together. The couch I scored at Home Goods. Nate actually found it and approved of the comfort level. I love how the curves and modern lines of the couch work with the piano.

I found an antique accent chair that is super heavy and solid on Facebook Marketplace. I hope to refinish it, but that will be a DIY for another day.

The rug is wrong and will be changed out, but this is the latest BEFORE image.

Here is my AFTER plan, so far.

I am so excited to finish this space. It’s hard to wait for the items to arrive.

The texture and clean pattern of the curtains draw your eyes upward and really opens up the space. The scale of the rug widens the room and gives flow to the furniture pieces. When my rug arrives I have to get it cut and hemmed to 9′ x 9′ given to the square-shaped space (getting a rug made in a custom size would have cost several times the list price of the rug I found, so getting a rug I like then having it cut was a good compromise).

The pillows are feathered so it won’t interfere when you sit down. They just mold to your back. The patterns bring texture and pops of color that will reflect in the Byzantine-style painting I will be working on at a later time on the wall to the left of the piano.

As for the vintage chair, I’m hoping to contrast it with a modern pattern to complete the transitional room feel.

If there are pieces you love, shop the look here.