I asked this over at PW but would love to hear advice from everyone here as well.

We will be moving into our new house soon. (Yay!) The piano will go in the dining room (now “the piano room”) so in that regard there’s not that much to decide. But I realized that my original intention of having the piano \ parallel to the back wall (I.e. the all opposite the doorway of the room) might not sound as good as if the piano were were angled …

Here is a very sloppy drawing of the room.



The bump out at the top is a bay window. The dotted line diagonally opposite is an open doorway, which as you can see is at an angle.

If I put the piano opposite the doorway, top left corner in the photo but angled so the curved side points toward the opening, I wonder if it would sound better.


My original plan was to have the piano in the top left corner so the bass side was parallel to the wall where the bay window is. With this placement, the piano essentially opens out to the opposite wall.

As an aside, if any of you remember my rug that I have under the piano, well, if I want to put the piano at an angle on the rug, I need to get a new rug. This is only partially a joke. The rug has a sort of geometric/line based design and I don’t think it would look good if the piano was angled while the rug was straight. So if I want to buy a new rug (and repurpose this one for a different room) I need to decide fast.


Thanks in advance for any comments/advice etc.

Here is the piano in our rental house, notice the lines on the carpet, I think it would look wonky to have the piano at an angle.

BTW this rug is 8x10, the piano is 5’8” and with the bench pulled out, the piano+bench fits perfectly on the rug. This will fit in the new piano room if I put the long side of the rug parallel to the wall with the bay window.

There is so much more to this, acoustically speaking, that which way the piano opens. How tall are the ceilings? What is the shape of the ceiling (coved? 90 degrees to the wall?) What other furnishings will there be? What kind of window treatments? What are the dimensions of the room? Are there any other floor coverings besides that one rug? What direction does that bay window face and is it double glazed?

Typically, you want the piano to be against the far short wall so the wing opens to the length of the room, not the width of the room. But I would not want the piano in front of the bay window if that window gets direct sunlight coming through, nor if it isn't well insulated.

Without any of the above questions answered, I would be tempted to position the piano against the upper right corner, so that it opens to the entry of the room. But you need to also account for sunlight, heat vents, and furnishings. You might want a larger carpet and heavier, more absorbing window treatments if the ceilings are tall and the floor is bare. Well upholstered furniture can help with the acoustics as well.

Walk around the empty room talking, singing, or whistling, and listen for how the sound changes in different parts of the room. This can help you determine how "live" the room is, and plan accordingly.

I think the current rug is pretty busy and would get something else.

Yes to the sun and venting concerns. Also, for any piano techs, it is really nice to have plenty of room to pull the action!

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Originally posted by piqué:
How tall are the ceilings? What is the shape of the ceiling (coved? 90 degrees to the wall?) What other furnishings will there be? What kind of window treatments? What are the dimensions of the room? Are there any other floor coverings besides that one rug? What direction does that bay window face and is it double glazed?

I think the ceiling is standard height, it seems the same there as in our rental and as in our house. But I can measure. The ceiling is 90 degrees to the wall and flat, not domed etc.

The bay window has mini blinds and heavy black out curtains which are lined. Unfortunately it faces west, but it’s double paned and I will have the blinds closed and curtains closed.

As for floor coverings, the room has hard wood (real not engineered) floors. There will only be an area rug plus carpet pad underneath. The wall with the open doorway (left side of photo) is 8’11”, so an 8 x 10 rug will “fit” with the 10’ side parallel to the window.

The dimensions of the room are in the photo in the first post, if you don’t count the bump out and the opening for the doorway, the room is essentially 11’ by 11’10” so it’s close to being square. Since area rugs come in standard sizes, only way to get a larger carpet would be carpet installation, which I don’t intend to do.

There will be some upholstered chairs in there eventually, probably two, but not at first.

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Walk around the empty room talking, singing, or whistling, and listen for how the sound changes in different parts of the room. This can help you determine how "live" the room is, and plan accordingly.

Good idea, I’ll try that. Of course, it’s totally empty right now, so it will be very live, but maybe I can get an idea. I can also take a blue tooth speaker there and try to play some music.

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the current rug is pretty busy and would get something else.

Thank you for insulting my rug, which I love. it doesn’t work in the current room (blue walls, ugh) but IMO it worked nicely in our old house and would fit the wall color of the new space.

Nevertheless, the lines in the design mean it won’t work with the piano sitting at an angle on the rug. If I decide to go with an angled position, I’ll probably want a different rug, which means I have to decide very soon if I want to get the rug in there before the piano is moved.

Ron, there’s a vent by the window but I’ll have it closed and covered (that’s what I do in the current room.) I will have 3 feet (or more) for room on the keyboard side, I need about that much because of how I position my bench.

In any case, my experience with this piano at our old house is that when I had it repositioned in the room, after owning it for a few months, the improvement acoustically was amazing.

Initially I had it sat along the long wall and so it opened to the short side of the room. When I had it moved 90 degrees, it opened to the longer side of the room, which had two standard sized doorways at the far end. That room was a rectangle though. But otherwise similar, hard wood floors and this area rug plus carpet pad.

So I’m thinking that the open doorway in the new piano room could be an important part of the piano’s sound and if so, I may want to position accordingly.

An alternative positon is to have the bass side parallel to the right-side wall, but then it does truly open to the shorter side of the room and I don’t know if that doorway opening is enough.

And then the piano will sitting parallel to the floor joists, which maybe isn’t ideal.

Is it possible to place the piano such that you don’t have to keep the drapes closed all of the time?

Practicing in a dark, closed room would take all of the fun out of it for me.

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Is it possible to place the piano such that you don’t have to keep the drapes closed all of the time?

Probably not. The room's not really big enough, so I think even with the piano on the wall opposite the window, I would have the curtains drawn in the afternoon. Also, I don't think I want the piano on that opposite wall (the bottom wall in the drawing above) because that layout wouldn't be great either in terms of appearance or acoustics.

In any case, the drapes can be open in the morning, and once fall comes, they can be open in the late afternoon and evening. Well, actually, right now they can probably be open in the late afternoon because there's a tree in the front of the house that shades that window. And if I'm in there playing, I can probably have the curtain open and the blinds angled upward, I'll have to see.

But realistically, most of the time when I'm practicing, it's past 8pm and I would have the curtains drawn anyway. I have a nice ceiling light there and will have a good stick lamp, it will be bright enough.

BTW I'm just really looking forward to having dedicated piano space again, rather than sharing space with the living room/dining/kitchen area. Practicing in the same room with Mr. SK there this past year has been a bit trying, for him as much as me, I imagine (although he never says anything). But he wants to go relax in the living room right around the time I am ready to start practicing.

So I'll be very happy when I can be in the piano room, and he can be in the living room.

Edited to add:
Oops, in trying to grab links, I accidentally edited this post and now the original content is gone… sorry!

If it were me, I would place it where you have it but wouldn't angle so I could get something else in that room (like a chair or two).

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so I could get something else in that room (like a chair or two).

Yes, this is the main drawback to the diagonal placement... I want to have two chairs, and a bookshelf or two.

But I also want it to sound as good as it can.... Hmmm

The room is almost square so I don't think any orietation parallel with the walls will be significantly different in sound. I'm certain you'll want the raised top facing into the room, not facing a wall or window.

Speaking of windows, does that bay window extend all the way to the floor or is there a shelf and a straight wall below it? If it is the latter, how high is the shelf above the floor? Is the vent you mentioned an inlet or an outlet for the HVAC system?

Big Al

Thanks for chiming in, Big Al!

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The room is almost square so I don't think any orietation parallel with the walls will be significantly different in sound. I'm certain you'll want the raised top facing into the room, not facing a wall or window.

Yes, I definitely don't want to face a wall or window, but don’t you think that diagonal opening in the bottom left corner of the room makes a diffence? It’s a floor to ceiling doorway. So the idea of a diagonal placement is to have the piano open up toward that opening. The piano's straight edge could be along the upper right corner, but parallel with the lower left opening. I made an image, I'll post it in a minute.

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Speaking of windows, does that bay window extend all the way to the floor or is there a shelf and a straight wall below it? If it is the latter, how high is the shelf above the floor? Is the vent you mentioned an inlet or an outlet for the HVAC system?

The bay window extends all the way to the floor. But I don't think I want to push the piano's tail into that bump out... Let me grab the layouts I was fooling around with...

Here's one (the floor color is too dark though)



Versus the straight position, which I think is what Jodi was recommending



An alternative would be to put the piano's tail in the bump out, which I don't think I want to do, but here's a mock up anyway:



With this direction, the tail would have to go in the bump out in order for me to have enough room for my bench, because the right hand wall is the shorter than the lefthand wall. (The wall at the bottom of the image is the shortest of all the walls, but I don't think I'll put my piano on that wall)