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Originally posted by ShiroKuro:

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Also you can turn the rug so that it, too, is angled the same as the piano.

Hmm, I feel like that might look odd... back to the mock-ups!

Wonder where I could get 6' butcher paper...

Staples or the like should have something that would work. You'll probably have to buy a roll, but it has other uses...

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Originally posted by ShiroKuro:

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the lower level is the answer to all your problems...

And the finished room on the lower level will be his studio. If we had the living room for entertaining, the dining room for dining, guest room #1 for my home office, guest room #2 for guests, and the lower level for my piano, he wouldn't have his own space at all!

Why not make the dining room his studio? You could put french doors in the opening with curtains on them. Then the downstairs den as piano space would give you even more privacy for practicing.

i just want to point out that i believe i was the first person on this thread to suggest the den in the walkout basement for the piano space.

from the pictures it looks to me like the living room would not be a healthy space for the piano. it isn't just grease from cooking, it's also that it is much harder to control the temperature and humidity in a big open space like that.

my first piano teacher in missoula had her yamaha grand in her walkout basement. She had sofas down there, and a music library, and lots of art work, and all her students came to that space for lessons, plus when we had piano gatherings they were also down there. If you are having a piano party you can either have everyone head downstairs or you can even create an inviting pathway from the outside that leads directly to the piano room. Decorate accordingly. Your own personal concert hall.

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Why not make the dining room his studio?

I think it’s too small for him and I don’t think he would want his studio at the front of the house like that.

In any case I don’t want to put the piano in the basement. I don’t think there will be water down there, but never say never.

I really appreciate all the creative suggestions everyone!

For now I think we’ll go with the piano in the dining room as planned. Mr SK makes a lot of sacrifices for me and my piano, I don’t want to take over the whole house and change everything we’ve been planning on. If we get all moved in and it’s really unsustainable, we’ll revisit the idea of putting it in the living room.

In the meantime, I will try to lay things out on the floor in the dining room and get an idea of whether the straight placement or angle placement works better just in terms of the space.

I have no opinion on the arrangement except that I don't like the idea of the piano in the living room -- I think your original instinct to use the dining room is the right one. You're going to spend a lot more time practicing than you are having piano soirees and I would feel pretty exposed and loud in the middle of the open living room like that. Plus if you really want to isolate the sound, you could always install french doors on the entrance to the dining room. Actually maybe I do have an opinion on the placement -- I think I like the angled placements - either the one Bernard posted about a page ago or angling it the other way with the bench towards the window and the opening of the piano pointed at the angled doorway opening.

I did want to suggest that when I was trying to figure out my own piano placement, I just taped a bunch of sheets of newspaper together to get a suitably sized template, cut it to the shape of my piano, and used that to move it around the room and figure out the placement. No need to get special paper. I do agree that having a paper template would help a lot. Good luck!

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Originally posted by Lisa:
I think I like the angled placements - either the one Bernard posted about a page ago or angling it the other way with the bench towards the window and the opening of the piano pointed at the angled doorway opening.

I’d put it angled with the bench towards the window and the curve of the piano pointed at the angled doorway, in this case. It doesn’t have to be a 45 degree angle, just enough so that it’s not lined up against the wall. Our piano is set like that, in a corner (windows on both sides of the corner, and we just don’t leave the blinds open.

Have the rug square with the wall, and as far towards the window as you can get it. Then the piano comes forward far enough that the bench is also on the rug.

Lisa, AdagioM, thanks!

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You're going to spend a lot more time practicing than you are having piano soirees

This is very true!

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a bunch of sheets of newspaper

We don’t get a newspaper, so no newspaper paper! although maybe I can grab some from campus, if there are any left now that it’s summer. I’ll take a look. Your suggestion makes me think maybe we could use garbage bags laid out flat as the area rug and then papers as the piano, and that would give us some idea... or maybe just use painters tape to mark off the corners of the rug and then papers or bags for the piano. Hmm that should work.

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Have the rug square with the wall, and as far towards the window as you can get it.

AdagioM, do you mean have the rug with the long side parallel to the window wall (so horizontal) or vertical, short side to the window wall?

I think I need a little over 8 feet from the tail to the end of bench. The rug is 8x10, so I’m thinking that if the carpet is horizontal in the room (long side parallel to window wall), getting that angled position should be do-able. But if the carrot is vertical, it might be harder… hmm

Oops duplicate post, please ignore.

P.S. yesterday I read this article. I’m pretty sure I read it before, but that was probably five years ago when I first got this piano — with a totally different room situation.

https://www.pianobuyer.com/pos...ano-room-sound-grand

So anyway, based on everyone’s comments here and on this article, I definitely think I’m going to start with the angled placement, this one, with the rug horizontal and pushed in towards the window wall (But not this chair, I don’t even own a chair like that…)



Although remember that this mock up is the better representation of the room and the window wall. (Did I write already that I messed up the mock ups with how I did the window wall?)


Depending on my experiments with tape and garbage bags, maybe I’ll find that the vertical rug placement actually works…

Next thing: figuring out how to minimize the indents from the caster cups when the piano is in a different spot on the rug…

I've used an ice cube. Melts slowly and then you can kind of tease the fibers back up.

https://www.tomsguide.com/news...rpet-dent-in-3-steps

As an aside... one thing we discovered when we installed SmartStrand wall-to-wall carpeting in our house is that the fiber used (polyester, I think) doesn't mash down. If I move a chair and then vacuum where the legs were, the dents pop right up. And then I can't figure out where to put the chair back...

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Originally posted by ShiroKuro:
Lisa, AdagioM, thanks!

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You're going to spend a lot more time practicing than you are having piano soirees

This is very true!

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a bunch of sheets of newspaper

We don’t get a newspaper, so no newspaper paper! although maybe I can grab some from campus, if there are any left now that it’s summer. I’ll take a look. Your suggestion makes me think maybe we could use garbage bags laid out flat as the area rug and then papers as the piano, and that would give us some idea... or maybe just use painters tape to mark off the corners of the rug and then papers or bags for the piano. Hmm that should work.

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Have the rug square with the wall, and as far towards the window as you can get it.

AdagioM, do you mean have the rug with the long side parallel to the window wall (so horizontal) or vertical, short side to the window wall?

I think I need a little over 8 feet from the tail to the end of bench. The rug is 8x10, so I’m thinking that if the carpet is horizontal in the room (long side parallel to window wall), getting that angled position should be do-able. But if the carrot is vertical, it might be harder… hmm

I love autocorrect, carrot vs carpet!

I meant vertical, but I can see how the corner of the carpet might be out your doorway, which would be weird.

Maybe you need a new carpet? I have my 5’7” Weinbach on a round rug that just fits under it. Maybe it’s 6’ round? The bench is not on the rug. Bonus: you can put it anywhere in the room and angle it however you like. I don’t even have a pad under it; no one walks on it but the cats. I did discover that we can move the piano/change its angle ourselves, because the carpet just slides on the hardwood floor.

The reason I went for a round rug is because I have a sofa and rectangular rug in the room, and there wasn’t a way to fit two rectangular rugs in the room, and a single larger rug wouldn’t fit/work the way I wanted.

Anyway, if you went the round rug route, it might give you more options for seating. No matter what, I think I’d want the piano deeper in te room so it doesn’t obstruct the entry. You want it to invite you into the room, not block your way, especially if you want to have guests in there.

I also do like this one, which is basically just turning the piano a little bit from the angled version you chose above. Downside of this one is people standing outside the doorway probably won't be able to see your hands as you play when you are having a music gathering. I do think with the open layout, that when you are having a music gathering, people in the living room will be able to hear everything fine and IIRC, I think they can see directly into that room, right? I assume you are going to do something about the chandelier light fixture - otherwise people will be clonking their heads.

I would really try to make templates - I like your idea of making a template for the rug (I'd make an actual template vs painters tape, as it's easier to move around) and one for the piano, so you can play around with slight variations on angles. Trash bags are a great idea and you could really even use normal printer paper, you'd just have to tape a lot of sheets together. Or wrapping paper if you have any? I know I am not a good visualizer at all, and it really took having the life size paper template to give me a sense of how big everything would be in the room -- in fact, I'm pretty sure I also stacked boxes near the front and back edges of the piano template to get a sense of the height -- I am a REALLY bad visualizer and need to see it in front of me!!! Anyhow, good luck!

A box of wrapping paper for moving doesn't cost much at UHaul. And whatever you don't use for a piano template you can use to pack your stuff!

https://www.uhaul.com/MovingSu...(10lb-pack)/?id=4817

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I've used an ice cube. Melts slowly and then you can kind of tease the fibers back up.

Thanks, I’ll try that!

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And then I can't figure out where to put the chair back..

AdagioM, ooh thanks for the suggestion, I hadn’t thought a round rug, I’ll think about that. Although I’m afraid we won’t have time to get a new rig before the piano gets moved… maybe, depending on the store of course.

Lisa, thanks for that!

I think now I have three options consider. Which is good because that gives me some options but it’s not overwhelming. (Hopefully!)