designing a living room around a piano

love a challenge… And this room design project was nothing if not a challenge: Our client had inherited a baby grand piano and it was inhabiting a corner of his living room. But with its Victorian carved wood detail, it didn’t tie into anything else he owned, which was mostly a modern mix of furniture and accessories. The piano was, in short, the proverbial elephant in the room. The walls were painted a cool blue and the room features a black marble fireplace surround, so we felt the room needed rounding out with transitional lines, medium wood tones and warmth, warmth, warmth. The overstuffed red sofa and love seat weren’t doing the job.

Red and blue were colors used throughout the home, so we employed them freely in this space - tempering the brights with wheat tones and flaxen golds, as well as hits of black to tie into the black marble fireplace. A complete reconfiguration of the furniture was also in our design plan.

Here are the before and afters.

Before…