We've got a Roland Synthesizer and my Husband's great-grandfather's Violin. Which wouldn't seem like they take up a lot of space, except when you consider that he likes to wire both into his Mac so he can create more.

I've specifically not made a floorplan for the office of our new house because that's all up to him. Finger's crossed we can make it work!

http://embritadesign.blogspot.com

Yes

I use my piano as the "anchor piece" in my living room. It's old and interesting (and at the moment, a little out of tune) and while I play pitifully, everytime I have a party someone magnificent plays!

We do and are very lucky. It's a piano that's been passed down in the family and by my estimates, is about 115 yrs old and beautifully carved wood. Even though we don't play it often, it's a stunning piece for our living room.

This post just brought back negative memories! In my last apartment, the woman behind me had a piano pushed up against the wall she shared with my husband and me. She played the same half-dozen songs very loudly nearly every day. I could even hear the piano if I went out on my balcony on the opposite side of the building.

I've got an upright. Mainly because my parents didn't want the piano in their house anymore. It's kind of a pain to move, but I know I want it in my house someday.

We have my grandmother's piano arriving tomorrow and really don't know how we're going to accommodate it... especially with 31 people coming for Christmas dinner!

I wish I did! Although I took piano lessons my entire childhood (every Monday at 6!) my mom gave my oldest sister the piano who doesn't know how to play.

I, too, wish I did. I just don't get the same (probably emotional) feel from any keyboard. I loved to play, and played all through college, but alas, can't afford one.

I couldn't wait to bring to my newish co-op the small upright I'd grown up playing, which sat unplayed at my childhood home except for on my rare visits. Makes me very happy to have it around, even if one key kinda sticks and I tend to play the same Mozart Sonata I last memorized at age 12 or so. By the way, does anyone in NYC know of a good/cheap tuner??

my parents got tired of schlepping my childhood piano around so they sold it a couple of moves ago. I now have an electric keyboard in my apartment, but it just isn't the same. someday I'll have a real one again.

... i guess a harmonica doesn't count...?

I have one, but left it with my ex while I was living in apartments. He shipped it to me when I bought a house.

We have a piano and a pump organ and it's very challenging arranging the furniture!

We have a Ebony Baldwin upright studio piano. Still a beautiful instrument and matches all my various interior changes.
Best investment we ever made!

The trick is to place it on a wall that is not shared with neighbors. You can only hear our piano if you're in the hallway by the elevators. I live here 25 years and no one has complained.

What makes it challenging to decorate around it is that it takes up a lot of space and if used daily you need table or shelves near it and a lamp and a place to keep your music and stuff.

My furniture in the room is skewed away from the piano, so it has it's own area. The piano is used every single day by my husband so the area near and around it is usually messy looking.

I used to have one, but when I it hadn't been played for years i lent it to a friend. Then she stopped playing and i sold it.

Unfortunately our upstairs neighbor has one and he cannot play to save his life. My father was a professional piano player, so I guess I'm spoiled, but sometimes when he plays the same song again and again (and seems to be getting worse, not better!!), I wish he would take up a more quiet hobby.

I couldn't live without my piano that I've had for 41 years!

Very apt question for me this week. I took lessons as an adult (long time ago)...got sidetracked...this week I dug out the Christmas sheet music and decided to have a go...I've been playing Silent Night ad nauseam...and to my amazement, I can still read music. (For all you spell checkers out there, don't bother ~ my Latin is correct.)

what should you do display above a piano?