Does anybody know if that piano bookshelf is for sale anywhere? That's seriously cool!

It may be my age....I lived through the vinyl period so when I see upcycled L.P.'s it almost breaks my heart. But I understand it's better than throwing them in land fill so why not.
Now the piano..I will say it's a cool up-cycle from an piano BEYOND REPAIR. But that too, took my breath away at first glance and not in a good way...

@LYONSTILL Exactly.

If the piano was beyond repair, which I see no reason why someone would tear apart a perfectly good piano, why not make it into something else that can be appreciated and used as apposed to throwing it out to rot in a landfill? Seriously, you CRIED over this piano?

@Wallflowerpower

Everything good comes to an end. I am glad that people find creative ways to use things so that they don't end up in a dump. And a broken piano with rusted parts and the bottom broken out is not an expensive piece. It may have been at one time but if it is something that is broken to the point it could no longer be used or repairing it exceeds the value of the object it SHOULD be recycled or re-purposed into something else. I don't believe in hoarding things, I find it extremely materialistic.

I am as worshipful of musical instruments as they come - but at some point, they pass on. I think displaying the remains of this one is much more respectful than throwing it in a landfill. ::Shrug::

I have always wanted to hang a sounding board from a piano. A woman up the street put the pieces of an old piano on the curb once. I was delighted! Only to realize - a piano sounding board is SERIOUSLY heavy. Like SmartCar heavy. Aiiee! So, it stayed on the side of the road.

I "Lurrve" this! You could build this (no piano required--just really good woodworking skills!) and get a "cheap" electronic keyboard, hang it, and then you could play it on the wall! What a fun bookshelf!

Love the Les Paul Pool!!

There are more terrible things in this world, and far more disturbing things that happen to children then what I see in the comments section. This site is all about being creative, and passing that creativity on to others. So the piano was used in this way; it may give some poor soul a reason to smile tomorrow.

The earring organizer is Regretsy worthy

People cried over the piano bookshelf?? Seriously? At least here in the North East people literally can't give their pianos away. There are simply far to many pianos for those that wish to play them and while that is worthy of a good cry, I just can't see why paying a creative homage to a vintage instrument that would likely otherwise be destroyed (and may have been in unplayable condition) is devastating.

Sadly there are a lot of pianos that would cost far more to repair than they are worth -- the NYT ran a piece recently about the increasingly common practice of junking pianos. Many of them are 75+ years old and require serious repairs; meanwhile, demand is down, and inexpensive pianos from Asia are available for less than what repairs on older pianos run.

I still hate to see them go, though.

I want that pool.

Recently the NY Times posted an article about pianos being sent to the junk yard (?) for dismantling and disposal. When you realize how big NYC is and IF the piano was usable and IF there was a child who really wanted to learn - having so many pianos destroyed is a crime. IF that piano soundboard was beyond repair but the frame was in good condition - turning it "almost on it's head" into a bookshelf is a very cool and respectful idea.

I saw this image on a friends Facebook page - and I pinned it to my Modern Decor Pinterest board a week ago.

Ha ha AT, beat you to it.

@DTRMIT - I missed your post by going to fast - sorry to duplicate...

Love the piano bookshelf. But gotta confess...it also makes the bile rise in my throat.

@Wallflowerpower:

I was the kid, too - wanted a piano so bad. I used to teach myself to play on the tiny chord organ in our dining room. When I was 14, my mother sucked it up and bought us a piano, and I was in heaven. Alas, actually taking piano lessons was far less fun than I thought, and my mother MADE ME TAKE THEM until I graduated HS to punish me for making her spend $800 on a piano! :D (Good job, Mom.)

When I was an adult, the first thing I saved for when I had room was an electric piano. (Not a keyboard - electric pianos sound and feel like the real thing - plus, you can carry them up stairs!) It cost $1600 and I think my monthly take-home at that point was $1000. But I've been carrying that piano with me for 20 years now. It's such a symbol of... I'm not sure what. Who I am? Where I came from? My mother?

Wallflower: BUY YOURSELF A PIANO NOW, or get one off CL for free! You are not too old to pursue your childhood dream. You may not get "great" at it, but you will love the challenge and mastery you get from it. And I'm sure some lucky piano teacher somewhere would be happy to have an adult student! And you can stop crying about other people's pianos. :)

Pianos as furniture or decor makes my heart break too but I realize eventually they go into disrepair. Grand pianos are almost always of higher quality than uprights, so I think that is why there is some shock and awe in the comments.

It's never too late to take up the piano and after a little TLC the old ones IMHO tend to have a less "tinny" sound than what is churned out these days (unless you splurge on the new Steinway). If you are in the Seattle area, there are some beautifully refurbished uprights down in Olympia that you can try out in local shops: http://www.pianova.net/pages/pianosales.html

The piano made my heart skip a beat and not in a good way. I'd much rather see and instrument restored and used rather than gutted and sliced open and laid bare against the wall to house books.

Does anyone here seriously believe that anyone else would go to the expense and trouble of obtaining and dismantling a fully intact and functioning grand piano to the purpose shown ? SERIOUSLY? All that money and all that work? When trashed pianos are to be had(and they are to be had)? I've seen the remnants of pianos that were only fit for this sort of treatment and hurray for that. Doesn't it occur to anyone that someone who puts such remnants to use may be expressing a love of and appreciation for instruments and music as sincere and deep as your own? That the piano in the picture may be all that's left of a family heirloom and that this is the best option to retain and use it? Maybe it came through some sort of accident or natural disaster in a state that left this treatment the last, best option. The assumption that a working piano was sacrificed is silly.
I wish that I had the time and the tech savvy to find and post a YouTube link to the episode of "Northern Exposure" where Chris Stevens flings an old upright out of a catapult. Just to make all the hypersensitive types clutch their pearls and reach for the smelling salts.

Also, the piano was not "killed'. It is not a living thing , but an inanimate object.

I have a partially gutted baby grand in my garage at the moment, destined to become a bookcase similar to this one, a coffee table, and whatever other interesting thing I can come up with for the rest of the parts.

As a pianist myself I agree that it is tragic and heartbreaking, and I felt like a perverse cannibal dismantling it. But in my case it was truly beyond repair. The real tragedy was the lack of care it had in the first place. My repurposing of it is saving it from the landfill.

I'm firmly on the side of those people who think that the piano should, it at all remotely possible, be repaired.

However, what no-one else seems to have pointed out, as a bookshelf, it looks downright ugly.

@WALLFLOWERPOWER So glad you agree!

It may no longer have been a viable piano when it became a shelf. Can't anyone consider that highly likely possibility befor getting on their prisspot high horses?

Oh, the drama!

@RSR It's still damned ugly.

QUOTE: "Doesn't it occur to anyone that someone who puts such remnants to use may be expressing a love of and appreciation for instruments and music as sincere and deep as your own?"

@ rsr: Well said. And certainly it does, for me, at least. It does make me queasy to look at the above photo but I would so LOVE to incorporate that bookshelf into my home if the opportunity arose.

Balance doesn't just apply to decor. The extremists here near send me over the edge sometimes. Surely there are more worthwhile causes,,,: