Help me think about how to decorate my piano room

[wtg]

I like groups of art pieces but something isn't quite working for me. Not sure if it's that two of three seem to have glass and are framed, and the third is a frameless abstract. Did you try just two of those three on the wall? Maybe leave the smallest (center) one off and reposition the other two so they are spaced evenly on the wall?

Will the chair be centered under the left one? A little part of me thinks I'd swap the two pics so that the red elements (chair and circle art) are divided rather than stacked.

And will there be some kind of small table or bookshelf on that wall? Have to admit, I'm not sure about that music shelf that's on the opposite wall. It seems kind of stuffed in the corner there. Have you tried it on the adjacent wall, or maybe on the wall in the photo above?

[ShiroKuro]

Thanks wtg, this is helpful!!

@wtg said in Help me think about how to decorate my piano room:

could the 3D pieces work if they're both rotated 90 degrees

Interesting! I'll try that (I still have the paper prints of course)

@wtg said in Help me think about how to decorate my piano room:

I like groups of art pieces but something isn't quite working for me. Not sure if it's that two of three seem to have glass and are framed, and the third is a frameless abstract.

Yes, this is a problem, the two pieces that Mr. SK is holding both have traditional frames and glass fronts. The one still in bubble paper actually has kind of a... not exactly ornate frame, but the frame is scalloped, whereas the other frame is much simpler. So these two pieces are different from the red circles piece, which is just stretched canvas and doesn't even have a frame. BTW the big square piece (on opposite wall) and the black and white piece that I don't have a proper photo of both have a simple frame around the canvas...

Did you try just two of those three on the wall? Maybe leave the smallest (center) one off and reposition the other two so they are spaced evenly on the wall?

I can try that. I have an alternative spot for the smallest one if I don't use it here.

@wtg said in Help me think about how to decorate my piano room:

Will the chair be centered under the left one? A little part of me thinks I'd swap the two pics so that the red elements (chair and circle art) are divided rather than stacked.

Yeah I don't think I like the red and red... But I do want that red circle one out on the end there, since that puts it in my line of sight from the bench, which I like...

This room is pretty small but maybe it would work to slide the red chair in mid-way...

@wtg said in Help me think about how to decorate my piano room:

And will there be some kind of small table or bookshelf on that wall? Have to admit, I'm not sure about that music shelf that's on the opposite wall. It seems kind of stuffed in the corner there. Have you tried it on the adjacent wall, or maybe on the wall in the photo above?

I think it's too tight a fit to add another table or bookshelf... Maybe, I'll ask Mr SK what he thinks. But this way, if I want to have people sitting in here, all we have to do is bring in chairs from the dining room table and put them around in the open space. Or if I ever find a violinist to play with, there's space for that person.

So that's why that bookshelf is stuffed in the corner like that.

[ShiroKuro]

@wtg said in Help me think about how to decorate my piano room:

I have a hard time visualizing

BTW, I have a hard time visualizing as well, that's why I printed out those test prints! I wouldn't be able to do it without that.

[AdagioM]

Option 1 looks better than Option 2 (which I suggested; I take it back!). Opening the piano makes a difference!

[wtg]

I had purchased something not unlike your red circles picture from Z Gallerie. Something was missing for me, and I ended up building a 1"x2" frame with simple butt joints that I fastened with pocket screws. The frame was a couple of inches bigger on all sides than the size of the art. I painted the frame in a color that worked with the art. Then I screwed my homemade frame to the back of the art piece (which had a wooden frame that the canvas was mounted to). The art on top of the painted frame gave the whole thing more depth, more 3D.

I'll see if I can find a pic of something similar...

[ShiroKuro]

@AdagioM said in Help me think about how to decorate my piano room:

(which I suggested; I take it back!)

Yeah, option 1 works better, even with the piano closed. But also, I like how it looks to me when I sit at the piano.

@wtg said in Help me think about how to decorate my piano room:

Z Gallerie

Yikes, there are tons of things on that site that I love, but they're out of budget for now!

I like your idea of building a frame for that canvas, it would look better with a frame. Maybe we'll put it on the wall for now and add the frame later.

The other two canvases that will go in the piano room both have very simple frames, but it sort of finishes the piece.

[Lisa]

I like option 1 as well, but I feel like instead of it looking so much like a group of 3 that gets bigger as it grows across the wall, it might be cool to separate them a bit, so that the group of 2 3d pieces is closer together at the bench end. In other words, more space between those 2 and the big one so it looks like 2 distinct areas of art work that are separated instead of a group of 3 pieces. Maybe you could try staggering the group of 2, either one on top of the other or diagonally kind of. I'm probably not explaining this well. I do like that large piece a lot and I like the 3d pieces as well and the 3 of them complement each other so I think you have good pieces - it's just a matter of figuring out placement.

I like the circles piece - it picks up the color of the chair. I would probably center it over the chair (or center the chair under it). But again, because the 3 pieces you are thinking of on that wall are such disparate styles, I don't like the way it the pictured arrangement looks like its trying to be an evenly spaced group of 3. I would either try to put more space between circles and the other 2 or maybe hang those 2 framed pics on the other wall (the one that you face when sitting at the piano). What did you plan to hang on that wall again? (Also, I really do like that yarn thing Steve found -- I think that could look really cool next to the circles piece if you could find colors that match it or maybe something that incorporates some of those colors and some of the more muted colors in the rug to tie everything together.)

[ShiroKuro]

Here are the frames for the two canvases that have frames:

Here's what the frame looks like from the top:

Here's the black and white piece:

If the circle piece had a matte black frame like that, it would be nice and fit better with the other pieces.

[Lisa]

That would be fairly easy to make yourself with just some basic tools. If you didn't want to attempt the fancy mitre joint (the way the horizontal and vertical pieces meet in a diagonal line) you could even just piece together 2 horizontal and 2 vertical pieces of 1x2 or 1x3 depending on how thick the canvas is. If you don't have a saw, get them cut in advance at Lowes/Home Depot and use angle brackets (you'd need a screwdriver and perhaps a drill for a pilot hole) on the back to assemble them -- these things: https://www.amazon.com/DGOL-Corner-Braces-Picture-Bracket/dp/B095GLLP15/ref=sr_1_4?crid=2681WCPXUQDLW&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.1tFQpAHZ8Mq5vOUAKTSL-9AGNKVwtOpnoFDrs2IZ-KBNfrXpPG4c-JFsVJY1koWy_Li2qC7zCeCbn7BntSsYCYtF4gTDod0OiQMpWlS0X2V1qtbg9H51HS_DKgdI02ECiE5S92-RaxYVamIuc-Yic9d0O_A-UxC1TuVx3zCLR9AeoKBu8UpNa7ZG2evcSKRXyiiTIjWdR41c3PUvWd_kMJgEkVs89TSz5wdm5pGtlgE.08b6PdI6M9VWYFJjVbgWeqsxnP3Dmszj3xJ2Uf_Gy0Q&dib_tag=se&keywords=flat%2BL%2Bbrackets%2Bto%2Bjoin%2Bwood&qid=1719582294&sprefix=flat%2Bl%2Bbrackets%2Bto%2Bjoin%2Bwood%2Caps%2C105&sr=8-4&th=1

With a coat of black paint, it wouldn't be super obvious that you don't have mitred corners and you could basically pull it off for under $25 or so. Getting it framed professionally would be a lot more $$$$ but would obviously be a more polished look.

[wtg]

What @Lisa describes is what we did with the Z Gallerie piece, except that we used a Kreg pocket hole jig that we already had instead of the angle brackets. The butt joints are pretty much invisible when the piece is painted.

The angle brackets are a great lower cost alternative if you don't have a Kreg.

BTW, @ShiroKuro ...I can't believe the prices at Z Gallerie. Granted it was some years ago, but I paid $99 for the piece I bought at their Woodfield Mall store...

[ShiroKuro]

Hmm, maybe we'll (ok, not "we," but Mr SK) will actually try to do the frame now, rather than hang it first. I bet he could do it very easily!

@wtg re those prices, yeah, amazing! And I thought Art dot com was expensive! The things I liked were priced in the four digits!!

Thanks to everyone's advice in this thread, I got four pieces for less than $200. Much better! (I'm saving my four-digit expenditure for a sofa for Mr SK!!)

[ShiroKuro]

Oh, they sell frame kits on Amazon... maybe I can find one in the right size...

[ShiroKuro]

BTW, the piece I have is 28 x 22, so no kits on Amazon in that size. Other places online are in the neighborhood of $100, which defeats the purpose of DIYing this... Although maybe if I could fint one closer to $60...

Anyway, we'll start with Lowes and see how we do.

[ShiroKuro]

Ok, it's done!! Well for now anyway, I left space to add some smaller prints

Here are some photos, first the bass-side wall

Next, the treble-side wall

I love it!!!

[ShiroKuro]

BTW, the next thing to add is another chair to go to the right of the red chair. After I took these photos, I brought in a medium sized chair from the living, and that fills that hole quite nicely, so I just need to get another one. And a chair for the tail end of the piano as well...

[wtg]

Looks good! The red circles between the framed pieces worked out well.

[ShiroKuro]

Thank you!

@wtg said in Help me think about how to decorate my piano room:

Looks good! The red circles between the framed pieces worked out well.

Yeah, I like that order. I don’t like how lined up it looks at the bottom, but when I get another chair in there, I think it will be good.

[AdagioM]

What kind of chair are you looking for? Would you want two matching chairs, and move the red chair to the tail end of the piano?

[ShiroKuro]

@AdagioM Good question! Matching chairs could be nice actually. Although it’s not as roomy as it looks in the photos, so the footprint of the chair is important. My funky rocking chair (which is in the living room) fits there at an angle, but other chairs might not work that way. And a regular armchair or plush chair would probably be too deep…

Way back in this thread (I think) @wtg suggested a little shelf or table plus chair IIRC and I said thst wouldn’t work, but now that everything else is in place, maybe it would…

Hmm…

[Steve Miller]

Looks great!