THE PIANO BAR

The piano was introduced to us as a 100 year old dysfunctional piece which needed to be converted into a bar using the exquisite rosewood that it was made up of. However, one look at the piano and we knew that it’d be criminal to destroy this gorgeous piece, which had years and years of history intertwined in it.

That’s where the journey of attempting to infuse a second lease of life into the beautiful Schiedmayer & Soehne, Stuttgart upright started. We started our exploration by systematically removing each panel to help explore the next layer. Care was taken that each of these was removed such that it could be assembled to status quo. Each layer was however far more complex and interconnected than imagined with everything element being connected to every other element. From the pedals to the soundboard, the keys to the hammer and the strings, it was all one. With that information, it was time to adapt this beautiful complex structure, with minimal intervention, into a bar making space for the various requirements. A few strategic eliminations and additions later, we arrived at a repurposed upright which housed not only the functions of a fully fledged bar but also flaunted its innate beauty, which of course had been cleaned up and highlighted so as to restore it back to its old glory.