Con: You are probably going to fall down those stairs.
Pro: It will sound great when it happens.
Please tell me this is in Wile E Coyote’s house.
The number of pianos that end up in landfills every day is pretty astounding. Go on craigslist in your own area now and see how many pianos are being offered in the “free” section. Some cities have allowed “street pianos” to be set up for passersby to play (one was in my own neighborhood last year and was pretty popular.)
Wellllll it seems I was beaten to the obligatory OMG SOMEONE WILL FALL ON WEIRD STAIRS boingboing design-concern-troll, so please allow me to be the first to post WAHH IM SO UPSET BY BEAUTIFUL MUSICAL INSTRUMENT/BOOK [delete as applicable] DESTROYED FOR 'ART"
On “Middle Cyclone,” Neko Case features a five- or six-piano orchestra comprised of all free pianos that she rescued from Craigslist and set up in her barn. One or two of them could not be fixed, so I think she was going to let those grow into the pasture. Quite beautiful, in fact.
You can really hear the orchestra in her Harry Nilsson cover. Absolutely gorgeous.
As to this… pretty cool, not quite up to building code but I won’t tell!
I was recently participating in a thread on Houzz where a woman had one of the first Steinway pianos - which is untunable because the earliest ones were made before they standardized Steinway equipment and so the tools no longer exist to tune it (yes, the whole thing is hand made). It is gorgeous but Steinway has told her it will never be playable. She has had all kinds of offers to turn it into kitchen islands, bars, etc., but hates having it not used for creating music; some suggestions came up for her to insert player piano mechanisms into which I think is where she is going - essentially it will be a large but beautiful CD player.
It’s really sad that the old pianos can no longer be used but with so much beautiful wood around, having people find a way to use them for something is better than them moldering away in someone’s storage space unseen and unheard. I’m not totally nuts about this staircase’s execution but the idea of a piano stairway is a neat one.
Maybe I’m turning into a cranky old man but it looks really ugly to me. Not to mention that, in most localities, the building authorities would condemn it as unsafe. I would be more accepting of converting an old upright into something useful (and safe) like a drinks cabinet with a built-in fridge/ice maker and temperature-controlled wine chest – at least if that made you fall down you’d already be close to the floor.
I’m not really in love with the aesthetics; too busy-looking, it’s lost some elegance in the conversion. And of course it’s unsafe, although whether it actually is in violation of any building code is hard to say (especially since it’s just going up to a loft space).
The bottom step looks a bit treacherous; the rest look fine.
I know someone who makes ivory jewellery out of reclaimed piano keys. I wanted one of her pieces but she’s in the USA and I’m in Scotland. I’d need an import license, even though the elephant died over a hundred years ago, and that would cost nearly as much as the pendant is worth.
Nice recycling; better than putting it on a bonfire.
Imagine a real set of stairs, with the steps routed & painted to look like keys, and maybe even Arduino’d to play some gentle tones as you stride up or down. That would have been a much more interesting take.
Can’t win them all.
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