Compact Piano Desk
To add a piano into a small living space, I designed a desk made out a wooden slab with a hidden keyboard inside
This project was brought on by a desire from myself and my girlfriend to relearn the piano while living in a glorified 525 sq ft studio apartment. The goal was to create a desk that opens to reveal a small keyboard, so that it was a functional piece of furniture that didn’t just take up space. The keyboard was the smallest I could find that had weighted keys to mimic a real piano feel, and the slab of wood was a locally recycled redwood slab that I intricately cut to preserve the curved edge. Using wrought iron legs, the table came together nicely, and the keyboard inside is removable so the table can be repurposed for other applications. Due to the pandemic, this is still a work in progress as it still needs the desk top attached.
Rough model of the wood slab with the piano’s cross-section drawn on the side to measure out the inner dimensions.
Early sketches of the desk with rough dimensions. These dimensions changed often because the wood slab I required was thicker than most shops cut them.
Slab before cutting and finishing
Desk top pieces after cutting and finishing