Need to paint my digital piano - it is soooooo ugly! Any tips as to how the heck I do it?

[loomer]

After living with/turning a blind eye to my Clavinova and the sheer aesthetic distress that it causes me every time I see it, I have decided that it is now time to Take Action. I need to improve it without obviously compromising the sound or the actual workings of it, so I'm thinking a good paint job would be a start...

...the cabinet is mostly made of that nasty black formica type stuff that abounded in eighties 'black ash' furniture, do you think I could sand it lightly and paint it? Or will I end up with a god-awful bodge job mess on my hands?

I feel sure that somebody somewhere must have attempted something similar, but Google says no.

do you play it alot?

can't you just stick some stars on it to liven it up?

Yeah, I play it quite a bit, but it's currently in my DDs bedroom, which means I can't play it in the evenings (when I would be most likely to practise).

However, we're about to move house, and in the new place I'd like to have it in the living room - but the thought of having to look at its great hulking black mass next to my terribly tasteful farrow and ball colour scheme is very upsetting. Covering it in stars will only work if they are very tastful stars.

Having said that, I'm quite up for doing something slightly quirky with it. But only if I can really pull off the quirkiness in a style which Kirsty Allsop would approve of.

bump again for you

Hi Loomer, you wrote about painting your electric piano nearly 10 years ago - I was wondering if you ever did mange it? I want to do the same!

Have you looked at what they call ' cupboard paint', I.e. for painting Formica kitchen cupboards? That might well work. I've used it on some horrible Formica wardrobe doors and dd used it on some even more horrible old kitchen cupboards, until they could afford to replace them.

I do sympathise though. I had my very very old acoustic piano that was on its very last legs, according to tuner, converted to a digital because I couldn't bear the look of any reasonably priced replacement and the ancient wooden cabinet is lovely, so I couldn't bear to junk it.
The new digital innards weren't exactly cheap, but from the outside nobody could possibly tell the difference.

Could you get it an amazing throw to cover it? Fake fur perhaps?

Annie Sloan chalk paint would be worth a try... it's meant to be able to go on just about anything.

I meant melamine in pp, not Formica, though not sure they're very different.

Hi, I wonder whether anyone has tried this yet. I have, I think, the earliest model when there was only one to choose from - CLP-154S. Dark brown (not very convincing ..) imitation wood and no lid for the keys. I have it covered with material but have considered painting it for several years. I really would like to know whether anyone has tried this yet and how it went if they did - come pics would be great. As mine is so old (though still works perfectly), I think I will give it a go soon - so if no-one else has yet tried, perhaps I can be the guinea pig!!! I am thinking of using Zinsser as the undercoat (I understand that you can paint anything with Zinsser( and then Farrow and Ball French grey to match our other paintwork. I will try this out of the top first, and probably go for a paler grey if this doesn't look right!

I have painted cupboards relatively successfully with Zinsser BIN as the primer