The Built-in Update

The built-in and my piano co-exists!

So I bought this electric piano, Yamaha Clavinova about 5 years ago.

I had to change my living room layout to fit my piano.

But obviously, couch should be where my piano is. and so the only solution was to take out the built in to fit my piano.

One day, I had an brilliant idea to cut the built in in half, and fit the piano underneath.

Tada!

Cost was less than $300 with materials and labor. The living area feels much larger and we didn’t lose any storage! (see below) All the shelves and the bottom half of the built in was re-used.

Japanese antiques and Grandma’s altar

Osechi box is something Japanese people use on the first days of new year. They are fancy bento boxes. This one is from my grandfather’s mothers, about 100 years old. Dried flowers are from Studio Full Bloom.

The grey paint colour is Benjamin Moore Marylin’s dress, that I painted at least 8 years ago.

Under the built-in was the original carpet. The last owner put in the laminate, and left us 4 planks! so we had just enough to cover up the carpet part with them. We supported the top of the built in with thick lumber called 2 x 10 (two by tens) from Home Depot, then covered the lumber with the baseboards I used for the front hallway trims designs.

Father more, my buddy Pete did a fantastic professional demo job that bottom half of the built in was still usable. So we decided to use it as my new kitchen peninsula cabinets.

Now I can see the view when I play the piano!

I was thinking to buy kitchen cabinets from IKEA, but why buy new when I already have the old one, and, no land fill! That was a real win-win.

Pete carefully took out the trimmings for me too, so I could reuse them for the peninsula cabinet finishing, like on the wine racks I built. No new trims were bought to finish the peninsula!

By the way, when I asked for an quote from a contractor, he said

Cutting the built in half is IMPOSSIBLE because the top half will fall down.

But I knew, if I talk to the right people, it’s definitely possible. I asked handy Pete and my woodworker friend, and they both said

Easy!

When you want to save existing materials and money, you should talk to Woodworkers, not contractors. Contractors will rip everything out because there is no money in saving old stuff for them.

The Kitchen / Dining area Renovation

The Hallway Update