A KEY FURNISHING

A piano hits all the right notes in the homes of those who have musicality in mind. But, being a proficient piano player isn't a prerequisite to having a music room, which can bring a note of sophistication to your house.

Not only can a piano be a key furnishing, it also becomes the focal point of the room in which it is placed, says Robert Berger, spokesperson for Steinway & Sons in New York City.

"A piano blends artistry with craftsmanship and can be one of the most individual and significant pieces of furniture a person can buy," Berger says. "Unlike other utilitarian pieces of furniture, a piano just naturally draws people to it, and can be handed down from generation to generation."

The Steinway & Sons company has been handcrafting pianos since 1853 -- a time when entertaining at home often centered around the piano. But even in today's home, the piano has a timeless appeal and is still as grand in the 21st century, especially when families gather to celebrate, Berger says.

The beginning lesson toward creating a personal musical variation on a domesticated theme is to envision where a piano would be placed in a home.

"A piano is an instrument that is sensitive to the environment around it," Berger says. "You do not want a piano to be placed in a basement or in a space where there are wide swings in temperature."

Ideally, it is best to place a piano on an above-grade, inner wall of a home, away from heating and cooling vents or a fireplace. If a piano must be placed on an exterior wall of a home, keep it out from under windows or away from an exterior door.

Metal strings, felted pieces and wooden parts make a piano sensitive to swings in humidity levels and temperature. The materials that comprise a piano will swell and contract with these variations, which may affect the instrument's "action" and tone when played.

Berger says a hygrometer -- a device that measures the relative humidity in a room -- is important to ensure conditions remain stable. Ideally, a home environment should have a relative humidity around 40 percent (or in the range of 30 to 50 percent, depending on the outside temperature), with an indoor temperature around 70 degrees.

After determining the perfect place for a piano in your home, prepare to spend time searching for the proper instrument that fits your performance preference, style aesthetic and budget. Most pianos are 5 feet wide, but vary in height and length.

In a grand piano, the soundboard and strings are positioned horizontally, and the length can range from nearly 5 feet to more than 9 feet long for a baby grand or concert grand, respectively.

In an upright piano, the soundboard and strings are placed in a vertical position, and take up less floor space than their grand counterparts. While most uprights are around 2 feet deep, the height varies -- from about 36 to 50 inches tall -- based on the piano type.

Reputable dealers often have a paper or cloth template to match the size of specific pianos, so a homeowner can visualize how the instrument will fit the space. Make sure to allow about 3 feet behind the piano for the bench placement and player.

Berger says it's important to hire a reputable piano technician to ensure the instrument is sound, especially if you're purchasing a used piano or inheriting a family heirloom. "People want the piano to look good in the room, but you also want it to sound as good as it looks," he says. "A black, satin finish -- or what we call ebony -- is one of our most popular cases for Steinway pianos."

A piano with a satin ebony finish complements different aesthetics -- from modern to traditional -- and adds to the home environment's harmony. Try to keep the piano out of direct sunlight, because ultra-violet rays may cause color fading and age the finish prematurely. Instead, illuminate the instrument by placing a grand piano under a chandelier or by setting a specialty lamp on or near an upright.

Designing a music room must begin with the piano and start at floor level. Acoustically, a piano will sound louder in a room with hardwood or tiled flooring. Conversely, the sound will be more subdued if a piano is placed on an area rug, surrounded by draperies, with a lowered lid on the grand piano. The placement of chairs and sofas is music to the ear when the seating arrangement works around the placement of the piano.

The cost of a piano -- whether you're buying a used one for thousands, or a new one for tens of thousands of dollars -- is an investment that requires regular maintenance. Have a piano tuned at least twice a year -- in the winter and summer -- after turning on the heating and air conditioning.

When not in use, keep a piano's lids and covers closed to minimize dust on working parts, which include the strings and keys. A piano's case can be dusted with a lightly dampened cloth -- using water, not furniture polish -- and wiped dry.

If maintained properly, a piano can be enjoyed for generations to come. "A piano in the home can evoke an emotional response, much like a beautiful painting," Berger says. "But, unlike a painting, a piano is a piece of living art, that -- once it is played -- can bring life to a home."

Resources that are music to the ear:

-- Piano Technicians Guild, www.ptg.org

-- Steinway & Sons, www.steinway.com

CAPTIONS AND CREDIT

(NOTE: These photos are for ONE-TIME use ONLY. At Home photos, with the proper credits, are to be run ONLY with At Home stories. Conversion to black and white is OK.)

(For editorial questions, please contact Clint Hooker at chooker@amuniversal.com or the Universal Uclick Editorial Department at -uueditorial@amuniversal.com)

RECLAIM THE LOST ROOM

Drive up your home's garage appeal by giving it a complete overhaul. Manufacturers are rolling out new garage organizing options that can transform it from a catchall to a cleared car park, as it was intended, and much, much more.

"The garage can become a neglected space in the house," says Marc Shuman, president of GarageTek, a proprietary garage organizational company, based in Melville, N.Y. "And it doesn't take long to load garages with junk, to the point where it can be hard to park the car inside."

An attached garage door -- rather than a home's front door -- has evolved into the primary way families move both in and out of the house. This means that keeping the garage a clean environment can become a safety issue, especially with children and seniors.

"You don't want paint thinner, antifreeze and sharp tools on the floor where people or pets can get hurt," Shuman says. "The more you can get things off the floor, the easier it is to organize the garage."

GarageTek has been in business for more than a decade and has 60 domestic territories with four international franchises. Shuman implements strategies he learned in a previous job as a designer of department store interiors, and applied those same concepts to garage organization. Using a "slatwall" system -- which features grooved channels like store display walls -- modular shelving, hooks, bins and cabinetry can slide into place without using nails.

Although GarageTek sells individual organizational pieces, an entire GarageTek personalized system -- as deemed by a professional consultant -- can be completed in days, but can come at a price of up to $12,000.

For those homeowners who know how they want their garage organized, home-improvement warehouses now have expanded garage sections, with choices of modular workbenches and cabinets on wheels. And local hardware stores can still be an excellent resource, selling pegboards and vinyl-covered utility hooks, which can be used to hang bicycles, support shelving or large tools.

No matter the level of your garage upgrade, Shuman says the first step to any home organizational project is to clear away the clutter. That means donating outgrown sporting gear, disposing of unused hazardous chemicals and discarding broken items that will never be fixed.

After everything is off the garage floor, Shuman says the project needs to begin from the ground up. Badly broken concrete flooring may need to be re-poured, but creating a clean surface can be as easy as installing an epoxy floor coating or laying interlocking, reinforced polypropylene tiles, designed for heavy-duty garage usage.

"The tiles come in many colors, so you can visually place them on the garage floor in the shape of a rectangle, to show where parked cars go," he says. "You can also have stops for tires placed on the floor, so drivers know where to park when pulling vehicles into the garage."

After shedding items from the garage, Shuman encourages homeowners to think of the space in terms of a department store layout. "One reason a garage can get cluttered quickly is that it can have many uses -- a gardening shed, sporting goods center, workshop with tool bench and storage unit," he says. "Figure out how you want the space to work and divide it into zones to organize like items together."

Working zones in the garage can include:

-- Tools -- Start with a tool bench to anchor the space and add tool chests, incorporating heavy-duty tools safely into the space. Mount most-used tools onto the wall or into easily accessible, clearly labeled drawers or cabinets.

-- Automotive -- Store motor oil, coolant and filters together in a cabinet that's out of the reach of children or pets.

-- Sports Center -- Ball-handling skills are easily practiced when bins are affixed to the wall. Hang up everything from baseball bats to golf bags and skis, with individualized lockers for each child as an option for personalized storage.

-- Lawn and Garden -- Rolling bins can store potting soil, mulch and fertilizer. For the homeowner with a green thumb, a potting station can anchor the space with gardening tools mounted on the wall.

-- Storage -- You only have to look up to create even more storage opportunities. Garage ceilings can vault up to 14 feet, which means a permanent platform, storage track system and hooks can be installed to keep items off the floor for good.

-- Trash/Recycling -- This zone should be close to the garage door, since these items will be brought curbside at least once a week.

A garage can be an open door into the family that occupies the home, says Shuman. "No organizational system can be successful if it is overloaded with useless items," he says. "People want inside their homes to be clean and safe, and now they are realizing that the garage is an extension of the home. How the garage looks and functions conveys a message about the rest of the home."

Source

Go-to Garage:

GarageTek, www.GarageTek.com, 866-664-2724

CAPTIONS AND CREDIT

(NOTE: These photos are for ONE-TIME use ONLY. At Home photos, with the proper credits, are to be run ONLY with At Home stories. Conversion to black and white is OK.)

(For editorial questions, please contact Clint Hooker at chooker@amuniversal.com or the Universal Uclick Editorial Department at -uueditorial@amuniversal.com)

PLAY AT HOME

A Victorian mini-mansion or a wee Cape Cod cottage can have "back" street appeal, which requires an invitation from the children of the house to visit.

A playhouse is a place for "kids to be kids," says Dan Schlabach, owner of Little Cottage Co., based in Berlin, Ohio. "A playhouse gives children a chance to escape and also to practice adult roles without TVs or other electronics," he says. "Kids can unplug in a playhouse."

Schlabach started his company in 2000, after designing Sara's Victorian Mansion to commemorate the birth of his daughter. Since then, he's sold assembled and shipped construction kits for playhouses internationally. "Grandparents and parents alike want playhouses for children to be able to make memories," he says. "We've found that the optimal ages for children to enjoy the playhouse are between 3 and 13 years old, and that time in a child's life goes all too fast."

If you want to set up a home-away-from-home in your backyard for children, there are a number of things to do before breaking ground on a bitty building. Schlabach says involving family members in the playhouse design helps to make it a little extension of the big house.

"People may try to have the architecture of the playhouse emulate that of the family's home, such as building a small playhouse cottage that looks like the big house," he says. "But we find that people -- instead of trying to match architectural styles -- are more inclined to match paint colors and roofing materials instead."

The location for the playhouse should be a relatively dry, partly sunny spot, built on slightly elevated ground, where rainwater does not collect. Often, playhouses are built on a crushed rock surface or a poured concrete pad.

Most playhouses are constructed in a home's backyard -- partly for privacy -- but sometimes, because a city or homeowner's association prohibits "accessory buildings" in the front yard.

"What we find is that playhouses are often exempt from local accessory building codes, which usually includes storage sheds," Schlabach says. "But the point is to check with local municipalities for building codes regarding playhouses before the little home-raising begins."

To create a grand child (or grandchild) getaway, have a playhouse plan that includes the itty-bitty blueprint, detailed and drawn up by consulting woodworking books or Internet sites.

There are also companies like Schlabach's, which will construct the playhouse of your dreams or ship construction kits that have precut boards and predrilled holes, and come with easy-to-follow directions for relatively easy assembly.

"Part of the whole allure of building a playhouse is that it usually brings generations of family together," Schlabach says. "Parents -- sometimes grandparents -- and children all get excited when the vision of having a playhouse starts to become a reality."

Playhouse guidelines to make a safe and special place for childhood memories can include:

-- Creating a traditional-style playhouse that can appeal to both girls and boys.

-- Using naturally rot-resistant lumber, such as cypress boards, and exterior-grade plywood for the structure, with hidden galvanized screws to avoid protruding points.

-- Sanding all square corners inside, creating air vents near the roof for ventilation and using shatter-proof materials for windows -- such as Plexiglas -- all help to make a playhouse comfortable and one that inhabits a danger-free zone.

After a playhouse in constructed, it's time for the children to help transform it into a home with personal touches, both inside and out.

Consider painting or staining the house using water-based products. Children can become interior decorators and gardeners by making curtains, filling flowerboxes or planting a small vegetable garden to tend.

And while child-sized furniture can be purchased, sawed tree stumps can serve as a rustic table and chairs. Interior wall decorations can include gluing mosaic tiles onto wooden planks or encouraging children to create a memory wall by creating a collage using pictures or magazine clippings, then coating it with polyurethane.

Sweetly landscaping with flowering dwarf trees, herb gardens, and wildflowers and perennials such as hollyhocks, Shasta daisies and poppies, add a finishing and fragrant touch.

The charm of a playhouse is that children can create their own private, perfect world, says Schlabach. "A playhouse can become a family heirloom -- one where parents build it for their children, who keep it for the next generation," he says.

Playhouse Plans

For more information, go to www.CottageKits.com or contact the Little Cottage Co. at 330-893-4212.

(For editorial questions, please contact Clint Hooker at chooker@amuniversal.com or the Universal Uclick Editorial Department at -uueditorial@amuniversal.com)