Hasta La Ideas

For as long as we have been married, I’ve told my husband I want a piano. We haven’t purchased one because pianos take up a lot of space, and when you live a relatively minimalist lifestyle, space is limited. Pianos also require professional movers to transport, have to be tuned annually (or more often, based on the model), upset your neighbors when you practice if you share a wall/floor/ceiling, and they don’t fit through all doorways. Even though I regularly said I wanted a piano, I didn’t really want one — at least not a traditional piano.

Then came along our tenth wedding anniversary and my amazing husband found the perfect gift for a minimalist who constantly said she wanted a piano.

This is the Roland DP-990. It is a digital piano with 88 full-size, weighted keys that folds up to be a narrow (less than 14″ deep) side table.

These pictures do not properly illustrate how inconspicuous this piano is. It isn’t obvious it is a piano when it is closed up and used as a side table. In addition to its powers of transformation, it doesn’t require professional movers to relocate. My husband and I easily carried it into the house and assembled it. Since it is digital, it doesn’t have to be tuned. You can turn down the volume or plug headphones into its jack so that no one else can hear you while you practice. It even comes with clips on the back of the unit that hide the two cables so it’s not obvious it is a digital piano. It’s sleek, practical, beautiful, and so much more convenient than a regular piano.

My husband purchased an adjustable piano bench that folds flat for storing in our coat closet when we want the piano to be used as a table. This makes the piano even more small-space friendly (and kid friendly, since my son and I are significantly different heights). The lid that covers the keys also has a slow-drop mechanism, perfect for not squashing a toddler’s fingers.

If you’ve been looking for a piano to work with your streamlined and/or uncluttered lifestyle, I recommend considering a piano like the Roland DP-990. I really like the way it sounds and the way it fits into our home and lifestyle. I’m also thankful to my husband for being such a conscientious anniversary gift giver and finding exactly the right gift for this Unclutterer. (He also got it on sale through one of our local piano stores because there is a newer model than this one now available — the DP-990F — so be sure to check for discounts and special offers.)

All of the images are from Roland. The ones I took in our house didn’t come out well at all.

Like this site? Buy Erin Rooney Doland’s Unclutter Your Life in One Week from Amazon.com today.

TB01 is handicrafted in the spirit of living materials.AA quality solid oak wood, legs attached with “invisible” magnetic screws. Table is detachable ..

Dutch Design Week 2011: components for this furniture by Rotterdam designers Minale-Maeda can be downloaded, 3D-printed and assembled locally. 

Consumers can download the blueprints for each piece and alter the dimensions to suit.

The required connecting components could be 3D-printed locally and the sheet materials cut to size at a hardware store.

Each piece is designed for simple assembly and to explicitly display its construction.

Minale-Maeda aim to give consumers more control and reduce energy expended in transporting whole items of furniture.

The project is on show at After the Bit-rush: Design in a Post Digital Age curated by Eindhoven cultural institute MU, who also commissioned the Temporary Trees in our earlier story.

Dutch Design Week continues until 30 October. See all our stories about the event in our special category.

Here are some more details from the designers:

Designed specifically to be downloadable in order to reduce environmental issues related to transport, costs of stock keeping and explore collaborative design and distribution, this furniture can be edited in size and materials, is made on location or can be self-made by downloading the blueprints. The concept was to turn the pieces inside out to make construction simple, while brackets and structural details become distinctive and attractive features. The connections are 3d printed to suit various sizes of wood, and the crafting is minimal requiring only cutting to length and drilling.

Material: wood, polyamide

See also:

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Temporary Trees at Dutch Design Week	City Music at Dutch Design Week	Kids’ Furniture at Dutch Design Week

Qubique 2011: look carefully at these tables by Berlin-based collective llot llov and you’ll see that there’s a mirror in the wooden under-frame.

llot llov present the tables as part of Ventura Berlin at new design fair Qubique, which continues in Berlin until 29 October.

A mirror recessed in the inner of two crossing frames reflects the facing legs, tricking the eye into thinking there is nothing there.

From a distance the illusion is almost unnoticeable but the viewer appears in the reflection as they near the table.

The folding frame is made from solid beech and slots into round holes in the glass surface.

Coloured glass filters coloured light on the floor.

Here’s some more information from the designers:

If you look at the Elias & Son tables from afar, the mirrors that are attached within the inner frames are making it seem as if you could see through the rods.

The struts facing the viewer are mirrored so that they think of it as the one that’s further away and accept the illusion unnoticed.

Only when one nears the table is one’s perception irritated. The viewer is mirrored through his movement and creates the illusion of the resolution.

This is the moment we wanted to design – a moment of surprise, of realisation, of understanding and childlike happiness to have discovered the attempted deceit. The bottom part and the table top are simply interlocking. The frame is made of beechwood and can be folded easily. The coloured glass plates create a play of colours on the floor.

See also:

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Pond by Nendo for Moroso	6×3 Burr Puzzle Table by Petar Zaharinov	Missing Pieces by Rupert McKelvie

3D Table is based on a minimal and easy-to-use production process. Indeed, each frame is formed using only 3 identical elements.