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While I am excitedly waiting for my new Kawai K300, I am wondering if you would suggest any accessories for upright pianos?

Do people usually use a fabric cover in the US? (I have a cat, not sure if a fabric cover will actually be an attraction or a protection.)

I plan to put the piano directly on the hardwood floor without a rug, should I be concerned for floor damage due to piano weight? Are caster cups a must?

Thank you!

I use caster cups on my hardwood floor.

Oh, and I don't have a rug under the piano either.

I have a fabric cover for each of mine. These range from a red velvet one for the upright in my office to a super tough waterproof one for the big piano in the ballroom. I think those are a good investment. Get a good light as well.

Yes, if you are concerned about marks on the hardwood floor cups are a very good idea. Fabric covers are a personal choice sort of thing, I like to just have a simple felt cover over the keys themselves so that I can leave the piano open and ready to use at all times rather than one of the (to my eyes ugly) full covers.

If you are looking for accessories to spend money on a good light is essential if your eyes are as bad as mine. I use a modern large area COB LED light that gives even illumination and doesn't throw shadows, plus you can adjust its brightness and colour temperature so it works well both in daytime and late evenings but there are many alternatives and styles.

I think a good lamp is a necessity. I bought this one:

Adesso 5090-22 Esquire LED Desk Lamp

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B007RM4HIA?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

and like it a lot. There are a lot of good reviews from pianists in that listing. It’s not cheap but it has a dimmer, which I use all the time to set the right light level. It is also high, with an adjustable head, which makes it easier to focus the light on the music. I have a hard time playing from music if I don’t have lighting on the page.

That’s the one I’m eyeing as well. Thanks for confirming it’s good!

With all the uprights I've had, I always had a .... what would you call it, a runner? I had it across the top of the piano, because I would put books and metronome etc. up there, and the runner protects the top from getting scratched.

Here's my piano room pre-grand. You can't tell from the photos, but the design on the runner is treble clefs that look like vines.





I also used to have little covers for the pedals, but they got packed away when we moved from Japan... I don't think I'd use them now, they look fussy to me, like lace doilies.

Wow your piano room and piano(s) look terrific. Using a music-styled runner across the top of your upright is as we used to say in olden days “too cool for school”

This is what I had on my upright in Japan! Except I put the fancy one in the middle.

Thank you j&j! I looks very different now with the grand

To the OP, I just searched for "table runner" on Amazon and there are a lot of different styles and sizes. So if you're wanting a cover for the upright, that's what I'd look for.

Re caster cups, in our rental house (where we had an old Baldwin upright) the casters were directly on the hardwood floor and it didn't seem to damage it (but the rental was pretty .. "run down" and the hardwood floors were already scratched so we weren't super careful). When I got the Petrof (the one in the photos above), it didn't have casters, but I put felt furniture pads underneath. And now I have regular piano caster cups under my grand.

The only thing to watch for with caster cups is that they will raise the piano a bit, so you will want an adjustable bench. (Well you probably want one anyway, casters cups or not).

Thank you NobleHouse, I will get caster cups.

Thank you gwing on the suggestions! Will see if my current lamp works for the new setting.
For the cover, I agree with you. I haven't seen anything particularly elegant after a quick search. But I have two little kids and a cat, I might have to compromise..

I really appreciate the link to the lamp! Looks like a great one for pianist from the users' photos.

ShiroKuro, your piano room looks so nice! Thank you for sharing the pictures. It inspires me to re-organize my space.
The table runner looks great and protects the surface without too much covering. I will order one. Thank you for the suggestions!

Good to know the casters did not damage the hardwood floor.
The bench will be adjustable. Hope the increased height won't impact the use of pedals.

Thank you!

Re the piano covering, yes, if you google "piano cover" a lot of the options are too much coverage (like, the cloth hangs down the front of the piano) or too fussy. But if you just look at runners, there are a lot of options that are much simpler. Since you have cats, something that's durable and washable would be good. And probably very easy to find, check home stores, dept. stores or Amazon.

Good luck!!

It’s been quite a few years since we’ve had kitties in our home. The ones we did have were incredibly athletic and I’m just picturing one of our natural athletes jumping from somewhere and digging claws into the beautiful runner and dragging the runner with the beautiful ornaments sitting on top crashing down on to the upright and onto to the floor. We always had to guy-wire our Christmas tree. Hopefully the OP’s kitties are not Dr. Destructo or Ms Mayhem in the piano room.

A hygrometer, dehumidifier and /or a humidifier may be useful ?
I am not sure you should keep these in the piano room.