Kelly Wearstler's first-ever piano features sensual and unexpected curves
American interior designer Kelly Wearstler has made her first foray into musical instruments with Timbra, a rimless piano informed by the fluidity of sand dunes.
Los Angeles-based Wearstler designed the sculptural instrument for British bespoke piano brand and longterm collaborator Edelweiss. It is her interpretation of a traditional grand piano.
The interior designer told Dezeen that the focus for her first piano was "learning to design with the instrument rather than around it".
"The piano has its own logic, its own non-negotiables," she said. "The sound has to be protected."
Wearstler chose wood, which is typically used to construct pianos thanks to its acoustic qualities, for Timbra. She selected birch, a material often found in the multi-layered residential and hospitality projects that have put her on the map.
The piano's exterior is characterised by undulating edges, including its strikingly curvaceous lid formed from a slab of birchwood veneer that was CNC-milled to precision.
The instrument's CNC-milled birchwood veneer body and legs are equally rounded and rimless, as is its accompanying curved timber piano stool.
"Natural forms were always the starting point," explained the designer, who layered the wood to create an instrument designed to echo wild landscapes.
"Water, sand dunes, the way things move organically," she added. "I was thinking a lot about fluidity, and how sound itself moves through space."
"Curves do something very specific to a design," continued Wearstler. "They're sensual, they're unexpected, and they force you to think completely differently about grain, about light, about how someone moves around an object."
The designer said that she was drawn to the way birch responds to carving, and how "the grain reveals itself in the most unexpected and beautiful ways".
Timbra is available in five translucent finishes – natural, sage, burgundy, blue or grey. Sitka spruce was selected for the soundboard, while inside, the piano is supported by a patented welded steel frame.
While this is Wearstler's first musical instrument, she said the idea was informed by her previous collaborations with Edelweiss, as she has placed the brand's pianos in many of her interior spaces.
"Every single time, I found myself wanting to push further, not just placing a piano in a space but really questioning what it could be," reflected Wearstler.
"A piano isn't just an instrument, it's a presence in a room," she added. "It changes everything around it."
Wearstler recently applied her love of wood to Kappo, a charred-cypress-clad French and Japanese restaurant at the Austin Proper Hotel in Texas.
The photography is by Giulio Ghirardi.
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