Once the favourite of Chopin and Debussy, the world’s oldest piano maker, Pleyel, has been hard hit by competition from Asia – so to adapt the firm is venturing into new territory: Designer furniture.

Founded at the turn of the 19th century, Pleyel is now a niche player, producing just 25 grand pianos a year – down from 1,700 a decade ago – but it still holds 200 years of expertise in fine marquetry and luxury woodworking.

The smell of varnish fills the air as cutting and pressing machines hum and pump in Pleyel’s factory in Saint Denis, outside the French capital, and skilled hands sand and put finishing touches to the models.

“In this factory we have 15 people doing 20 different jobs. Many cabinet makers, lacquer and varnishing experts, a lot of know-how that we use to make instruments,” Arnaud Marion, artistic director at Pleyel, said.

“And we realised we had reached such a high level of expertise in these fields, that it seemed a good idea to use it to make pieces of high-class furniture.”

`To make its mark, Pleyel has enlisted the help of top French and international designers such as Italian star Michele de Lucchi – who worked on a metal display case that would go sit nicely next to a grand.

And of course he also designed the piano itself – a steep learning curve for someone who doesn’t play.

“It’s an adventure, a surprising opportunity that life presented me with, because I’d never thought of designing a piano,” Mr De Lucchi said .

“Bit by bit I discovered what you can’t change when you make a piano, and what are the details that can be modified,” said the long-bearded designer, inspecting the solid wood model.

Before teaming up with De Lucchi, the manufacturer first asked a US designer, Hilton McConnico, to design a piano-shaped sofa dubbed “Pleyel” for it several years back, which it started producing this year on demand.

Looking ahead, it has asked five French designers – Patrick Jouin, Olivier Gagnere, Bruno Moinard, Patrick Noguet and Noe Duchaufour-Lawrance – to create a high-end furniture line to be presented at the Milan fair in 2012.