Lounge room update but not for long

Change is as good as a holiday

Hello in the early afternoon! Yesterday I had to cancel my plans as I had a little one home sick for the day but it was nice to spend a quiet day at home (especially as I have a bit of a cold and thumping head myself). I decided to rearrange the lounge room although I probably was a bit ahead of myself as this morning I have sold the coffee table. However we won't be coffee-table-less for long as I have an old one ready for a makeover.

I usually place a cabinet or bookshelf along the side wall under the chalk board lady but I thought it might be nice to switch the lounge around. I've stated before that our lounge room is a hard shape as it's very wide and not that deep. One half is where we have the tv and aubergine lounges and the other half acts as a sitting room.

Soon (well within the next two years - no rush with these things, you know!) we will be knocking the whole back of the house off - this is a bit of a dogdy fibro add on with a badly poured cement slab that I painted white and a sloping roof with hideous fluro strip lights. The double doors you see above are into what would have been originally an outside toilet. It is now a tiny, tiny laundry that is almost impossible to use as it also houses our vacuum cleaner, suitcases, the ironing board etc. I have to pull everything out to put the washing on. Anyway such a first world problem.

The wooden chest above houses my paints and tolls that I'm using for current projects. It saves me dragging everything back out to the shed at night - and means the house at least looks tidy when I'm not mid-project.  I love the old lettering and patina on this. A good little spot to rest your drink on also.

I am not a fan of overhead lights in the evening. Especially in this room as they are two huge double neon strips. We have lived with the lighting for 10 years as it just isn't worth replacing when we will eventually rebuild this room.  We have several lamps scattered around and candles. This Moroccan hanging lantern is a recent purchase, second hand from the talented and creative Miss Melissa and Mr Charlie of the InnerWest Vintage Garage Sale. If you love old junk and special treasures then join their popular facebook page. They run an auction most evenings and you can get some wonderful treasures on the cheap.

This is a beautiful Victorian cabinet that was my parent's. It has always been by their front door whichever house they have had. I really love the amazing carvings. Such workmanship.  I am hesitant to put stuff in the cupboard. It would really ake it mine then - another step of accepting Mum's passing. Weird I know. I have had a couple of friends whose parent have died in the last few weeks. It is so sad but I suppose to be expected now we are in our mid-40s.  It just makes me appreciate my dad even more - he's fit and well and busy with life. He even keeps me on my toes by letting me know of any grammatical errors or typos on my blog - Love you, Dad!

And even my kids approve of the new layout. As soon as we got home from an appointment late yesterday afternoon, they grabbed their books and snuggled up in the new area.  We are without any form of heating at the moment as I've left it so late to get our gas heater serviced - the lovely long Sydney summer had me fooled. So we are all wrapped up in blankets of an evening. Anyway, I much prefer this environmentally friendly and snuggly way of staying warm.

I am coming up to my 400th post very soon and will be hosting a give-away.  I really appreciate all the support you give me. 

Have a lovely weekend.  I am looking forward to sitting on the couch and having a cup of coffee while the morning sun streams in.  (after all the kids' sport  tomorrow I should find some time to do that.)

Fiona xx

My French Inspired Coffee Table for sale

Phil and I have decided to make a few changes in our lounge room. You know they do say a change is as good as a holiday - and so I am selling our French inspired coffee table.  I've had a lot of people ask about this lovely coffee table over the last year  so I'm sure it won't last long.

It is an interesting and unusual shape with lots of carved details. The legs are gorgeous with claw and ball feet. The  coffee table had been antique glazed to bring out the details and then top coated with a beautiful Porters Paints sealer for durability.

It is very good condition - I have to say I mainly use it for folding clothes on! Dimensions are: 120cm by 70 cm wide by 40cm high.  Let me know if you are interested.

I am half way through painting some beautiful French drawers (in Paris Grey and Pure White) and a lovely simple chest of drawers in Duck Egg Blue. However I'm not making much progress this week to be honest with lots of family stuff going on. It's all good but the normal mother duties busy, you all know how it is I'm sure - sports, general appointments, some business consulting work, a car servicing, a sick child etc. But that's okay, no rush on these things. Painting furniture is my hobby and passion, not my mainstay.

I hope you are all having a good week also.

Fiona xx

A beautiful French Armoire (Cabinet and Drawers)

If I was prone to swooning and sighing over homewares, this is one piece definitely worthy of that behaviour. Fortunately I'm not the sighing type  - I usually just stroke furniture, buy it, paint it and sell it. 

This is a beautiful cabinet with four dovetailed drawers and a handy cupboard. I was extremely tempted to keep this for myself. It looks fantastic in my bedroom and I would love it also in a big bathroom to store some towels and linens. However my attitude is to sell and pass on the goodness -I'll just enjoy it while I mind it for a while. 

The patina on this piece is beautiful - it is aged to perfection. I love all the details, the carvings, the handles and its practicality.

I took the photos last night as the light was fading in my bedroom so sorry they aren't the best but I think this piece of furniture will stand up for itself  poor quality photos regardless.  I should have set up my tripod but I was too excited and in a hurry to start snapping away.

She's beautiful, don't you think?

It sold really quickly last night. Off to its new home on Friday. Just as I sold it, Phil walked in and said WOW, it's beautiful. Why aren't you keeping it?

damn...

oh well, I'll just admire it till Friday.

Fiona xx

Shabby Chic White Bedside Tables

Hello!

I hope you've been able to enjoy a relaxing weekend. The weather here in Sydney was beautiful once again. We spent time in working the garden and I did a lot of sewing - table cloths and cushions. We even had a kid-free evening on Saturday - a couple of hours anyway. One kid was at a party and the other went to friends' for dinner so Phil and I went to a little wine bar in Rozelle for a few mojitos and some bar food (although I must be getting old as I was shocked by the price of the drinks - $64 for the four mojitos. WTF?) I glad we don't go out drinking very often! But it was very nice to be out, just the two of us, in a different environment. I think time like that, even a couple of hours, keeps your marriage fresh, doesn't it? 

After drinks, we strolled along hand in hand to the little section of shops halfway between Rozelle and Balmain and checked out the windows of Malcolm's Antiques, No Chintz, Quintessential Duck Egg Blue etc. Beautiful stuff but expensive.  Shop rents are so very high around here, I'm not surprised that the stuff the shops are selling are expensive also... I recently looked at a little shop for lease near the kids school a while ago but they wanted $40,000 a year in rent and it's not even in a major shopping area - 4 little shops and a couple of cafes next to a small park so not much shopping traffic...and so I continue to just sell my stuff from home and the internet.

Last week I painted these two bedsides tables but I thought they were a bit plain. The gorgeous Sandy from Paint Me White was here at my house on Friday afternoon/evening so I asked what she thought and she said to distress them. So over the weekend I shabbied them up and I'm happy with them so they are now for sale.  They are well made and in good order. Three spacious drawers that are on timber runners.

By the way, have you read Mitch Albom's Tuesdays with Morrie - I read it a few years ago and really recommend it for a different perspective on life. Right up my alley.

Sandy was in Sydney for some work on Friday - she is so busy now with her new painting and shop ventures that I'm not sure how she is keeping it all together but she is doing so well. Phil came home on Friday night and said he was a bit scared when he walked in that she and I might have painted everything that didn't move in the house.  We just laughed and said, no we'd been chatting too much.  it was so good to spend some time with her. Love that woman!

I also spent some time painting some beautiful frames that I'm making into chalkboards and they'll be for sale soon. I have a lot of little things, old boxes, frames, hooks etc that I'll be selling soon, so if you are in the market for some pretty things stay tuned.

In the meantime do you know anyone who wants some shabby chic white bedside tables?

Fiona xx

Details:

Bedside tables - my parents, they were stained a dark mahogany colour

Primer: Zinsser waterbased Bullseye 123

Paint: Dulux Whisper White

Top Coat: Howards Wax n Feed

Jug: Ikea

Ampersand: Typo

Glass Lantern: The Works, Bed Bath n Table

Original Art work by John Downton

BTW The painting is a bit damaged as you can see by the photos, does anyone know how I can fix it - the canvas board got wet.

Our Garden in Autumn

Don't come here looking for beautiful autumn leaves and colour. Sydney has let go of summer very slowly this year. The leaves may not be beautiful but the days are still spectacular! I find that autumn is a great time to tidy and prepare the garden for the next growing season, so I'm getting stuck into it.

It certainly doesn't feel like late autumn in our garden. Check out the blue, blue skies.

There are a few leaves on the ground but our frangipani tree is still in bloom. I think this warm weather has it all confused.  I love this tree that bends over our backyard from the fence-line and provides a corner of shade in the heat of summer.

I spent a long time espaliering this lime tree and it sits very neatly along our side fence. Such a great way to save space in a small garden. Our lime tree has been abundant this year but our lemon tree suffered from scale very badly and is still recovering. I need to re-administer my father's remedy soon. There are a quite a few beautiful big lemons, but not as many as I would hope for. Fingers crossed for next year.

The iceberg roses are also still blooming. I was thinking of planting a few different rose bushes (some lush pink ones with the huge blooms?) but I will wait now until we renovate as I'm sure the backyard will get a bit damaged once the building is under way. We will finally remove the old fibro sheds - the question will be where to store all my French chairs and tools?

Our chickens are happy with a little rearrangement in their penned area. I love hearing their little clucks throughout the day. Although our white chicken, Cloud, is such a naughty character. We used to call her Houdini as she is very good at escaping. A few days ago she dug a hole under the fence and escaped into the back neighbours' yard. They have a huge dog, (that barks non stop and drives me a bit nuts!) but Cloud managed to escape the dog and jumped another fence to our other back neighbours , luckily they called out to me that our chicken was in their yard. They caught her and chucked her back over our fence and she is now happily back in her area with the hole under the fence all patched up! 

I get a lot of questions about how we keep our chickens - We currently have three - the black one is an Austrolorp, named Layla; the white is a White Leghorn named Cloud and the golden one is an Isa Brown named Bucket. All these breeds are very good consistent layers.  We don't have a fancy pen or anything flash - behind our sheds is a little corner that is fully contained by the fences and the old shed. It has a small opening that we have an old screen door we found on the side of the road that we use to access the area. We have a dirt ground and a netted roof. I have one small section that stays dry by using a piece of colorbond roofing and they have an old dog house (also found on the side of the road) and an old cupboard as shelter. They nest under an old Ikea plastic rocker that leans against the shed.  It was all low cost and simple to construct. There is plenty of room and they love the dirt underfoot to "bathe" in.

I love their eggs.

So fresh.

This weekend I'll be adding tidying up the garden bed under the frangipani tree by adding more soil and compost and planting lots of ranunculus and anemones bulbs.  Some work now for lots of blooms in springtime.

Do you keep chickens? Aren't they just the best! 

If you don't have chickens yet but are interested here is more on Why I keep backyard chickens.

Do you have a big garden - or a postage stamp like ours? I would love a massive garden but I really love living in the inner west and our street so it's probably never going to happen. In the mean time I just try and make our small garden as abundant and relaxing as possible.

My little slice of country life in the inner city suburbs.

Fiona xx

our garden in the Spring

Romantic Homes Magazine June 2013 - Lilyfield Life

Thanks for all the lovely feedback on my mirror - I shouldn't have been worried that you might not like that I painted cedar - I've already had so many offers to buy it but I am going to hold off for a while and have it at home, then I'll be selling it to Wendy who responded first. I will definitely be on the look out for another one.

I'm just popping in today quickly to let you know that I've had two nice things happen PR wise for my furniture and blog recently. 

Firstly my painted furniture was featured in the American magazine, Romantic Homes in the June 2013 edition. I haven't seen a copy yet but Sandy from Paint Me White sent me a photo. Sandy recently had one of her photos of her beautiful furniture grace the magazine cover!  Also in the magazine this month was Karen from Restyled Vintage so it's lovely to be sharing the lime-light with a friend.

Thank you to Beth Livesay for the inclusion. I am looking forward to seeing the magazine. I am really delighted and honoured to see my blog and furniture alongside that of other talented bloggers.

And thank you to all those people who have already contacted me saying they found out about my blog from the magazine. Welcome and I hope you enjoy it all.

I also made the Skinny Scoops Top 25 Home Décor blog list. I am very grateful for the nomination and those people who voted for me. I am not sure how many people were entered into the competition as I certainly don't think that Lilyfield Life blog rates that highly compared to a lot of other blogs but it's lovely to get recognition of my work. The extremely lovely and talented Ness from Marley & Lockyer took out top spot. Well deserved, Ness. 

By the way - the tablecloth in the magazine, the blue/grey striped one, is for sale here.

This morning I'm finishing off a cute rustic table and hopefully starting on the French dresser - I need help lifting the 1.8m of glass off it so couldn't start it yesterday.

cheers 

Fiona xx