Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Two turquoise pieces - such a splash of colour


When I painted the piece of furniture that Wagner Australia bought and gave away on my facebook page, the marketing manager asked for me to paint the piece in a bold bright colour. I love bright splashes of turquoise so I went to my local paint shop and checked out the colour range. I chose Dulux Porpoise Place but it's not the exact colour I ended up with. I first selected a semi gloss acrylic but it was way too shiny for my liking so I went back and aimed to get the same colour in a flatter sheen but the guy at the hardware shop mixed the colour into the wrong base colour. Porpoise Place is meant to be on a Ultra Deep base but the hardware guy accidentally mixed it in a Deep base. So I then mixed both my tins together to get a mid sheen, mid colour paint and it turned out perfectly. A custom mistake!


Above is a close up of the French desk before I lightly distressed it. My client Nicole had asked me to find her daughter a french style dressing table that I could turn into a desk for her daughter. A few weeks later I found this stunning walnut piece. Usually these dressing tables only have two drawers on each side and longer legs but I was thrilled to find this one with 7 drawers in total. Nicole loved it and asked for me to paint it in this turquoise/teal. I always get confused with turquoise, aqua, teal etc and never know what exactly to call them and this colour proves difficult to capture in a photo anyway but trust me it's gorgeous.


I replaced the original hardware with crystal knobs. There's also a beautiful piece of glass to go on the top which I think will be good for a desk to protect the paint work.

When Nadine, another facebook follower, saw this desk she asked if I had any small pieces for a hall table and could I paint it in the same colour as her hallway need a bright piece.  I had a gorgeous vintage music cabinet in my stash which she loved.



Pretty ugly in my opinion in it's original finish especially paired with those gold star knobs.  I painted the whole thing, inside and out with the turquoise paint mix and added little silver knobs. In progress below. For both pieces, so I didn't need to use a primer (as I didn't want any white peaking through) I used the first coat with a custom mix ASCP. The custom mix is one I did ages ago and I had enough to use as a base coat for both pieces but not to do three coats on each. It's probably close to Florence but more blue and then I did two coats of the acrylic paint. 


And finished.


The details on this piece are lovely also. The little silver disc covers the original gramophone winder holes.


So if you love this colour and want to replicate it, I would get the hardware shop to mix Dulux Porpoise Place into a deep base in a satin finish. It won't be exactly this colour but close enough. Dulux Waikiki might also be an option.

Just to finish I thought I'd share some photos from the weekend at the beach. I think this summer will be a hot one and when I'm not working you will find me here...




sharing at 
Miss Mustard Seed

Friday, November 21, 2014

My hand painted french furniture in situ

I love seeing where my furniture ends up, especially when it's beautiful french furniture that I was honoured and thrilled to paint. I recently visited a client's new house and she owns three pieces that I've painted. Two were custom pieces that she found and brought to me for painting and the third she purchased from me. 


Actually I'm not sure I ever blogged about this lovely demilune french cabinet. I don't even think I have a before photo but it was extremely shiny. I painted it in ASCP French Linen. I sanded it a lot and it is so smooth and lovely.  Here is the cupboard before hand. I bought it relatively cheaply because it had a big chunk out of the door. I fixed it with builders bog and painted it.



Sam has beautiful taste and a lovely home. It's such a thrill to see my painted furniture in such a gorgeous home.


Details of this lovely sideboard can be found here.

These photos were taken three days after they had moved into their new home so I was so impressed with how quickly Sam had unpacked and got the house looking gorgeous.


The third piece is a desk that will live in the guest room which wasn't ready so I'll just share the photo when it was at my place below.



I thought I'd also share some photos of the lovely spring trees around Lilyfield. I love this time of year. Still loving the early morning runs. I'm slowly getting better. Slowly but surely.




Enjoy your day
Fiona xx

Thursday, November 20, 2014

TV Cabinet turned French Armoire

Sorry for my absence; does any one even notice?? :) but I've been painting, renovating and recruiting this week and also I started running again so when I normally make time for blogging, I've been sleeping soundly! and relaxing at night in front of a bit of Dexter on Netflix. Bliss. I'm a happy woman, always am, but especially these days. Anyway onto a recent project...

Home decor by Lilyfield Life Sydney

Paint is a pretty incredible thing. One of the main things I love about it is that it takes away a lot of the fuss of a piece and tones it all down. Take for example this TV cabinet. 

How to paint a TV cabinet

When I bought this several people wondered why. I even had one regular customer who I showed it to and she wasn't interested but when she saw it finished she was desperate for it but it was already sold. When you are buying furniture to paint you have to look past all the fuss of the timber and just look at the overall shape. I loved the fat bottom of this piece and thought that it could get past its humble beginnings as a tv cabinet and become something else quite special.

Even with it's first coat it looked better (in my opinion)

painted tv cabinet by Lilyfield Life

Once the first coat was on I moved it inside to be relatively dust free. I can't wait for our renovations to be finished and to not have to paint next to my bed any more.. or perhaps to not have to sleep next to where I paint. Luckily I have a patient husband.


I painted this piece in Annie Sloan Chalk Paint (ASCP) Paris Grey with white highlights.

painted Tv cabinet French provincial style by Lilyfield Life

I used dark wax to antique the piece and lightly distressed it to being out some of the detail. Inside I used a teal for a lovely pop of colour. 

painted Tv cabinet French provincial style by Lilyfield Life

I made shelves out of some left over fascia board from my neighbour's renovations. Nothing like using what you have to keep your costs down.

painted Tv cabinet French provincial style by Lilyfield Life

Here are some details.


painted Tv cabinet French provincial style by Lilyfield Life

painted Tv cabinet French provincial style by Lilyfield Life

painted Tv cabinet French provincial style by Lilyfield Life

On the renovation front, this week the eaves are going in and the downstairs roof struts are going in place. The roof tilers are booked for Monday week and we all can't wait till we can get rid of the tarp.

cheers Fiona xx


Friday, November 14, 2014

a Linen Press, a hall table and a coffee table

I have a couple pf pieces of furniture to share with you today: one to sell, one custom job and one I may just keep myself.

painted vintage linen press by Lilyfield Life

I gave this linen press I much needed new finish. The  original red stain was very dated but the size of this cupboard is very practical and I love the internal fit out. 

painted vintage linen press by Lilyfield Life

painted vintage linen press by Lilyfield Life

I painted this piece in what I call a Restoration Hardware look. You can find my instructions for achieving this look here. The inside is painted ASCP Duck Egg.  I can imagine so many use for this gorgeous piece. Kitchen/linen/bedroom/hallway storage. Dimensions are 96cm wide, 177cm tall and 38 cm deep. $485 pickup Lilyfield 

painted vintage linen press by Lilyfield Life

painted vintage linen press by Lilyfield Life

painted vintage linen press by Lilyfield Life

Yesterday I also finished a black hall table for Kim. This table had been painted silver and was covered in kids' paint, texta and bumps. So refreshed now.


black french provincial hall table by Lilyfield life

I also picked up a couple of lovely shaped coffee tables this week.  A few need painting but I've decided to keep this parquetry one for us for a while. So now I have too many coffee tables but once our new lounge room is finished I will work out which ones I actually want to keep.

Lilyfield Life french provincial coffee table

I have been working with the builders getting the roof trusses ready for our house. I think the roof framing might be finished today. The roof tilers are booked for two weeks time. Sasha and I also keep the builders supplied with cake and scones. Life is too short to not have morning tea. Even on a building site. Thank goodness my kitchen is still fully functional.

french provincial kitchen by Lilyfield life


Have a great day.
Fiona xx


french provincial coffee table

Thursday, November 13, 2014

I love these drawers

Do I have a find for you!  These drawers are so old but oh so beautiful. Wow, I can't believe they found their way to me as I'm going to enjoy doing them up so much.

beautiful vintage walnut drawers

beautiful vintage walnut drawers

They need loving and I have an whole lotta love to give!  

The shape of the drawers are so lovely. Beautiful timber - walnut veneer and walnut inside as well. So well made but a few chips here and their showing it's age. 

beautiful vintage walnut drawers


beautiful vintage walnut drawers

Actually they are pretty filthy as I was so excited to pull them out of the car and photograph them but I'll clean them all up before I paint them. I am also more than happy to sell unpainted if you are interested in them. 

Any suggestions on what to do with them? Colour schemes? paint/leave as is?
I'd love to hear your opinion.
Fiona xx


french homewares by Lilyfield Life

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Second floor and a pretty mirror


I'm so behind in sharing projects that I almost don't know where to start. The house has been zooming along and I'm so impressed with our wonderful builder Sam and his apprentices, Paddy, Carla and Murray. Seriously if you are in Sydney and need a good builder I can 100% recommend him. Such a nice guy and I've now seen him build three houses and his work is impeccable. Last week the builders finished the frames for the second storey walls that they just build and stacked on the floor in what will be our master bedroom. Then on Monday they worked a 12 hour day and ripped off the roof (tiles were already off) and erected every wall for the second floor and then we spent a couple of hours tugging three circus tents over the whole lot in case of rain.


This is the back of the house with the three french doors off the lounge room and the master bedroom up above. The roof will actually be a little higher than that as the roof trusses aren't on yet. We just created a false pitch so water doesn't pool on the circus tent.


Sam and Carla bracing the frames for the children's bedrooms above.  Below I am standing in what is the children's bathroom looking through to the stair well and the master bedroom. 


View from the master bedroom. Three nice big windows to replicate the three french doors below in the lounge room.


From the master bedroom looking through ensuite on left, stair well on right and then down the hallway to children's bedrooms.


Views from Master bedroom. Those sheds below are in our backyard and will eventually be pulled down and replaced with a much smaller shed.


Friends over for dinner on the building site!


My job today is sanding and painting the rafter tails. These timbers will make up the roof trusses and because our house has exposed rafter tails It's much easier to sand off the treated timber ridges and prime them when they are not on the roof. Sam, our builder, reckons these are going to be the best sanded and painted rafter tails he's ever seen. Nothing like having a furniture painter in the house. This is a tiny fraction of what I have to do today so I had better get cracking.


If you don't know what rafter tails are then this is what they look like in situ below- an original feature of our house.


And now for a pretty mirror that I painted for a lovely customer Louise. A few years ago Louise bought a pretty white sideboard from me. She recently picked up a Balinese mirror on Ebay and asked me to paint it white as she wants to hang it over the sideboard.

Painted mirror Lilyfield Life

I'll share that cabinet you can see in the mirror tomorrow.


Have a great day. To be honest I am feeling a little overwhelmed already about today as I have too much furniture, a lot of building work to do, I'm also phone interviewing for a medical administration role and packing for Jonty to go to camp. Sometimes I wonder why I load myself up with so much work but I think it's better than being bored. 

Fiona xx

Painted mirror