Monday, July 13, 2015

Painted French Furniture for House Styling


Late last Thursday night my friend Marg popped in to buy some furniture. Marg is a stylist and had a job on with some long term clients and she wanted some of my furniture for it. She bought quite a few things including a couple of pieces that I hadn't even started so I had a busy night and morning getting everything finished for Friday 2pm when she needed it for. I got it done in time but had sore hands by the end.

Deconstructed French accent chairs - Some people don't get these chairs - they think they need to be finished but the whole point of these is to show the beautiful antique hessian (under) seat. Personally I love them and they are even quite comfortable to sit in. As accent chairs (used in corners of rooms) it's not as though you would be sitting to long in them anyway.



Here, below, is one in the corner of the house that is being styled for sale. The house is quite modern so Marg wanted some of my furniture in it to soften it and add some authenticity to it.



Marg also wanted a neutral coloured chest of drawers to balance out a bright red doona cover on one of the beds. I actually had a vintage chest of drawers on original castors in my car so I hauled it out and started painting. I also reupholstered the little french chair below for another of the rooms in the house for sale. It originally had purple velvet that was so dirty on it.


Here's the chest of drawers in situ. Marg still has to style the room and when the for sale listing is up I'll share the professional photos with you.



The little chair I upholstered in vintage French ticking. I inherited a lot of material from my mum who was a keen quilter and I found this in the stash of fabrics.  I thought this would just be a quick job as i didn't want to paint the chair as the patina on the chair was beautiful. However the wadding of the chair was all lumpy so I ended up stripping the chair back to the frame and applying new webbing etc. It took a lot of time but the results were worth it. I could have kept this little chair as I love it. For the time I just used some of the fabric and made some welting out of it by folding, ironing and sewing it. The photo below is a little fuzzy but I really didn't have time to take good photos (actually edited to say if you click on the photo it will open clear - it's the upload display)- it was a morning of go, go, go.



So that was my Friday! Luckily the kids were booked into a cartoon drawing day so I could work freely. Friday morning, I also had a delivery of a van load of furniture (7 pieces) to paint black for a couple who live in Mosman and are designing a monochromatic house. I managed to start painting several pieces before the kids came home.  I tell you, I slept well Friday night .

So I'm almost fully out of stock now. I have a couple of pieces still for sale but not many. This week I am also taking the beautiful french sideboard I finished last week to Embellish Atelier in Rozelle where it will grace Catherine's front window. It's for sale and hopefully will bring me some exposure as her shop is right next to one of the area's busiest bus stops. I'm grateful for this wonderful opportunity for my furniture business.

Fiona xx




6 comments:

  1. Phew, what a day . I love the french chair with the ticking - so classic, you cant beat classic can yo?.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Roberta, no you can't beat classics! Love them

      Delete
  2. Beautiful chairs, but drooling over the one with the French ticking. Love it with the natural wood.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Great work! Fiona, what colour is that small chest of drawers? Is it one from the ASCP range? Cheers, Liz.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Liz, it's a mix of a few creams and neutrals I had left in tins. She wanted a very neutral colour to complement the bold doona

      Delete

Thanks for taking the time to comment! Sorry if you have trouble commenting, you can always email me at lilyfieldlife@bigpond.com