A limed white coffee table

As soon as I picked up this vintage coffee table, I knew my vision for it. Sometimes you an achieve your vision for certain pieces because they bleed, have a funny construction or they work weirdly with paint etc but this piece played along very nicely with me and my trusty paint brush.

A painted base and a limed top. I just love it especially as it still shows the lovely quartefoil timber arrangement on the top. A shame to cover that up with paint.

Saying that, sanding off the original varnish on this piece nearly killed me :)  I decided to do it last Thursday afternoon. Such a hot day but I was determined to get it done - sweat pouring off me but i think it was worth it to see the lovely pale timber underneath that damaged ugly old varnish.

and after priming the base and stripping the top.

I then used a proper liming white to lime wash the top. You can achieve this look using lots of different products (watered down paint, a liming white product, caustic soda or liming wax). I used what I had on hand and liming white gives a lovely result with minimal hassle. Once I had done two passes I then left it to dry and then gave it two top coats of clear wax. I painted the base in a lovely Porters Paint white. My favourite white paint at the moment. The base was also top coated with clear wax and sanded silky smooth but not distressed.

The main trick with liming something is to ensure you have absolutely bare raw timber so sanding is so important. Do not skip preparation. It will make all the difference to your finished product.

I'm really happy with the result and it sold right away. I actually saw a friend of the buyer yesterday afternoon at AFL training and she said the buyer is my new number one fan so that's nice.

I have a few homewares for sale like this beautiful whit scalloped jug - 23cm tall $38. The bunch of 5 white faux peonies $40. 

Both pickup Lilyfield or postage available.

I also scored this divine mirror last week. vintage French and so beautiful but I decided to sell it. I would love to keep it but business is business and I think I may as well sell things when I can.

I have some beautiful pieces coming up. I have started a facebook group page in conjunction with my facebook page. You can join in to see the latest pieces for sale at 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/lilyfieldlife/

The group allows better visibility for people to see my latest items for sale.

Many thanks as always

Fiona xx