Painted vintage bedroom furniture Lilyfield Life

Hope you are having a wonderful weekend. I’m trashed this afternoon after bootcamp at 7am today. Amy had us doing hill sprints and then loss of push-ups, burpees and squats. My fitness is improving every day but it’s a tough gig :) 

I thought I’d share some recent pieces I have painted. These beautiful drawers for a fresh white makeover. 

I used rub n buff in the handles to spruce them up. I love this look. So fresh and bright. I have used a satin enamel on these drawers so they are easy to clean and take care of. 

The drawer interiors were pristine so I left them timber. Someone asked why I didn’t paint them but if I can save some work which in turn saves the buyer money then that’s good news. 

These beautiful vintage bedsides in pale grey were bought by a customer in Toowoomba. 

With this matching bench.

These bench is from Denmark. It was actually a weird low console. 

It looked nice but was a weird height, too high for a bench, too low for a dressing table. So I removed the middle section and turned it into a bench. I painted it pale grey to match the bedsides and off it went to Toowoomba also. 

I thought I’d also share this incredible mirror I sold. It was such a beautiful piece. Just amazing!

Thanks for all your lovely comments and emails. I’m a bit behind in responding but will get on top of things soon.

Hope you have a beautiful weekend 

Fiona xx

Vintage Danish Cabinet makeover

Good morning, well the kids are back to

school today. Sasha Year 12 and Jonty year 10.  Good luck if you have a little one starting school this year.  I’ll be glad to get back into a prosper routine as far as work goes as it’s been quite sporadic this least 6 weeks. I did paint this lovely piece from Europe last week. 

Such a pretty piece. I painted the interior in a low sheen water based enamel in a sea foam and the exterior in a satin enamel in a pale grey. 

The door was solid when I bought it but the panel had three big splits in it so I removed the panel and replaced with wire.

 

Handy top drawer also, both door and drawer lockable with original key.

Here’s the before photo.

Today I’m finishing a sweet little vintage bookcase and starting to paint a drinks cabinet. Lots of pieces here to work on :)

Have a great day

Fiona xx

Leather/Vinyl chair makeover

Good morning! My day started well with a coffee and a morning swim here

Very fresh but what a beautiful way to greet the day.

I also received a message from Hannah who had asked me for help in painting her dining chairs. She’s in lockdown in the UK and needed a project. I sent her this tutorial and within 12 hours she sent me this photo. Talk about speedy.

She still had 5 more to do but she’ll send me a photo once she’s finished them all. 

This is the chair I painted years ago that served as her inspiration. It’s now Sasha’s study chair and is still in fantastic condition if you are worried about how the paint holds up.

And the before...disgusting peach vinyl.

Have you tried this technique? I’d love to hear how you went?

Have a great day

Fiona xx

10 years in business

This little business of mine, Lilyfield Life, is 10 years old!  This last weekend 10 years ago Jonty and I recovered a child’s arm chair for a friend’s daughter’s 5th birthday.  At the party another friend of mine, Serena , said wow you should go into business! Well that random comment sparked an idea and I started my blog the next day and started painting furniture. 10 years later I’m still really loving transforming drab vintage pieces into something special.

And the before (it was quite stained) 

I just used a drop sheet and hand painted the stripe and the fleur de lis: my friend had a French style house and she loved the chair. Her daughter had been using a bright pink Barbie chair that she hated.

And so there you go, just a random comment and then 10 years of follow through :) 

I’d love to hear from you if you also have a painted furniture business and how you got started. 

So many of you have my furniture and homewares in your homes. Thanks so much for all the support and love you send my way. 💙

Roses from my garden

We have a tiny garden but it’s a good size for the inner west and we have made it an oasis of green. I can’t claim much credit for it, I did do the brickwork for the garden beds and build the bbq table but Phil is the green thumb in the household. I initially just wanted green and white plants in the garden, no other colour at all but I have relented in the last few years and Phil has planted me some David Austen roses.

This one is called Mary Rose and I love it. It’s only a young plant but I have high hopes for it. We also ordered a boscobel rose but it must have died during transport as it never transplanted well. Phil will order me another one next season. Second time lucky perhaps.

I used one of the roses on this cake below for my mother in laws birthday recently. Not the best cake as we were really rushed but at least the rose looks pretty. ❤️ Beth was very happy with the cake and attention so that’s what counts anyway.

The rose below is really special to me, it’s a Pierre du Ronsard that my beautiful dad bought for me for my 50th birthday. The roses are perfection.

Here are some other photos of roses from the garden 









 We also have 3 white icebergs 


Do you have any David Austen roses? Aren’t they gorgeous? 

Have a lovely day

Fiona xx

Hand twisted candles

Hope you’ve had a brilliant weekend even if you are in lockdown. Today I’m sharing a lovely simple project I did the other day. Super easy twisted candles. Such an impact using cheap candles from the supermarket.

I started with a simple box of white candles I got for a couple of dollars at the supermarket. I warmed them for about 20 mins in a jar of warm/hot water. 

Then when they are flexible I rolled the middles of them with my rolling pin between two pieces of baking paper. You just want to flatten them a bit. 

And then with your hands start twisting until you have the look you want. 

How fantastic so they look! I can’t wait to try it with some coloured ones also. Claire from Found and Favour did it with these pretty pink ones. It looks like she rolled hers thinner than I did. They look amazing don’t they. 

Let me know if you give this a try. 

Fiona xx

My painted furniture from 2020

A little quick round up of most of my painted furniture from last year. While I didn’t blog much I was painting a lot of furniture. Over 300 pieces painted and sold: I was really surprised as I didn’t think I had done that many pieces.   Fantastic support from my lovely customers. Hope you enjoy the video, I know it’s fast, just a glimpse of my work. I’ll post some photos into another post at some stage.

Thank you to all my beautiful customers and to everyone who supports me in the form of commenting, liking a post or sharing my work, or sending furniture my way. I really appreciate you all. 

Happy new year. Hoping 2021 is good to you

Fiona xx