Renovations: Living Room Inspiration

Even though we are at the very early stages of our renovation I've had to make a lot of design decisions already and am very happy with how things are panning out. We are being quite strict with our budget but still want a nice aesthetic but mainly a very functional house. I think that blogging and painting furniture have helped me hone my DIY skills and also realise that often you can get what you want without spending a fortune. Sam, our builder, is also just fantastic at coming up with suggestions to save money.

For example for a long time I dreamt of a french marble fireplace surround, along the lines of these below:

I know this room below is a bedroom but it has many elements that I love. Ornate ceilings, a huge mirror, the marble fire surround and wall paneling. Swoon. Until I leave my mess every where...

I even found a beautiful original French one that exactly matches my dreams but at $7000-8000 for the surround alone (and then several thousand for the firebox) I just can't justify it.   I did find one I can order from China (China Marble) for $1500 (I can't remember if that included delivery but I think it did) but my big problem with that is if there is a problem with the fireplace surround or if the marble is the wrong colour then I'd have difficulty returning it.  I'm not that good at international internet shopping obviously! 

 Then I was surfing Pinterest recently and I found the image below and I thought that will get me the look that I want but at a fraction of the cost.

What do you think of this fireplace?

Sam, my fabulous builder, said he can build that fireplace surround and it will hide the firebox inside. Depending on how the room comes together I can even put a marble slab on the top for the mantle. Phil just thinks I should paint the mantel in faux marble like I did last December for this hall console below.  The top was actually red timber (jarrah) and the client wanted it to look like calcutta marble. I was so pleased how it turned out for my first attempt.

For the back of the house we have an opening of 4.5 metres onto the paved area and garden. Neither Phil nor I are fans of big bifold doors so I searched Pinterest once again for french door images and I fell in love with this image below.  To work out what I like I just pin images that speak to me and then see what I keep going back to.  A set of three french doors won my heart.

I think the above image is a little too busy so the transoms I've chosen are just plain glass and the French doors only have horizontal mullions (so four panes of glass which is easier to clean than all those panes above). Each french door opening is 1.4m and there's a brick pier in between the sets of doors which actually means that the builder can use one less timber/steel beam in the house and that reduces our cost also.  Our back room has very high ceilings- around 3.5 or 3.7m so the back facade is pretty grand.  (I'm so excited every time I look at it!) We'll have a bbq table one side of the pergola and a seating area the other side.

I also love the look of paneling for the living room. I think for a relatively small expense you can make a grand statement. The paneling is something I will work with the builder on as it's pretty straight forward- measuring, cutting, glueing and nailing and then lots of painting.  Here are some examples of paneling I really like. 

Initially I wanted a white concrete floor like we've had for the last few years (but a better slab and less pitting).  If you've followed this blog for a while you'll know that our wall kept leaking in the back fibro room and so one day I ripped up all the carpet and painted the slab white. I've loved this floor as a stop gap but now we are renovating I've thought long and hard what to do in the new lounge room.

The rest of our house has NSW Spotted Gum floorboards so we've decided to continue that into the lounge room. It's really important for me to make the renovation as sympathetic the original house as possible. I don't want the look where you have the original house at the front then a big modern extension. You can see the NSW Spotted Gum floors below. These are proper tongue and groove floor boards (not a floating floor) and we had them secret nailed so there are nails to spoil the floor.

A few years ago a friend gave me a beautiful brand new chandelier that I'm looking forward to hanging in the centre of the living room. For ages the chandelier sat on my coffee table but it's now tucked away in my shed waiting to be hung.

It's all coming together - it my head anyway!

You can see my Living room pinterest board here to give you an idea of where I'm heading and to find all the links and sources.

Fiona xx

ASCP Emperor's Silk Table

My fabulous furniture pickers, Sarah and Jessie, from Inner West Sydney Salvage know me well.  The other day Sarah sent me an SMS asking me if I wanted the hall table below. Well hello!  Of course I said a resounding YES.

It sold very quickly on my facebook page to Justine who asked for it to be painted red. I had some MMS Milk Paint Tricycle on hand and absolutely love the colour so thought it would be good to use on this piece. I sanded the top of the table completely back to bare timber and gave the rest of the timber a light sand. I didn't want this piece to be chippy so I mixed some bonding agent with the MMS Milk Paint

But unfortunately it didn't work well for me. the paint just fell off too much. I think there are area on this piece that look okay - not what I was wanting but perhaps viable for another piece.

Although this below is not good at all

I don't really have time to muck around with paint and need to have control over my paint. I'm not keen on random chippiness (although what happened with this table is certainly beyond chippiness. Anyway so I went and bought a tin of ASCP Emperors Silk which is pretty similar in colour. The worst part was I had to completely sand off the MMS Milk Paint as it wasn't a stable base to paint on. What a waste of time. Arghh..

All's well that ends well as the table turned out beautifully.

Have you had a paint mishap? Want to share? It'll make me feel happier?

At least Justine absolutely loved her table!
So it was worth it in the end.

Fiona xx

ASCP Old White

I currently have a customer trying to decide what white she wants me to paint a lovely chest of drawers she's bought from me. 

She is thinking possibly of ASCP Old White and asked me to send her some photos of pieces I've done in that paint colour. I thought you also might like to see them.

Personally, I think ASCP Old White is a little too creamy for my liking and I prefer to mix it in equal measures with ASCP Pure White for a soft off white. Such as these pieces below:

Are you a fan? 

What's your favourite white paint colour?

My favourite whites are here

Fiona x

Delicious hokey pokey biscuits recipe

Yesterday afternoon I was browsing through one of my mum's cookbooks and found a recipe that sounded delicious. The recipe is originally a New Zealand one, hokey pokey biscuits. These biscuits have a subtle caramel flavour and are soft and chewy. My favourite sort also.

If you are not familiar with hokey pokey you are missing out. It is crunchy pieces of toffee in vanilla ice cream - it's actually my husband's favourite flavour so when I saw this recipe I thought I'd try it. I'm so glad I did as they are easy to make and very delicious. Perfect with a cup of coffee or tea.

HOKEY POKEY BISCUITS

125g (4 1/2oz) butter, chopped
150g (5 1/2oz) castor sugar
1 tablespoon milk
1 tablespoon golden syrup
1 teaspoon bicarb soda
225g (8oz) plain flour


Preheat the oven to 180° C/350° F

Line a baking tray with baking paper

Put the butter, sugar, milk and golden syrup in a saucepan and gently melt until almost boiling.

Remove from heat and cool for around 15 minutes

Stir in the flour and bicarbonate of soda

Working quickly, roll into table spoon sized balls and place on the baking sheet. Press indentations with the back of a fork

Bake for 15-18 minutes until golden.

Lilyfield in the Press

I am delighted to be included in an article about the secret delights of Lilyfield in the Sunday Telegraph.

Other local businesses included are: Lisa and Arif's Shady Designs (fabulous lamps and lovely people) and the Furniture Hospital.

Lilyfield is such a great little suburb to live and work in. Thanks Jennifer for the feature.

If you have read the article and are new here then you might like to check out my portfolio and furniture painting tutorials. 

Hope you are inspired.

Have a great weekend

Fiona xx

The Furniture Gods are smiling on me

I thought you might like to see some pieces that are in the works here at Lilyfield Life. one of the important parts of setting up our house to live through the renovation was that I still have room th do my furniture painting. Luckily we were able to achieve that and while it's a bit of a juggle I'm making do. I also have accepted quite a few jobs to paint people's furniture onsite which is working out well and has saved my clients transport costs or hassle so that's a bonus.

I'm currently painting this little carved side table. It's was snapped up by Justine. She's asked for it in a deep red. I started painting it in MMS Milk Paint tricycle but even with the bonding agent and sanding the piece the chipping was way more than chipping, the paint just peeled off and so i bought some ASCP Emperor's Silk. I'll share it soon.

I also have this beautiful bedside table with a serpentine front.  I offered this for sale last night on facebook and Anne snapped it up as is to paint herself. I am always a bit sad when that happened but from a business and time point of view it's a good thing.

I also have a beautiful bow fronted chest of drawers. I love this piece. It has very nice dimensions. 92 cm wide , 87cm tall and 48cm. If any one is interested in a custom paint job on it let me know.

I was asked by Nicole to find a old fashioned dressing table to use as a desk for her daughter. Well the furniture gods smiled on me and I found one with three drawers on each side and beautiful curves. Nicole's daughter has asked for it to be painted in the teal of the Wagner Cupboard. Fabulous.

Nicole also asked for a pretty hall table that she wants me to paint French Provincial black and light distressing. I found this one on ebay and it's beautiful. I love when I can deliver on my clients' requests for beautiful furniture. This is the eBay sellers photo as I haven't had a chance to snap one yet. The table is much nicer in real life.

To top off all that furniture, our builder's labourer is sending me this morning to his mother's best friend's house as they are clearing out a five bedroom house on the beaches and have loads of furniture to get rid of. Murray showed his mum my blog and she loved it so they are offering me first dibs on everything. I can't wait to see what I come home with.

I need to get painting...once school holidays are over. I'll update you on the house renovation over the weekend. It's moving on at a great pace.

Fiona xx

Vintage Piano Stool Makeover

Sometimes things that are meant to be quick makeovers take longer than expected. I bought this piano stool with the thought of perhaps keeping it but in the end decided I'll wait till after we renovate before adding to our furniture collection so I offered it up for sale. Dee bought it and asked for it to be painted in Dulux Lexcion Quarter and to use a drop sheet to upholster it.

I stripped off the old fabric and gave the stool a very light sand then gave the stool two coats of primer. I then gave the stool two coats of paint. I used a semi gloss enamel so there's no need to top coat it. To replace the fabric I just used my Bosch Tacker and then glued some gimp braid over the staples and edges. Pretty straight forward it all seems. I did have a lot of trouble though as the seat worked perfectly fine when it wasn't painted but once it was painted when you opened and closed it to store your music the seat scraped the paint off the arms. I had to remove the seat top and sand it down about 1.5mm each side and then replace  it. I also need to repaint the parts where the paint had scraped off on the arms and repaint the sanded edges. Next time I'll remember to check before I start painting.

Anyway I think it's turned out quite sweet. The bunny is my son's from Bed Bath n Table (on sale a few years ago for $15 I think) and the cushion is one of a set of three that my mum made.

I have a lot of work lined up in the next few weeks  once the kids start back at school so I'll be sharing lots of projects soon.

I'm taking the kids to Sky Zone for bouncing fun this afternoon as a reward for all their efforts this week clearing rubble from the house demolition. They are great labourers!

have a great day
Fiona x

Caring for Grandad's Orchids

My grandad had a very beautiful collection of orchids. He lived with us when I was little and my dad built Grandad an orchid house at the bottom of the garden. Grandad spent a lot of time in it, tending to his beloved plants,reading and doing the crossword and probably hiding from us kids for some peace and quiet.  When Mum died, I inherited many of his plants but unfortunately not his skills in caring for them. Don't you just wish you learnt more from your grandparents and parents before they died?

There are so many questions I want to ask him. 

These fronds above are from Grandad's plants that are now around 50 years old (or perhaps much older). It amazes me that they are still alive and thriving. Most of the plants I inherited are of yellow tones and I wanted to add some darker pinks to my collection so I bought a couple of plants from Nick at the Orange Grove farmers markets a few weeks ago.

   

Luscious!

I had a long chat to Nick about my grandad's orchids and how I wished I'd learnt more about how to care for them. I basically leave them be. Nick gave me some great advice and said that next year when the orchids are ready to divide, he will invite me to his orchid farm and teach me. 

Nick's advice on caring for orchids

Water them deeply twice a week
Divide only at certain times of the year (late August in Sydney)
Fertilise monthly
Use sticks to support the fronds

I also found this great website that I'll be trawling for information. 

Last year Phil and I divided some of the orchids at the wrong time of year and as a result we have some dead roots which is disappointing. So much to learn. I hope to get these orchids thriving even more.

In the mean time I'm enjoying some prettiness in the corner of my garden. Especially as much of the garden is a building site!

If you have some more tips for me on caring for orchids I'd love to hear them.

Fiona xx

Saturday morning bliss

Wishing you all a weekend of love and sunshine. 

We've escaped the house renovation chaos and left the city behind. We are enjoying a sweet weekend away with our beautiful kids and my dad and stepmother. Dad's just about to teach the kids how to light the best BBQ fire and pass on some of his Boy Scout skills. Pyromaniacs in the making 😊.

Creating childhood memories. 

 

Have a good weekend. 

Fiona xx