How to Strip Furniture

I have just finished a beautiful 1930's extension table that I'll reveal in a post tomorrow but I have had so many people ask me about stripping back furniture that I thought I'd post how I do it.  Often I won't need a chemical stripper and I just use a handsander and use progressively finer sandpaper to remove the damaged surface but in extreme cases, I resort to a chemical stripper.

I bought this lot of furniture in January on eBay.

It had been previously stained and lacquered a revolting bright red fake mahogany. This was awful to remove and I literally spent days sanding this back.  Thank god for Citristrip.

This was the bright red of the furniture before it had a Lilyfield Life makeover. Good lord, what were they thinking.

Shake the can and pour into a metal container. I used the tin trays you use for BBQ fat collection. Citristrip stays wet for ages and your brushes are washable in water.

Brush on reasonably thickly. If you are too sparse then it doesn't work as well. I think you need at least 2mm of stripper. Wait until the surface bubbles.  This may take 30 mins or more depending on the weather and also the surface. Don't get impatient because if you do it too soon then you'll just end up needing to reapply. I am so impatient that I probably made the job much more tedious than it needed to be.

Citristrip is very nice as it stays wet for ages (24 hours) so if you get interrupted then your surface doesn't dry out. Especially helpful when you're squeezing in furniture restoration in around your kids and you're meant to be cooking dinner and instead you've snuck out to the carport to work on a piece and realise the dinner's burning and the kids are fighting.....(a glimpse of my life!)

Then with the paint scraper remove the gunk. Make sure you only GO WITH THE GRAIN! And be gentle as you don't want to gouge the wood. Once the majority of the lacquer is off then I wash it down with a household scourer (the green ones with the sponge on the back) making sure all the stripper is removed. You may need to repeat the stripping process on difficult bits.

Then once the wood is dry start sanding. I start with P80, then 120 then finally 240 sandpaper. For curved areas I use the sanding foam blocks. Once again GO WITH THE GRAIN. The more time you spend on these steps the more beautiful your finished piece will be so it's worth the effort. If you have black marks in the wood you may want to wash down with bleach or Oxalic acid.

Then wipe down with a damp cloth and stain or finish as you desire.  This is the surface below that I was stripping above.  No more luminescent red.

Hope this helps.

Fiona xx

Holy Cow!

Vegetarians look away now....

A few weeks ago an old man across the road was filling a skip with a lot of rubbish intermingled with a couple of unwanted treasures. One of the things he let me rescue was this cabinet.

It's an old record cupboard I think. I remember my Grandad having one and you'd slide out the records onto the bottom platform to choose one.

I spent ages looking for some cowhide to replace that disgusting bit of dirty carpet in the above photo. I actually found some locally. I was walking past a garage and saw a groovy old dude doing upholstery and asked him if he had any spare. he'd actually just finished a set of cowhide bar stools so gave me a great piece for $20. It normally sells for over $150 per square metre.

I painted the cabinet in black gloss paint. I swear never again. What a beast to work with. The back edge of the top was badly warped so I used a strip of wood from the pull down door to cover it.  I felt a bit sad covering up the silky oak but it just didn't go with the cowhide and the top was really wrecked so something needed doing.  Anyway as I've saved this from the rubbish so I felt that I could do what I wanted with it.

Fiona xx

Turquoise Console and a Rooster

My lovely friend, Amity, must be psychic as she came up to me yesterday and said Fiona, you need to paint something turquoise". She's definitely on the money as I had actually spent the day sanding back and painting a long console that exact colour.

I white washed the top by mixing paint and water then rubbing it into the stripped raw wood. I then painted the base turquoise and then heavily distressed it and rubbed dark antique wax over it all.

and before:

   
and a quick makeover on a wicker basket to add some interest to my shop.

So, all in all, a couple of productive days. Hopefully I sell some stuff this weekend!  (Although I spoke to a man this afternoon who was eye-ing off the little chest of drawers I finished earlier in the week and he's bringing his wife in to see it tomorrow). Fingers crossed for me!

cheers Fiona

Gorgeous little chest of drawers

Remember how I won this at last week's antique furniture auction:

Even though I would have been able to sell it without painting it, I decided to be true to my signature style and paint it and restore the wood on the top (it actually really needed restoring as was badly marked). I love how it turned out.

It's painted in Dulux's Antique White USA and then the recessed sections of the wood trim are painted with a very fine artist paintbrush in Dulux's Limed White. I then topcoated it with Cabot's Cabothane Water Based Clear Varnish. For the top I sanded it back, applied one layer of Wattyl Dark Walnut stain and then sanded it back again and then applied two coats of Miniwax Wipe on Poly.

Into the shop it goes...although if it doesn't sell I'll happily bring this one home!

cheers

Fiona

Savonarola Chair redo

A lady at the antiques centre was shutting down her stall and sold me this chair she had priced at $300 for only $50.

I gave it a good makeover and am hoping that it will sell more easily than before.  I'd be much more willing to buy it anyway!

I've been very busy these last few days finishing more furniture for the stall.  I bought a divine walnut sideboard last night and am excited about rejuvenating it!  It was up the steepest driveway I've ever seen and weighs about a tonne. I'm so glad my husband came with me to pick it up!

Fiona xx

Lilyfield Life has a new home!!

I've taken a leap of faith ....and leased out a shop/stall at the Balmain Road Antiques Centre.  It's the auction house at the end of my street so it's very handy.

It was all a quick decision and I didn't even take time on consult my ever patient husband (who is happy with it and excited for me). I need to get a ton more stuff in there especially as I've sold 2 pieces already. I got home from setting up the shop to find a message from a friend saying she wanted the Union Jack dresser and an email from a lovely woman who is from Wagga and is buying the white drinks cabinet (a contact from eBay who then saw the cabinet on my blog). So I'd best get sewing and painting.

Now you can see why I was making cushions over breakfast.

Wish me luck! ... and come visit if you're in Sydney. I don't have to man the shop but I live about 200m from the shop so call me and I'll met you there.  (See My Contacts page for details)

cheers

Fiona

What I made over breakfast...

While my gorgeous husband cooked us poached eggs (fresh from our chickens) for breakfast, I whipped up these this morning.

Cushion one: bird print from Prints Charming, the back is a coffee sack

 Cushion 2 is a screen print made by me using my own homemade stencil.



These suit our blue and white bedroom and I love them on our bed.
cheers
Fiona

Modern Drab to French Fab

Drinks anyone?

I bought this little drinks cabinet cabinet from the furniture auction I go to every second Monday (at the end of my street).  A bit modern and bland for my taste and I don't think I'll buy this smooth modern wood furniture again as it's way too modern for my taste and needs a lot of sanding to make the paint stick - even with primer.

I've painted it white (Porters Paint, pure white) and done a little fleur de lis feature painting on the doors (in Dulux Limed White). I still need to lightly distress it. I really like how the hardware stands out now.

I'm be selling this. I actually think this would be beautiful in a bathroom - great storage for towels, makeup and other bathroom stuff.

Before distressing:

I love the before distressing look but I think it will stand up better after distressing as if any paint lifts it won't be noticeable - althhough as I sanded and primed it shouldnt happen but just in case.

And all finished:

and before:
(Gosh, I hate this orange/honey wood colour)

This is off to Wagga Wagga to a lovely couple who have just bought their own house

Enjoy!

cheers
Fiona

Union Jack Dresser

Thank Miss Mustard Seed and Matt Blatt and for the inspiration!  My take on the Union Jack dresser. I just love it!

I've been keeping an eye out for a dresser with the correct proportions for three months now. I don't have a before photo but you can imagine the poor state this was in. The Union Jack needs to be twice as wide as high. I finally found a suitable candidate in this dresser as it's 40 inches wide and 20 inches high. I drew the Union Jack on with dressmakers chalk.

I started by sanding back the dresser and priming it. Next time I do a dark coloured paint I'll make sure I either don't prime or I don't prime in white as I had to give this baby 5 coats of blue paint. I then painted on the red parts and lastly the white. I started using masking tape but ended up just painting free-hand as I wanted it all to look natural. 

I then gave it all a light distressing on the edges and put back the original hardware which is gorgeous and suits the piece so well. 

For the top of the dresser I sanded it then washed it down with oxalic acid to remove the black marks (always use a face mask when sanding after using oxalic acid as it can be fatal to breathe in the dust). I then top coated the raw oak with several coats of Miniwax Wipe On Poly, sanding in between each coat with superfine 0000 steel wool. I was originally going to stain this surface darker but I'm glad I didn't as the oak grain shows up beautifully.

When I bought the dresser it had a piece of oak sticking up vertically which looked weird and was backed with the piece of wood you can see in the above photo. I pulled this off and glued on the blue moulding along the back as it had cut outs from where a mirror had been previously (not when i bought it) and I wanted to cover them up.

I love this but am selling it. I wish I had room in my son's bedroom for this but I don't. I'm sure someone will snap this up. Fingers crossed.

See here for a tutorial on how to draw the Union Jack correctly. 

I'd love to hear your comments.

cheers

Fiona