One Console: Three Ways

I've just had a very happy customer on the phone as her furniture just arrived via a courier and she loves it. Samantha bought the console that my other customers asked to be painted ASCP Duck Egg but then they changed their mind and went in a totally different direction with their lounge room decor so I offered them a refund and sold the console to Samantha. The duck egg would not suit her style so I also repainted it. Samantha ended up wanting it exactly how I was going to paint it in the first place.

Here it is in Duck Egg

and unpainted (raw) timber

Which is your favourite?

Mine is definitely the two toned grey and black how it ended up. Next time I will just paint the furniture how I want it then sell it I think. Trust my own judgement.

Here are some detailed photos of when I was repainting it and the waxing. Any questions you have, feel free to leave a comment below.

Sorry I've been a bit hit and miss lately with my posting here. I've been working very hard with lots of paint jobs and so have lots to share it's just hard sometimes making time to write it all down. 

Hope you are having a good week
Fiona xx

A little project - white bedside tables

Good morning, from a bright and chilly winter's morning in Sydney! I'm just about the head up to our locals farmer's market to buy our weekly vegetables but thought I'd check in here first.

The school holidays seem to have flown by.  We haven't gone away, mainly been at home but there's been lots of kids' playdates and  outings. Phil's been working long hours and I've also been meeting with the builder, surveyors and draftsman to finalise our house plans which is all very exciting. I have been managing to squeeze in a tiny bit of painting around kids and activities but not much.  I have a quick little makeover this morning to share. A client recently brought me some bedsides they'd bought from Gumtree for me to paint white.

These bedsides were originally quite shabby chic, and the previous owners had removed the legs, stripped of the greenish white and varnished them. I have put back on the legs, sanded back the varnish and painted them white again. What goes around...comes around.

have a good weekend

Fiona

Repainting this...Duck Egg Blue Console

I'm not 100% happy about repainting this but sometimes you've just gotta do what you've just gotta do. I bought this beautiful console and it was badly marked raw timber. I had some customers who were looking for a console so I offered it to them first and they loved it and asked for it to be painted in Duck Egg. However when they got it home they changed their mind for the whole design of their living area and asked to return the console and coffee table as they have decided to opt for more modern furnishings in their main areas. They are lovely people and I am still helping them furnish their whole house so, of course, I agreed. I then offered the console for sale to another customer who also loved it but I knew the Duck Egg wouldn't suit her house so I am repainting it for her. I thought I'd show you it in Duck Egg before I repaint it this weekend.

I painted this in two coats of paint and then antiqued it with clear and dark wax, concentrating on the ornate features where dirt would naturally accumulate so the patina is authentic.

The photos were not taken in a spot with good lighting so aren't the best. This console is very big at 170cm wide and 84cm tall so it was hard to find a spot in my house to photograph it. I mainly wanted to share with you the effects of the dark wax on the ornate features in that it may help you with your dark waxing.

Once I finish repainting it I will share it again. To be honest I actually don't really mind repainting it as it's a gorgeous piece to paint and antique with dark wax. I'll just look on it as an opportunity to improve my skills!

Here it is before I painted it the first time.

I get a lot of questions about the homewares in my photographs so I'm sharing where I got things from below:
Cement Candlestick : Bed, Bath n Table (around $50)
White Candlestick: $2 at markets, was gold, I painted it white
Crown ornament: Balinese temple finial. I bought in Bali for around $12 and painted in Old White
Timber dog: $6 Glebe Antiques fair
Pot holding lavender was a purchase from Paint Me White $35
Fake lavender was from a $2 shop in Leichhardt
The painting is by Laura Matthews

If you want more information on waxing furniture, antiquing with dark wax or glaze then see these posts below:

Waxing and Buffing furniture

How to Antique with dark wax

Make your own glaze

have a good weekend
Fiona

Pine coffee table makeover

After I brought this coffee table home (an eBay purchase) I questioned myself why I bought it. The orange pine was turning even me off. I knew that the shape would be fantastic in a muted taupe but I took a while to start painting it. In the end, I asked a friend to come and paint with me to get me going. Sometimes you just need company to get motivated and start a task. Now it's finished I realise once again that paint can transform pretty much anything.

The initial reason I bought this is because the size is good. It's nice and low and offers great practical storage with all the drawers. Also I knew that the detail on the edges would come up beautifully painted and antiqued.

It comes with a little matching lamp table which i think it great. Not too matchy matchy but cohesive in a lounge room with have a pair.

Here is the before photo. So very orange. There were some dints in the top that I removed with my new sander and polished the timber to a lovely smooth finish before painting with ASCP French Linen.

Here is the other side of the table. 

Drawers only on the front.

To seal this I used an acrylic sealer. I'm not a fan of wax on coffee tables as I think it's not durable enough or easy enough to keep clean. I have antiqued the edge detail to bring out the grooves.

Dimensions are 140cm by 75cm and 40cm tall with two dovetailed drawers on runners. then the matching side table is 60cm square and 50cm tall. it has one deep drawer. The pair are for sale $500 and pickup is Lilyfield.

The kids are both at play dates with friends today so I'm busy painting getting some projects underway. Hope you are all having a good day also.

Grandpa's Drawers and School Holidays

I'm a little late posting today. School holidays have slowed me down and the kids and I have been having very lazy mornings, waking up well after 9 some days! I've been a little sick so I think my body is thanking me for the rest. I even tried to go the doctor on the weekend but it's so hard to get in anywhere on a Saturday afternoon but luckily friends dropped in on Saturday night for a drink and impromptu dinner and one was a doctor who wrote me a script and I feel so much better now.  If you are just here for furniture then skip below to the bottom of this post for a fabulous set of industrial style drawers. you won't want to miss seeing these.

I thought I'd share some photos from beautiful Leura last week. Most autumn or winter school holidays I like to take the kids up to the Blue Mountains. I have a special place in my heart for Leura. My grandparents lived their for many years. I don't like the crowded tourist points like the Three Sisters, instead preferring to find lesser known vantage points like Olympian Rock Lookout and Gordon Falls.  

I love that my kids get on so well (95% of the time!) the photo below wasn't even posed. I had started walking back to the car and turned around and found them like that. I'm glad I had my iphone in my hand to snap a photo.

They always like visiting the waterfalls at Leura Cascades also.

I saw this paper garland in a shop window and thought I'd love to try and makes something like this one day. Wouldn't it be fantastic for a baby's christening or something. Beautiful!

I picked these drawers up last week and painted the carcass in ASCP Graphite. They are just so cool and were very much in demand. I listed them on facebook and within seconds they were sold and within minutes I had almost a dozen offers to buy them.

These drawers aren't actually from my Grandpa. They just look they were made from some old guy tinkering out in his shed. Very rustic industrial and made from scraps of wood. I just love them. I waxed the drawer fronts also to feed the old timber.

Bianca from Grace's Goodies near Wollongong bought them and it was lovely to catch up with her again when she came to pick them up. A little bonus of these drawers is that each compartment perfectly fit a tin of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint. perhaps I should have kept them myself and cleaned up my stash of paint!

Maybe I need to get my dad on to construction as I could definitely sell more of these!

have a good week

Fiona x

White Painted Concrete Floors

Later this morning I am hopefully catching up with the draftsman who is drawing up my plans for our renovations. Most of the renovation is clear in my head and I have thought long and hard about almost every aspect. One thing, however, that I still need to decide on is the flooring for the lounge room. Currently we have a old pitted and cracked slab of concrete that I have painted white. It's pretty dodgy but I love it. I love that it's nice and bright, and I love the imperfectness of it.  I also love not having to be precious about it.

We used to have carpet in this room but we had a little flood and the carpet got ruined so instead of replacing it I just ripped it all up and painted the floors with Bergers Jet Dry Satin. We've now had the painted concrete floor for several years and I love it. I repaint the floor about once a year as I paint my furniture on the white floor without a drop sheet and as it's pitted it's very hard to keep perfectly clean. If it was a better slab then it would be much easier to clean. When we renovate, this room is being brought in on one side and extended at the back by about two metres. A new slab will be laid over this slab bringing the height up by about 100mm. I don't really want the NSW Spotted Gun floorboards that we have in the rest of the house, I hate tiles and I also don't like it when polished concrete has exposed aggregate so I've been talking to different people about how to get the look I want. One option I was investigating is the Arapido cement cover over the slab which is basically a coloured (including white and very light grey) cement spray about 3mm thick over the slab but I'm worried about the strength of it and also it's $7500 for the room (which sounds a lot but is similar to laying floorboards). Then I was talking to our clever builder and he said that by using a helicopter finish (for about $300 extra) when he lays the slab he can get a similar finish. Apparently you can also order your cement coloured. I want a very pale grey as I think the pure white in a good slab will look too white. (is there such a thing as too white??)

Here is a sample of the Arapido that I will try to replicate (and you can see how pitted our floor is!)

I think the very pale grey will suit our furniture and style. I know that concrete floors can crack but I'm actually happy with the cracks as really, if we lived in a 500 year old house in France we'd have cracks in the floor and it would be considered patina and character.

What floors do you have and does any one have some tips for me?

cheers Fiona

Lilyfield Life ASCP Paloma Oak Dressing Table

Today I'm taking my kids to the Blue Mountains to collect autumn leaves (hopefully some are still around!) and go for a bush walk.  It will be good to have a day off painting as I've been working a lot lately. Tomorrow I will be taking this dressing table to Meshea Lifestyle in Leichhardt tomorrow if no one snaps it up today. It's a gorgeous solid oak vintage dressing table probably from the 1940s. I love its clean lines. I have painted it in ASCP Paloma which is a beautiful muted mauve. I thought about doing a design on the front of this piece but in the end I just went plain to let those clean lines shine.

Here it is before: nice but generic and hard to sell.

Much prettier now, and also clean and fresh.

The drop handles are original and gorgeous. Dimensions are 105cm wide, 45cm deep and approx 150cm tall. Email me if you are interested. Perfect for a girl!

Have a good day

Fiona xx