TV Cabinet turned French Armoire

Sorry for my absence; does any one even notice?? :) but I've been painting, renovating and recruiting this week and also I started running again so when I normally make time for blogging, I've been sleeping soundly! and relaxing at night in front of a bit of Dexter on Netflix. Bliss. I'm a happy woman, always am, but especially these days. Anyway onto a recent project...

Paint is a pretty incredible thing. One of the main things I love about it is that it takes away a lot of the fuss of a piece and tones it all down. Take for example this TV cabinet. 

When I bought this several people wondered why. I even had one regular customer who I showed it to and she wasn't interested but when she saw it finished she was desperate for it but it was already sold. When you are buying furniture to paint you have to look past all the fuss of the timber and just look at the overall shape. I loved the fat bottom of this piece and thought that it could get past its humble beginnings as a tv cabinet and become something else quite special.

Even with it's first coat it looked better (in my opinion)

Once the first coat was on I moved it inside to be relatively dust free. I can't wait for our renovations to be finished and to not have to paint next to my bed any more.. or perhaps to not have to sleep next to where I paint. Luckily I have a patient husband.

I painted this piece in Annie Sloan Chalk Paint (ASCP) Paris Grey with white highlights.

I used dark wax to antique the piece and lightly distressed it to being out some of the detail. Inside I used a teal for a lovely pop of colour. 

I made shelves out of some left over fascia board from my neighbour's renovations. Nothing like using what you have to keep your costs down.

Here are some details.

On the renovation front, this week the eaves are going in and the downstairs roof struts are going in place. The roof tilers are booked for Monday week and we all can't wait till we can get rid of the tarp.

cheers Fiona xx

a Linen Press, a hall table and a coffee table

I have a couple pf pieces of furniture to share with you today: one to sell, one custom job and one I may just keep myself.

I gave this linen press I much needed new finish. The  original red stain was very dated but the size of this cupboard is very practical and I love the internal fit out. 

I painted this piece in what I call a Restoration Hardware look. You can find my instructions for achieving this look here. The inside is painted ASCP Duck Egg.  I can imagine so many use for this gorgeous piece. Kitchen/linen/bedroom/hallway storage. Dimensions are 96cm wide, 177cm tall and 38 cm deep. $485 pickup Lilyfield 

Yesterday I also finished a black hall table for Kim. This table had been painted silver and was covered in kids' paint, texta and bumps. So refreshed now.

I also picked up a couple of lovely shaped coffee tables this week.  A few need painting but I've decided to keep this parquetry one for us for a while. So now I have too many coffee tables but once our new lounge room is finished I will work out which ones I actually want to keep.

I have been working with the builders getting the roof trusses ready for our house. I think the roof framing might be finished today. The roof tilers are booked for two weeks time. Sasha and I also keep the builders supplied with cake and scones. Life is too short to not have morning tea. Even on a building site. Thank goodness my kitchen is still fully functional.

Have a great day.

Fiona xx

I love these drawers

Do I have a find for you!  These drawers are so old but oh so beautiful. Wow, I can't believe they found their way to me as I'm going to enjoy doing them up so much.

They need loving and I have an whole lotta love to give!  

The shape of the drawers are so lovely. Beautiful timber - walnut veneer and walnut inside as well. So well made but a few chips here and their showing it's age. 

Actually they are pretty filthy as I was so excited to pull them out of the car and photograph them but I'll clean them all up before I paint them. I am also more than happy to sell unpainted if you are interested in them. 

Any suggestions on what to do with them? Colour schemes? paint/leave as is?

I'd love to hear your opinion.

Fiona xx

Second floor and a pretty mirror

I'm so behind in sharing projects that I almost don't know where to start. The house has been zooming along and I'm so impressed with our wonderful builder Sam and his apprentices, Paddy, Carla and Murray. Seriously if you are in Sydney and need a good builder I can 100% recommend him. Such a nice guy and I've now seen him build three houses and his work is impeccable. Last week the builders finished the frames for the second storey walls that they just build and stacked on the floor in what will be our master bedroom. Then on Monday they worked a 12 hour day and ripped off the roof (tiles were already off) and erected every wall for the second floor and then we spent a couple of hours tugging three circus tents over the whole lot in case of rain.

This is the back of the house with the three french doors off the lounge room and the master bedroom up above. The roof will actually be a little higher than that as the roof trusses aren't on yet. We just created a false pitch so water doesn't pool on the circus tent.

Sam and Carla bracing the frames for the children's bedrooms above.  Below I am standing in what is the children's bathroom looking through to the stair well and the master bedroom. 

View from the master bedroom. Three nice big windows to replicate the three french doors below in the lounge room.

From the master bedroom looking through ensuite on left, stair well on right and then down the hallway to children's bedrooms.

Views from Master bedroom. Those sheds below are in our backyard and will eventually be pulled down and replaced with a much smaller shed.

Friends over for dinner on the building site!

My job today is sanding and painting the rafter tails. These timbers will make up the roof trusses and because our house has exposed rafter tails It's much easier to sand off the treated timber ridges and prime them when they are not on the roof. Sam, our builder, reckons these are going to be the best sanded and painted rafter tails he's ever seen. Nothing like having a furniture painter in the house. This is a tiny fraction of what I have to do today so I had better get cracking.

If you don't know what rafter tails are then this is what they look like in situ below- an original feature of our house.

And now for a pretty mirror that I painted for a lovely customer Louise. A few years ago Louise bought a pretty white sideboard from me. She recently picked up a Balinese mirror on Ebay and asked me to paint it white as she wants to hang it over the sideboard.

I'll share that cabinet you can see in the mirror tomorrow.

Have a great day. To be honest I am feeling a little overwhelmed already about today as I have too much furniture, a lot of building work to do, I'm also phone interviewing for a medical administration role and packing for Jonty to go to camp. Sometimes I wonder why I load myself up with so much work but I think it's better than being bored. 

Fiona xx

A French Style Cupboard - lots of curves on this one!

I bought this cupboard from an old couple in Haberfield who were moving out of their large family home to downsize and live closer to their son. They had some gorgeous pieces including long church pews and a divine dining table that they were selling but I decided to only take the cupboard as I'm so limited on space while we renovate. I originally thought this would make a great bathroom vanity but it would prove too expensive cutting the stone for the top in that curved pattern and also it's too high for me although Phil thought it was a great height for him. I then was tempted to keep it just in case I need another piece of statement furniture for the house when it's build. In the end I decided to sell it as I'm a bit of a fancy furniture magnet it seems and i'm sure I'll come across many more stunning pieces before the house is finished being built!

The cupboard has a seriously beautiful shape and is solid as anything but the finish definitely needed updating: so mottled and golden and I knew that the shape and details would be enhanced by a more muted colour. I love the two tone look of a french washed grey and graphite top so I painted my first coat of pale grey then layered other taupe/greys over the top to get a great depth of colour. The top I painted ASCP Graphite.

I waxed, antique waxed and lightly distressed it to give a vintage french look. I struggled a little with the hardware as I didn't like the original bronze hardware and so I tried porcelain and crystal knobs and didn't like them either so in the end I just painted the bronze with graphite and if they buyer wants they can find their own handles. Sometimes it's not worth the fuss. I tend to over think and complicate things...

This piece has already been snapped up but I have lots more lovely pieces coming up.

Fiona xx

A Pine Hutch Gets Painted

This is a lesson on the magic of paint. When I shared this on social media a lot of people couldn't believe it was even the same piece of furniture. Paint really is one of the quickest and cheapest ways to transform your home. Especially if you do the work yourself :)

Kristen said she wanted a big hutch to help out with her limited storage space in her new kitchen.  I sat down with her with my iPhone and checked eBay. I immediately spotted the hutch below and thought it had great lines. The auction finished the next morning so I said I'd watch it and bid her behalf. The next morning I managed to win the auction well under Kristen's budget.

My fabulous removal guys went and picked it up and I painted it in situ at Kristen's house.  For the first coat I painted in ASCP French Linen which was a good base coat for the lighter taupe colour I used. The inside I painted white with a base coat of very pale grey.

Below you can see the lighter taupe over the darker ASCP French Linen. I painted three coats on the outside and inside the cabinets which were white I probably painted around 5 or 6 coats. I then waxed and sanded smooth.

The new handles still need putting on. When Kristen has finished that I'll share a photo with you.

It has a nice sheen on the paint/wax. I always find that pine is much easier to buff than a lot of the harder woods that I work with when I paint vintage furniture. Painting the 1980's pine is so satisfying in that it's so ugly to start with, generally a vast improvement when painted and usually it doesn't present any problems (possibly a couple of knots that might bleed but nothing major) and is usually very easy to sand smooth.

I love the tongue and groove backing board. The best part is that Kristen absolutely loves this piece and says it's her favourite piece and she will treasure it always. That's very lovely feedback to receive. 

I have lots of gorgeous pieces coming up for sale soon. I have bought a couple of very wonderful pieces to paint.

cheers Fiona