French Country Bedside Tables

Good morning - I hope you are enjoying your week. We had an early morning swim today which was a bit brisk but lovely and refreshing and it was so serene doing laps and watching the beautiful sun rise. I've got a niggling sore shoulder so I took it a bit easy and mainly did breast stroke as freestyle hurt. I think its from a lot of heavy lifting. Need a good massage :) The swim was followed of course by coffee, which is always a good thing.

I have had a few pairs of bedside tables recently. These little ones are a sweet shape and I decided to paint them in a French Country two tone style. I used ASCP Old Ochre for the base and Old White for the trim. I love this combination.

French Country Style Bedside tables

55w x 40d x 55h cm. 

$400 the pair.

Pair of vintage prints in ornate frames 

47x34cm $50 the pair.

Pickup from Lilyfield.

and in progress :)

I also painted these huge white bedside tables below. Nicole, a talented stylist and visual merchandiser, was one of my very first customers and has since supported my business several times. So when she said she wants big white bedside tables, I deliver! Well actually I made her come pick them up but you know what I mean. She's replacing the crystal with black knobs which will be gorgeous also.

A pull out table for extra space.

I still have one more pair of bedside tables (still in my car as I'm so short of space at the moment). I will share photos soon. I think I will paint them white as well, as I just love the crispness of bright white.

Have a great day.

Fiona xx

Fleur de Lis Dinnerware for Lilyfield Life

I am stocking some lovely Fleur de Lis dinnerware that is just perfect for Lilyfield Life and french lovers. I was so pleased to find this set as it is very similar to what I have at home and that everyone loves.

I have an initial small order here (4 cake stands, 3 oval platters and 6 each of the dinner set - no mugs on hand) but I thought I would gather everyone's order and put an order in all together. 

Details and prices below. 
Pick up Lilyfield or postage can possibly be arranged.

OVAL PLATTER $35.00
26x15cm 2 LEVEL CAKE PLATE $35.00
26cm DINNER PLATE $13.50
21cm SIDE PLATE $9.00
22x3cm SOUP BOWL $10.00
15x8cm NOODLE BOWL $9.00
350ml Mug $7.00

These are divine!! I am selling below retail prices as I have such minimal overheads. Let me know what you are interested in and I can either sell what I have here or I can include you in my next order. Email me on lilyfieldlife@bigpond.com. If you want to come see some for yourself, let me know and we can make a time.

Cheers Fiona xx

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A console, a trunk for friends, and why don't kids listen to their mother

Good morning! I think someone forgot to tell the weather it is already autumn. It's going to be hot in Sydney today and I've just been trying to tell my son that he should wear shorts to school instead of long pants. It is a dress up as a desert today and he wants to wear his red jeans. I walked away when he became argumentative. Not sure why I bother. It's up to him if he chooses to be hot. 

Yesterday I finished a lovely french style console. It's made from a South African hardwood and is unbelievably heavy and hard. I know it's hard because I had to drill new holes for new handles :) I thought I was going to snap off my drill bit.

I decided to leave the top it's natural timber but I polished and sealed it for a lovely smooth finish. For the base I painted it with ASCP French Linen and washed it with pure white for a driftwood effect. I then sealed it with wax. It is lovely and smooth also.

French Style console table

$485

140w x 53d x 77h cm.

and the Pineapple lamp and shade is $175
Happy to make an appointment if you are interested. Email or call me 0405766445.

I have also restored a NZ Rimu trunk for some friends. My friends got this trunk as a wedding present: it honestly was looking bad after many years of marriage, a three kids, knocks and bumps and a million cups of coffee. I sanded it back to silky smoothness and finished it in a hard wearing poly and then wax: good for many more years of happy marriage.

and before: (well almost before - you can see that I've started sanding on the left side)

....OMG just as I was typing this I had a call from school saying Jonty is sick and faint and can I come get him? OVERHEATED! in those bloody jeans.  He's home now, a cool shower, eating some ice and wearing the shorts. And that is why you should listen to your mother....

yours in expasperation.
Fiona xx

Layered Sapphire Blue French Style Secretaire

I meant to write this earlier but my day got away from me with painting and furniture pickups. I have some lovely pieces coming up that I am really happy with. I was blessed to grow up on the beautiful Sapphire Coast in a small town, Eden. We spent weekends on the long golden beaches, on our boat on Twofold Bay or bush walking and camping in the surrounding National Parks.

The deep blue ocean of that part of Australia was my inspiration for this lovely vintage secretaire.

For this piece I first mixed a gorgeous deep teal using ASCP Florence, Aubusson, Graphite and another deep blue paint I had on had. I had sanded and primed the desk before painting as it was particularly glossy and so I did two to three coats of the teal for lovely full coverage and then once it was all dry I did a wash of ASCP Napoleonic Blue. I painted the handles in rose gold and brushed some on the front decoration as well. 

I love the sweet little handles on the slides that hold the desk front. They are the sweetest little things I've ever seen. For the inside of the desk I painted in a pale grey that I'm not entirely sure what it is as it's from a previous project but it's probably Paris grey, French Linen and lots of white. I then waxed the whole piece.

I find it very difficult to photograph blue exactly as it really depends on the light but this is just beautiful. Very deep and lush.

Dimensions are 85w x 115h x 40d cm 

(desk down depth is 82cm in total). 

*SOLD*

Pickup Lilyfield 

(inspection welcome by appointment)

I'd love to hear what you think of the piece as well as my beautiful hometown?
Fiona xx

Beautiful painted mirrors

I love vintage mirrors - you can find such interesting shapes and I love the details on them. I have several at home and love the light they bring into the room. The grey mirror I painted in my hallway is always commented on and I get asked about once a month to sell it - it's not going to be sold but I always look for similar ones. Recently I found a very similar one and offered it to a client who has been asking me for one for around 18 months now.

I painted the mirror in ASCP Paris grey and then used a 50/50 mix of Pure White and Old White for the details and then used clear and dark waxes to create an antiqued effect. If you want to see a video on how to do this with dark wax you can find one here.  Here is a detailed tutorial on the same effect.

I also found this unusually shaped mantle mirror - it is very old and has lots of patina and aging to the actual mirror. I painted it in a very pale grey and allowed the crevices to remain unpainted to show the pattern in the carvings.

This mirror is available for sale - 
Solid carved timber 
80w x 120h 
$275 
pickup Lilyfield 
(you could easy get the mirror replaced for around $100 but I like it the way it is)

Fiona xx

Painting with water based enamels - bedroom furniture

Good morning! I have a great before and after post today that really shows the magical transformational abilities of paint. Even though I pretty much paint furniture every single day, there are times when I get blown away by what a difference paint makes. Lou came to me and asked if it was worth having me paint their bedroom furniture. I said "definitely". The furniture is all solid timber and well made.  The bed was a vintage mahogany bed that they had changed to a king bed. The bedsides were Balinese mahogany and Lou didn't love them but for what I charged her to paint them it was much cheaper than for looking for new ones, and once they were painted they would match the bed anyway.

The bed had a split to the timber along the foot of the bed that you can see in the photo above. I used metal brackets to strengthen and stabilise the join. These brackets will be hidden by the mattress so it didn't matter about it not looking perfect. On the outside part that is visible, I used a little timber glue and sanded the join smooth. Once it was painted it was not noticeable at all.

The colour we chose was a pale taupe. It's really stunning in real life - I had a hard time photographing it in the less than perfect light of my studio. An interior designer had given my client a sample and I had Michelle at Porters Paints Leichhardt match it with one of their paints. I used a satin enamel as my customer didn't want a waxed finish near her sheets.

With water based enamel paints, I find you really have to watch your painting technique as it is prone to sagging and dripping. If you are used to painting with chalk paint then you will find aqua enamel a lot more challenging and I would practise on a spare piece of timber before painting your furniture. You might find it easier to paint each surface flat rather than vertical.

Porter's Aqua Enamel (as like other brands) is a water based acrylic enamel, that dries to an extremely hard wearing finish that provides all the benefits of an oil based enamel with none of the drawbacks. It is self leveling (which means it eliminates most brush marks but also means it's prone to sagging when drying), non-yellowing as it's water based and doesn't contain alkyds. It is also much faster drying than oil based enamels. Aqua enamels is the paint that I recommend for cabinetry such as kitchens, bathrooms, doors and trim. I also love Dulux Aqua Enamel (Semi Gloss) and Taubmans water based Trim. They are all very hard wearing and fully washable.

When using a water based enamel you will need to prime your piece if it's not previously painted or you will need to lightly sand your piece just to create a keyed surface. Then you will need two coats of paint but you do not require a top coat. I also sand between coats for a beautiful smooth finish but that's up to you on what you want to do - it's not 100% necessary depending on how fussy you are )i'm very fussy).

For this bedroom set, I lightly distressed the finish to bring out all the details. You will have to work harder to distress than if you had painted using chalk paint. When distressing satin enamel you also have to be very careful to not ruin the sheen of the paint.

The bedroom furniture now looks like a proper set and my customers were just delighted.  Paint is a great way to update and unify mismatching furniture.

Fiona xx

ASCP Paloma on bow fronted bedside drawers

I've blogged about ASCP Paloma before - I think it's colour that deserves more publicity. It's a beautiful muted grey lilac. It is really good for a girl's room as it isn't sickly girly and will suit a range of ages - you won't have to keep updating your daughter's bedroom furniture.

These gorgeous vintage drawers have sat in my studio for about 5 months - time seems to have raced away and because they are just a single item and not a matching bedside table pair, I kept prioritizing other pieces to paint. Over Easter I decided to tackle them and I love how they turned out. The top of the piece was quite scratched and I had spilled some metho on them that created a water mark that would just seep through any paint, so I fully sanded the top back to raw timber and sealed with Zinsser BIN. I then painted two coats of ASCP Paloma and sealed with wax.

French Style Bow Front Bedside Drawers
48w x 37d x 73h cm 
$180. 
(Only the one, not a pair). 
Pickup Lilyfield


I love all these muted colours together. The drawers look gorgeous next to my tufted chair but I can also imagine them next to a white bed with lots of frilly white linen. 

Have you used ASCP Paloma lately?

Fiona xx

Four sets of drawers - three different grey painted finishes.

Good morning, I'm trying to get more organised with my blogging again as I have been very random lately. I still wonder if I should bother with my blog as it seems that everyone is on facebook and instagram these days and do people take the time to read blogs. Then I get some lovely emails from my readers saying how much you enjoy my posts so I keep on, keeping on, so thank you for your feedback xx.

These drawers have all sold but I thought I'd share three different types of grey painted finishes. These are all painted with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint but all look very different. Paint it so versatile :)

The first is straight up ASCP Paris Grey with Clear Wax. These drawers were just modern pine which I don't normally buy but I liked the shape of them and the moulded edges on the drawers. Originally it had iron pull ring handles - I think they make furniture look cheap so I changed the handles out to the crystal ones I stock.

ASCP Paris grey always turns out a little darker than expected once you wax it. For me I probably prefer it lightened with which like I used on the drawers/Tv uit below. This piece is a Balinese piece and so I used two coats of shellac based primer to make sure the stain didn't bleed through my paint work.

Lots of sanding for a beautiful smooth finish with minimal brush marks. I use a synthetic brush and specific brush strokes to achieve this look.

The drawers below were actually shipped to the Netherlands - a long way for my furniture to go :)

I've had furniture shipped all over Australia and even to Singapore but never to Europe before. This chest of drawers were beautiful old walnut veneer. The hardware is just beautiful including a fancy original key.  I painted them with ASCP Paris Grey mixed with a lot of Pure White and then used a clear wax and lightly distressed them. They ended up very pale and pretty.

The tall Balinese drawers below were painted with ASCP French Linen  - two coats and then I used a white liming wax and pulled it back to show the grain and brush strokes. It gives it a lovely streaky effect that reminds me of bark. I didn't get great photos and the piece has already been picked up but it looked great. Perhaps in the close up of the drawers, you can see the effect the white wax makes.

I think all of these colours and finishes look beautiful and work well as muted neutrals in a room.

Fiona