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

The Universe Provides

Sometimes everything just goes your way.

Monday, I was walking to the auction house at the end of my street and I walked past an old man's house about 100m down the road from my place. He and his nephew had a skip and were throwing out a huge amount of stuff. They gave me some cute vintage wicker chairs and a little cabinet. I then happened to mention the chairs to a woman at the furniture auction and she offered me $60 for them... how crazy is that?? I gave her them for $50 so I can buy the old guy a bottle of wine to say thanks for his stuff. A quick turn around.

I got some great deals at the furniture auction, a little chest of drawers that I absolutely love but I am unsure of whether to paint or leave alone. Any ideas? I want to sell it so which would be worth more? I'm thinking to just strip and revarnish??? But then that creative streak just gets in the way....

...and this great mirror that I'm selling.

I then went to Bunnings and found my favourite paint (Dulux Limed White) in the mis-tint pile for only $3 a tin ...and a tin of walnut stain (which is the reason I went there in the first place) for only $20. Original price was over $40 but it's been discontinued. I felt so lucky.

And then yesterday I just happened to mention to a friend that my heels were hurting and she immediately knew what was the problem as she'd been googling the same problem for her son the night before. I've recently started running again and had been stretching my glutes and hamstrings but not my calves. Stretched them out last night and this morning NO PAIN.  Phew.

I'm not sure which comes first good things or gratitude, but I think having an attitude of gratitude allows you to count your blessings and recognise when good things come your way.

If you read this post, I'd love for you to leave a comment on what I should do with the drawers above.

cheers

Fiona

Pencil Holder Tutorial (or how to contain the mess!)

My kids really love drawing and as a result we have pencils, textas, watercolour pencils and assorted pens ALL OVER THE HOUSE!! 

To contain this my 7 year old daughter and I built a huge pencil holder for their desk.  This is a really cheap and easy item to build.

First go into your shed and find suitable offcuts of wood (I know most of you reading this will have a stash).  

I found a kickboard that wasn't used in our renovation - already painted the kitchen colour. The wood was 4 foot long so using the mitre drop saw I chopped it in half to make the final pencil holder 2 feet long.  (When using the any saws I have my daughter hold the phone with the emergency number memorised in case I chop off part of my body. Not such a probability with the mitre saw but this is a very good thing to do when using the rip saw or circular saw).

Then using another piece of wood I made the dividers and ends. The ends I made the same height as the kickboard but the dividers I made slightly shorter (No special reason, just thought it would look good.)

Sand the edges of the wood and prime/paint the sides you'll see.

Line up the dividers on the front piece and using wood glue, stick them into place. As this isn't holding any weight I didnt think it needed screws. It's held up so far!

Once you have worked out where you want the dividers and have glued them onto the front and back, stack some weight on and let dry.  Wipe off the excess glue before it dries.

Cut some plywood the size of the base and once again glue into place.  Put on those little felt surface protectors to save your desk. (What are they called??) Cover the ugly plywood join with ribbon (love my hot glue gun!).

Fill with textas and let the kids loose. I love seeing their creativity flow.

Pictures drawn by my boy who turned 5 last week. Love them!

cheers

Fiona

Damask dressing table

I bought a little oak dressing table from the local antiques auctions that are held fortnightly at the end of my street. Lucky it was close as it didn't fit in my in car so I wheeled it home on a trolley!  It had good bones but was in definite need of some TLC.

I removed some water stains  from the top with Oxalic acid, sanded and stained and varnished the top, painted the rest a light french grey making sure you could still see the beautiful oak grain through the paint.  I then mixed a slightly darker grey for the damask design (thanks to the Graphics Fairy) although I hand drew the damask flourish so it's not exactly the same. I've very lightly distressed it. I replaced the cheap silver handles with some gorgeous crystal ones.

Selling this although it does look very nice in my bedroom at the moment!

cheers
Fiona