Before and After: Hand painted French Style Cabinet

Good morning. I am (hopefully) going to have a great day as the plumber is here digging up a pipe and moving a gully that has been the bane of my existence since we pulled down our sheds back before Easter. When the sheds came down we were left with a sewer gully sitting in the middle of the garden (where the shed was had been). Not only is it a trip hazard but gullies are legally required to have a tap above them to charge them. So we needed to move the gully to next to the fence and put a tap above it. Sounds easy but when you need to hand dig a 4m long trench one metre deep in clay soil it's not so much fun. We also can't re-turf until it's all sorted. In the end I've hired the plumber to do it all. One time when I'm more than happy to outsource. Frees me up to paint pretty furniture :)

Speaking of pretty furniture I painted this cabinet recently. This is one for me. I haven't finished cutting the shelves yet - one of those things that you do for yourself and don't quite finish... But I will get to them soon. Famous last words :)

I thought you might like to see the process of creating an antiqued look. I bought the cupboard before we started renovating as i thought if our bathrooms were a good size it would be a beautiful cupboard to store towels etc in. As it turned out our bathrooms are relatively small and we have a walk in linen press so the cupboard wasn't needed. I decided to keep it anyway and use it in my studio.

I gave the cupboards a light sand, a good clean then two coats of a greenish grey Chalk Emulsion by Porter's Paints that I had custom mixed. Did you know that Porter's are fantastic at colour and will work with you to create what ever colour you want?

The below isn't the best photo but you can see how stark and unnatural the white looks. That's where the antiquing comes in.  Learning to glaze and use dark wax will transform your furniture painting.

For this project, I made my own dark glaze. You can find my glaze recipe here. If you are using chalk paint you will need to seal it first before glazing. Just like when you use dark wax. I seal the chalk emulsion with Annie Sloan Clear Wax then applied the glaze. I then lightly distressed my piece.

Here is the 99% finished piece. (missing the shelves and hardware still) but man, I love this piece. Nice to be keeping some of my own work for a change.

Have you used glaze?

Do you love my cupboard?

Fiona xx

At home

Hello from a less than impressed Charlie getting a little bath this morning after a muddy walk.  

hello from me too. xx

These last two weeks I have been attempting to sort out some of my to do list around the house.  Getting there slowly. Tomorrow the plumber is coming to move a pipe in the backyard which means we can then sort out the paving for the basketball area and re-turf. I will be happy to have my garden looking less like a building site.  I did spray paint a little cast iron outdoor set. My sister gave me these 9 years ago as she no longer had room for them. They were faded hunter green and I've wanted to paint them for years but never made it a priority. It was such an easy and quick job. Kicking myself for leaving it so long but better late than never, hey?

Much more chic in black.

so much better than before. 

Don't you love paint.

It's been a fortnight of doing things I've been meaning to do for months. I got my wedding rings fixed after them being cut off my hands 4 years ago when i shattered my wrist. I went to the osteo this morning for my sore hip and it is just so tight that it's inflammed in the joint. I have made it worse by painting furniture sitting on the floor - I'm going to have to change that. I also got my hair cut (by Nina at Access Hair) so long over due. I looked like a witch. I won't leave it 18 months between haircuts in future. I'm on a mission to take better care of myself at the moment. I need to remember to even breathe some days...

I've also been sorting out our lounge room. Playing with furniture arrangements.  I love it like this ->

So formal but the lounges stick out a bit into the centre of the room and then on the TV side of the room we'd have the formal furniture that's not so great for lounging in so I moved it back. I like this arrangement below but I need a new rug instead of those two stuck there together.  I did paint the console over in the far corner also. I've been meaning to do that for months.

We had friends (4 adults and two little kids) over last night for dinner and the new layout worked well. Lovely to be able to have a drink by the fire before a meal. Very relaxing. We had such a lovely meal together with the kids all playing at the table during the meal and everyone happy and relaxed and good conversation. 

When I bought the console I was able to buy it for a great price as someone else had painted it very badly -it was a battleship grey and the paint was all peeling off. I painted it in a soft limed muddy white.

I have also sorted out the globes in the chandelier. Harder than you would think. Because there are so many globes, I need them each to be very low wattage to be under the total rating. I also need them to dimmable so we don't light up the whole of Lilyfield. Globe technology is improving all the time but currently the globes I wanted are $20 each and often fail so I will wait a couple of years before making that investment. In the mean time I'm using 7 watt oven light globes. I think they look lovely and at $1 each that's a great saving.

from underneath looking up - such a piece of jewellery for the house.

Still haven't sorted out bedroom curtains.  On the to do list. Beach towels are working just fine till summer comes and we need them for swimming :)

My kids are growing up fast. We have a birthday this weekend which I'm a little nervous off - lots of kids in the house but they are lovely friends and I'm sure they'll have fun.  I've just received a letter from Sasha's high school for a uniform fitting appointment. I think I'll have a few tears seeing her head off to high school. Slow down growing up my babies...

I am trying to sort out my work life balance. You'd think that working from home it would be easy. I know I don't work nearly as hard as a lot of people but it can get away from me and I don't take a lot of time for myself so this last week of doing some things for me and my family has been very restorative. 

How do you go with work life balance? - Í think its a bit of a fallacy myself. but that's for another blog post...one that's been brewing in my head for years.

Fiona xx

Transforming furniture with paint - duck egg mix and white

Hello - My sister is returning home today after being in Europe for 6 weeks. I can't wait to see her! I think that's about as long as I've been not blogging regularly. Time has both flown and been drawn out ...I'm almost embarrassed to be posting again as I've been so AWOL. It seems that every post I write lately starts with the same I'm sorry that I've been so remiss.. anyway here I am today to share some recently furniture makeovers.

I recently painted several pieces of furniture for a lovely lady in Lilyfield. Sharyn wanted to transform her bedroom furniture from dated timber that had turned a little orange to a soft country white. 

It's all so soft and pretty now and once she gets her new carpet laid I think the room is going to be a lovely sanctuary for her. I replaced all the heavy wooden knobs with crystal ones to add a little bling and prettiness to the pieces.

While I was painting her furniture Sharyn also asked me to transform a cupboard downstairs in her lounge room. It was old rustic pine that just soaked up the paint. I mixed a soft pretty duck egg to match Sharyn's cushions and lamps. Using the Chalk Paint by Annie Sloan, I mixed a ratio of around 60% Duck Egg and 40% Pure White until I was happy with how it looked against Sharyn's accent pieces. This piece definitely didn't need sanding prior to painting for paint adhesion as it's pretty rustic but I still sand between coats and after painting to give the paint work a lovely smooth finish. 

And here below is how Sharyn has it now.  I love how the wax gives the furniture a lovely sheen and a smooth feel.

Sharyn is very happy with her pieces and how they feel also. She had also bought a lovely sideboard from gumtree that someone else had painted but they haven't sanded it smooth or added any protection to the matte paint so I am helping her fix that also. When there is no protection/sealant on matte or low sheen paint it means that the paint will be virtually impossible to clean. It will mark very easily and then not clean easily.

I suppose that is a problem with buying on line and so many people painting furniture these days. You never know just what you are buying. Please feel free to come and inspect any of my pieces - all my work is properly sealed and beautifully smooth.

have a great day xx

3 ways to paint a coffee table

Hello Strangers!

Oh I have been painting up a furniture storm lately. Last week I had 13 pieces of painted furniture leave my studio and I also ran a furniture painting workshop so to actually sit down and write about it wasn't going to happen.  I'm here now though and I have four coffee tables to share. I painted them three different ways and it's amazing how different they look.

I bought four coffee tables recently - two matching pairs. I thought it was a great opportunity to paint them all a little differently. As the coffee tables were all brand new I decided to leave the tops timber and just paint the bases. When I do this to make it very neat I remove the top of the coffee table from the base so that I don't have to cut in and it keeps it all looking very professional. A bit of a hassle removing and replacing the top but I think the end result is worth it.

The first table was snapped up by Gail who had attended the furniture painting workshop and saw them all sitting unpainted in my carport. She asked me to paint it the same as a cabinet I had in my studio. A french country look in a beautiful greenish taupe.

I painted the details in white and then waxed and used an antiquing glaze I had made to darken the crevices. It was also slightly distressed for a soft hard rubbed look.

My neighbour's friend has asked me to keep an eye out for a square coffee table so I offered the first one to her. As it was going to live in a trendy inner city apartment we decided to paint the base a semi gloss black with the details rubbed back.

It's so hard to tell with these photos but in real life the rubbed back sections showed up a little better. Especially hard as I took the photos in the evening under overhead lights.

A facebook follower saw these and asked if I had any more coffee tables and yes I still had two more although they were slightly different.

Lisa asked for her base to be white and distressed. It looks so fresh and pretty this way.

I then had one more coffee table and due to the over whelming love for the french country one on my facebook page I decided to paint it in the french country theme again. It was bought very quickly.

So which is your favourite? I am still undecided as I honestly could have any of them here. My own coffee table still remains unpainted!  On my to do list :)

cheers

Fiona xx

I swear I'm her number one fan...Laura Matthews moving sale

Years ago when I worked in the city when I needed a creative escape from the corporate-ness of my career, in my lunch break, I would go to little art galleries and soak in the beauty.  I completely and utterly fell in love with a painting by Laura Matthews called Pressure - I could not afford the painting but I still have a photo of it on my phone and still look at it from time to time. Anyway the years went by and I realised Laura's (then) studio was in Rozelle literally around the corner from my house so the next time she had an open studio I went along and introduced myself. I was such a fan and came across as so gushy and fan-like. Anyway we got on well, then over the next couple of months we bumped into each other at the supermarket, a cafe, in the street. I swear I wasn't stalking her...

Several years later I was in a position to be able to buy one of her beautiful art works that I have hanging in my dining room. It's my window to the countryside and I love it so much.  Her use of paint and layers amazes me. Phil and I are still such fans, as is everyone who comes to the house.

even had a feature in several magazines

Anyway fast forward many years, and I am now lucky to consider Laura as a lovely friend. She is moving studios next week and this weekend is having a final moving sale from her studio behind the red door in 1 National Street Rozelle. It's just tucked behind the Cook's Grocer and she will have the red flag out to welcome you.

I adore these ones below - who am i kidding I adore all of them :)

It is your chance to pickup an amazing painting at a great price. Look, I will admit that I tend to rave when I start talking about Laura's paintings but they really are hard to capture in a photo. I can guarantee that the trip to Rozelle this weekend will be worth it and she is a gorgeous person to meet anyway.

Let me know if you go, I'd love to hear what you think. Say hi to Laura for me or you might even catch me there..

Fiona xx

Embellish Atelier Rozelle front Window!

Catherine from Embellish Atelier in Rozelle contacted me recently saying she follows me on Instagram (@LilyfieldLife) and that she would like to feature some of my furniture in her front window. An artist in Residence. Would I be interested?

That would be a yes -  Not only does Catherine have a lovely shop filled with her amazing hat creations but it's right on Victoria Road by the bus stop so it is fantastic exposure for my painted furniture.

The sideboard is for sale so drop in sometime and see it or treat yourself to one of Catherine's creations.

I'm very grateful for this lovely opportunity

Fiona xx

Black, Black and more Black Painted Furniture

Well the kids are happily back at school after lots of fun on the school holidays, the house is very quiet without them and I am back into the furniture painting. I have been working on a custom job for a lovely couple who are moving from their family home in Mosman to a place close by the beach in Manly. They have a lot of colourful furniture from their travels but in the new house they are having a monochromatic design so I have painted eight pieces for them in black and white.

This old desk had been stored in a shed for years and was fairly dirty and water damaged. I did a lot of sanding to prep it for paint. I love how it has been transformed with the black paint. Such a beautiful low sheen on these pieces. I'm very happy with how they have turned out. So are my clients fortunately :)

The chinoiserie console below will be used in the house's entry hall - it was a traditional red lacquer. I didn't take before photos of this job but I think everyone knows the style of these.

There were also three Balinese cogs that are used as side tables. These were timber and some needed fixing as the cog parts were loose. I just liquid nailed them in place. Pictured also is a huge bell that I spray painted black. The bell was red and blue and heavily distressed. Not the best photos of it all but those cogs weigh around 90 kilos each so I wasn't moving them far for a special photo.

These drums below were bright yellow with green and red on them - I handpainted a primer coat and then sprayed the top coats. there were many many coats of white paint to cover up all the strong yellow paint. These drums will have a glass top made for them and will be used as bedside tables in a white coastal style bedroom. When the house is all styled I'll hopefully be able to share some photos with you.

I also have some beautiful black bedside tables to share (already sold) but I'll leave that for another post. This weekend Phil and I will be making some quince paste from those quinces. Good to be able to fully utilise the photo props!

If you want to learn more about getting a beautiful finish with black paint read here.

how to paint furniture black like a pro

I'm off to have coffee with a vintage loving friend then to pickup a fantastic hall console from Paddington. I'm really excited about this piece - I've only seen it in photos but I think it's going to paint up very nicely.

Fiona xx

http://www.frenchcountrycottage.net/