Guest Post by Fiona at Lilyfield Life

I am hosting my first guest post today! This lovely lady is Fiona from Lilyfield Life and a fellow Aussie blogger. Her furniture is gonna knock your socks off! Or thongs. Depending on where you live and how cold/hot it is. Oh and I'm talking about thongs as in "flip flops" for my international friends, not thong as in g-string. I'll stop here. Aaaaanyway...


Hi to all of Meg's friendly blog readers, I'm honoured to be posting as part of Meg's blog makeover. One of the things I have enjoyed most about blogging, is the wonderful friendships I have made with like-minded DIYers. Meg has been wonderfully supportive and I've enjoyed sharing furniture makeovers stories with her.


I blog at LilyfieldLife about my home life, recipes, renovations and furniture projects. I love making stuff as well as being able to turn an unloved and sometimes disgusting piece of furniture into a gorgeous "new" piece. Not that I'm super creative, but I am willing to give almost anything a try. That is the problem when you have a degree in engineering!

Here are some of my makeovers:

an old oak dressing table refreshed with grey paint and a hand painted damask flourish

Getting rid of a fake red mahogany finish with a handpainted harlequin pattern.

more fake red mahogany disappears and now this sideboard has some French style.

A child's armchair gets a French makeover.

This poor unloved dressing table had a rustic makeover and is transformed into a bird branch dresser.

I also blog about my home renovations so I thought I'd give you a glimpse of my kitchen renovation. My previous kitchen was a disaster zone with about 1 metre of bench space. However now I am spoilt for space and storage and even a year later, I am still in love with it!

So if you like my style and want to see more then come on to LilyfieldLife and join me in my adventures.

Thanks to the lovely Meg for having me here today!

Now aren't those pieces simply gorgeous?! My particular favourite would have to be the damask dresser. *Sigh*. Fiona has recently been on a trip to the U.S.A. for a friend's wedding. While she was there she had an opportunity to check out a load of thrift stores and the like (you'll see the photos in her blog of all the gorgeous stuff). As much as she wanted to pack all that gorgeous stuff in her suitcase, all she managed to bring home was a broken arm :( But being the typical Aussie trooper she soldiered on and still managed to produce some stunning pieces.

Thanks Fiona for sharing your awesomeness.

Megs x

P.S. Don't forget my Saturday Splendour link party is still open if you'd like to show off!

M&Ms Saturday Splendour No. 1

Welcome to my very first Saturday Splendour Party!

Calling all party crashers!  This is where you can link up all your fabulous furniture makeovers and room makeovers for everyone to see.  Whether you did it for for your home or your shop, we want you to share it.

There's just a few simple rules, no biggie:

1.  This link party is for furniture  and room makeovers only.  If you've made it, revamped it, repurposed it or restyled it, you can link it here.
2.  Please link back to your actual post, not your main blog URL.
3.  I'd appreciate it if you would grab my button and display it anywhere in your post, side bar or link party page.  This is so others can see the party and join in.
4.  I would love it if you would become a follower of my blog.
5.  If you are able, kindly stop by and comment on some of the other links and share the love.  You never know, you might miss something truly spectacular!

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Next Saturday I will be featuring some of those entries.

(When entering your link you are giving me permission to use any part of your post to feature your entry)

Thanks for sharing!

A Pop of Pink

Mr T scored this dresser while out driving (I'd sanded and removed the mirror at this stage)...

He saw an elderly lady put this out on to the footpath for hard rubbish collection.  Um WHAT THE HEY?!  She was going to throw it out - mirror and all!  She told Mr T that it belonged to her mother but one of the legs was a bit wobbly.  He told her what I could do with it and she was happy to give it to him.  Hooray!  What a nice lady :)


Check it out now:

...with a pop of pink

I found the perfect fabric for it at Fabric Traders.

Originally the plan was to have glass knobs but my supplier ran out.   I ordered them online but they may not be here for another four weeks.  I'm too impatient so I used this lovely silver ones instead.  I wanted to modernise it a little so with these knobs and the chair I think it does just that.

I'm still not sure whether to keep these knobs or test my patience and go with the glass.

Don't forget to link up to my very first Saturday Splendour Party this Saturday.  I'd love to see all your wonderful furniture makeovers.

Have a fabulous day!

Megs x

Retro Stool Makeover x2

My Mum gave me this little retro stool last year when she purchased it together with a retro dresser.  She only wanted the dresser to mosaic so I got the stool.

Here's what it looked like:

Pretty naff right?  About 95% of these stools I've seen have been wearing this pink fluff.  What were people thinking?  Aside from it looking like a squashed Sesame Street character, I shudder to think what kind of crud and crap that fluff has collected over the years.  Brrr...

I was moving my youngest daughter into her own bedroom at the time.  I thought this stool would be perfect for her.  I removed the mangled muppet, sanded, sprayed it with some Killrust and then silver and pinkified the seat - minus fluff.

She loved it for five minutes.  After a while I eventually moved her back in with her big sister as I was getting soooo tired and frustrated with tidying two rooms.  You know what it's like - trash one bedroom and then realise there's no room to move so they think "Oh there's a clear space on the floor in that room that we haven't gotten to yet!".  Then the squabbles of who's tidying up who's mess.... Arrrgghh.

Anyway, I digress.  After the stool was being used as a makeshift ladder to reach things they weren't allowed to use up high in the wardrobe, I stole that sucker back.  I came across this fun cheery Mexican cloth online and as soon as I saw it I knew immediately what I could use it for.

Yesterday morning I dismantled the seat of the stool, sanded back the chair, hung it up, took out my spray can of Mailbox Red and attacked it with two coats.  While that was drying I removed the pink fabric and replaced it with the oilcloth.  Here's how it turned out...

All this in half a day!  I love those quick easy projects.  You feel like you've been very productive but it hasn't taken up all your time.  I think it looks wild.  My husband loves it and pointed out it actually looks very Christmassy.  Perfect timing.  I just noticed the seat is sitting a bit away from the frame at the front, but some slight adjustment with the screw should fix that. :)

I'm waiting for my dining set to sell (it's on ebay) which is still sitting in the garage, so I have no room to get to work on my bigger projects.  So I'm trying to plough through all the smaller ones until it's gone.

I'm selling this little cutie pie.  My kids can find something else to bloody stand on.

Megs x

Blog Makeover

You may have noticed my blog has received a makeover.  Isn't it fabulous?!  It's fresh, simple and elegant, just the way I like it.  Katrina Chambers is my blog designer and I think she's done an amazing job.  If your blog is in desperate need of a makeover, or it might just require some "tweaking", please drop her a line.  She has a website called The Media Maid as well as a great blog.  You may recognise her from the last Channel 9 series of "The Block" :)

If you take a look down my side bar you will see that I now have some buttons.  I will be creating a new link party to commence in the next week or so and I will be hosting them on Saturdays.  I would love to see all of your amazing and inspirational furniture makeovers, so please keep an eye out!

I will also be doing features and guest posts.  If you want to feature your awesomeness on my blog, please click on the tab above which says "Be a Show-off" and you will find all the details there.

Hooray!  I'm so excited!

Megs x

Grey Matter

I have worked for a law firm for the past ten years on and off (maternity leave).  They have now set me up  with the necessary programs in order for me to work from home!  Yeeeaah baby!!  My five year old has just started school so after dropping both the girls off in the morning, I come home and check my emails to see if they've sent me any work.  I get to pick and choose my own hours and it leaves me time to do my furniture and other stuff around the house.  HOW LUCKY AM I?!  They are a fantastic firm to work for and a great bunch of people who have always been wonderful to me.  They are over the moon about it and so am I :)

Anyhoo, in the midst of all that I managed to finish my lastest project.  I purchased this coffee table dirt cheap online from a very creepy guy who lived in a really big fancy house.  All he did was grunt.  Whether he had something stuck in his throat or in his pants I don't know - and I wasn't about to ask.  Needless to say the transaction was speedy and I was outta there in a flash.

Unfortunately I forgot to take a photo before I took the sander to it:

After my last bed end turned out so cute I thought this coffee table would be perfect to try another.

Normally I would be bold with my colour choice, but I still had quite a bit of the grey fabric left over from my dining chairs that I wanted to use up and I felt with the carvings on the table, the fabric had to be subtle as to not take away from it.

Here's how it looks now:

Photo overkill I know but she's such a beauty!

I think this one might be a keeper!

Now to all my gorgeous American and Canadian followers, before you email me to point out my typos in "grey" and "colour", that's how us Aussies spell it :)

Enjoy the rest of your week everyone!

Megs x

*Check out my Link Parties page to see where I party!*

More Mosaics

It's been a while since I've shown you some of Chris' mosaics.  She has been very busy in her doghouse cutting tiles and fingers.

Here are some of her most recent projects...

Although the circles look black on the top photo they are actually red.  Glass tiles don't come out too clearly in photos so you can't quite get the full effect.  Or Mum just takes crap photos.  Sorry Mum.  Love ya guts :)

I love this tissue box with the mirror leaf.

These are all small items because we were planning on selling them at the kindy markets.   But now that we're not going ahead with it, she can get back to the the big ones.

Megs x

Guest Post at Primitive and Proper

I have been invited to be a guest over at Primitive and Proper by the charming Cassie!  Click on her button below if you'd like to mosey on over and check out her blog.  She does amazing things with furniture!