Gilly's Blog

We interview Mélanie, a multi-talented creative who not only flips vintage furniture, but also sews beautiful cloth baskets for decluttering and organisation in the home, along with growing her own fruit and vegetables (and more). She shares with us her process for transforming a dated Queen Anne style chest of drawers. Please tell us a little about you and your business. We’d love to hear about how long you’ve been involved with what you’re doing and what inspired you to take this career path and when.  I hate waste and I always liked the saying by French chemist Antoine Lavoisier who...

For a restoration project using Gilly’s products, we always recommend cleaning and sanding the timber thoroughly, prior to applying the waxes. The timber needs to be able to absorb (not unlike a sponge) the initial layer of wax or oil so that splitting and cracking can be prevented in future. The more porous the surface is, the better this absorption will be. So, it’s important to remove as much as possible of any coating that was on the timber prior to restoration, particularly any sort of lacquer, which can be quite persistent. Firstly, let’s talk about grit and grade. You’ll...

Tell us a little bit about yourself, Tara. I’m a primary school teacher in NSW and absolutely love it. I also love styling my home and sharing organisation hacks and styling tips with others. I live with my fiancé James and our spoilt Bordoodle Bernie.  Did you always know you wanted to style homes?  Not really! When I was much younger, I would always be rearranging my bedroom at every chance I had and loved constantly changing up all my bedroom décor though (you wouldn’t believe some of the décor phases I went through!). I did say I wanted to...

On this blog, we explore a display cabinet restoration carried out by one of Gilly’s enthusiastic and loyal customers, Gayle. Having been introduced to Gilly’s products by her sister, Gayle set her sights on a full restoration of a bow-fronted display cabinet. After discussing the best way forward with our support staff, Gayle embarked on the project, which would be using our 3-step waxing process, documenting her progress with photos and videos along the way.  The Cabinet had been sitting in a shed for around 15 years and when Gayle dragged it out, it was every bit the candidate for...