In paint spattered shirt and jeans Lucie Milner spends the daylight hours at the workshop she shares with husband Phil; together they are Fresh Face.
Located in picturesque Littlebredy, Fresh Face is a furniture restyling and renovation business. Lucie and Phil started it 10 years ago in the New Forest, wanting a business they could do together. Lucie uses her artistic skills to paint and create beautiful pieces of art on the furniture, while Phil, who used to be an aircraft engineer as well as singing and playing percussion in a rock band, uses his carpentry skills to transform and give new life to the pieces they work on.
It was when Lucie met Phil, at a gig he was playing in, that their lives took a different direction. Now married for 22 years, Lucie was working for a London Estate Agency in the New Forest when they met. Acknowledging encouragement from her artist and novelist mother, Lucie turned her painting hobby into a business. They relocated to Burton Bradstock and then to Portesham, a workshop in Littlebredy giving them an enviable work life balance. Their house is now decorated the way Lucie likes it. However the odd bit of furniture she takes a particular liking to does find its way there as a temporary home from time to time – a “perk of the job”.
The couple are now re-landscaping their garden, which is more Phil’s domain. Lucie enjoys gardening and hosting dinner parties and although there is a clear differentiation between work and home, she can still be found working into the evening on emails and other admin. Lucie loves what she does. However, “When I retire, I’d like to be an artist”, she jokes, well, part joke, part truth.
