The 1916 house - named Home Hill - is in Devonport, Tasmania and is a national trust-listed property that remains largely untouched after Mr Lyons' wife Dame Enid last lived there in 1981.

The interior of the house is expected to be complete in October when it will open as Porter's Sugar and Spice and All Things Nice solo exhibition.

"I recycle and upcycle what I have been given or what I can find and scrounge," Porter said.

"I can produce a lot of work with virtually nothing and Enid was a frugal woman too. When they were building the highway in front of her house, it made cracks in the walls and the government wanted to plaster them up. She said 'no way', so she painted a tree to cover up all the cracks. She was a very frugal woman.

"On another occasion, she wanted two tables - one for the porch and one for the landing so she just cut a table in half."

One of Porter's artworks is a wallpaper of a French woman wearing a skirt made from sugar, icing, real flowers and a porcelain body.

"The point of the exhibition is to show people how you can be inspired by an original piece and produce a piece of art that's similar," Porter said.

Porter has created 109 pieces for the house so far.

Her use of raw food materials will also coincide with the Fine Food Festival in Tasmania at the time of the exhibition.

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