selling furniture in its own store. He married Rebekka Marie Clausen on 25 June 1784. His talents were also used for the interior design of apartments at Christiansborg Palace. His first large work was the decoration of the suite at the castle for the newly married Princess Louise Augusta and Christian Friedrich of Augustenborg in 1786. In 1787 he was cited for neglect of duties as a teacher at the academy, and was refused a travel stipend, which should have been his due as recipient of the gold medallion eight years previously. His fellow gold medallion winner that same year and friend C.F. Hansen had also been refused a travel stipend, but was able to travel on account of a direct financial dispensation from Dowager Queen Juliane Marie and King Christian VII. In 1788 Lillie applied for the job of city architect in Copenhagen, but to no avail. He married his second wife Julie Meinier (Meunier) in France. In 1790 Lillie did the interior design for Crown Prince and Regent Frederik’s apartments both at Christiansborg Palace and at Frederiksberg Palace. On 3 November 1790 he was appointed interior designer to the Danish court. He travelled in Norway in 1793. The interior decoration in 1794-1795 of various apartments in Schack's Palace (today commonly referred to as Christian IX's Palace) at Amalienborg, then the home of the Crown Prince and his family, is also attributed to him. The Christiansborg fire of 1794 destroyed much of his work at the castle, although some individual pieces survived. Later career in Lübeck Economic conditions were hard for artists at the turn of the 19th century, with shriveling funds from the public coffers due to, among other things, the loss of Christiansborg, the setting up of new residences at Amalienborg, and pending war, which took place in the early 19th century. After a bankruptcy in 1798 he left Copenhagen and Denmark, and moved to Lübeck, where the second half of his career began. His second wife died on 21 July 1804 in Lübeck. He was resident architect for C.F. Hansen at the establishment of Kastorf and Kramonshagen in Holstein in 1801-1802. Lillie became the director and a professor of architecture, perspective and geometry at the Freie Zeichenschule, Lübeck in 1804. He continued at the school until 1827. He lived with Johanna Catharina Haak starting in 1805. Lillie became Lübeck's chief architect in 1813. He died in