You can always find something at a thrift store or a charity shop.” There’s a sense of accomplishment, she says, in seeing “a piece that was slathered in paint now showing a beautiful wood grain, restored and ready to live another 50 years”.
With a cheap paintbrush, she applied a new top coat of exterior paint (a rookie error: she now knows you should never use exterior paint on furniture).
Of course, doing up old furniture is nothing new – some trace the hobby back as far as ancient Egypt, and 90s and 00s DIY shows were full of questionable “makeovers” of chests of drawers and wardrobes stripped and painted in garish colours.
Her bestsellers are sideboards and nightstands, but she won’t touch china cabinets – “They are hard to work on, they are hard to transport, they are hard to store” – or dining sets, because the amount they sell for isn’t worth the time it takes to restore them.
Welcome to the world of online furniture flipping – where interiors enthusiasts show how they have transformed pieces obtained for little or no money back to their original glory.
