Flipping furniture is a fun and creative hobby.  But there is a dark side too.

BLOOD

Injuries happen.  Luckily I haven’t cut off a finger or nailed something to myself by accent; I’ve not burned off skin with the sander or with chemicals;  I’ve not had saw dust or paint chips fly in eyes.  But I did have an injury last weekend while loading up the van for the market the next day.  As you may know, I work out of my second floor apartment so every time I get ready for market I have to up and down the stairs carrying furniture.  It IS like moving every weekend–twice.  Anyway, it’s a miracle I haven’t incurred any of the injuries listed above and it’s a miracle I haven’t fallen down the stairs.  But fall I did right off the curb and onto my knees. Luckily the ottoman I was carrying caught my fall so I didn’t go face down onto the street, just straight onto my knees.  OOOOUUUCH!!!

This is just one knee, both were badly banged up and bleeding.  I felt like such a child.  Now I’m walking around with bruised and scabby knees…isn’t that attractive?  Needless to say, I’ve been wearing long skirts to work this week!!

SPILLAGE

It’s another miracle that I haven’t had a huge spill and disaster in the room that I work in. I don’t have a good work environment at all.  The space is crowded and yes, a mess.  Working in there is a huge challenge.  A couple of weeks ago, when I was getting ready for work I went into the work room to get something and I saw it…a nearly full can of new, read paint.  What a mess!!!  And oh, that beautiful paint that I had just used once….

I wasn’t sure if Mia had knocked it over or if I had the night before when I was putting a large table into the room.  The paint had clearly been there for a while, the edges were drying, but luckily the paint didn’t seep through the carpet and onto the hard wood floor!  Another miracle!  It seems the flipping muses are watching out for me!

DEATH

Yes, death comes to flipping.  I have now killed not one, but two sanders.  I don’t know what their life spans are supposed to be but I clearly am hard on them.

RIP sander #2.

So now you know the “flip side” of the flipping!  LOL!  That was pretty funny if I do say so myself!    Enjoy!

Well, that’s my opinion at least!

I’m happy to show you a couple of things available this Sunday at the Someville Flea.  Come by if you’re local…or even if you’re not!

So you may remember the world’s ugliest chairs that I found this summer at a thrift store.  No? Let me refresh your memory. Brace yourself, it’s not pretty!

Horrible!!  They had been spray painted silver and had and stand of faux silver tacks around the edge.  What can I say about the ugly upholstery?  Ugh.

This flip was one of the hardest and most time consuming because of the various layers of paint, some of it oil based, spray painted, and some sort of goo that was nearly impossible to sand off!  I thought this would a quick flip–sand, paint and re-upholster.  No!!  But I’m happy with out they turned out.  What do you think?

The blue turned out a little brighter than I thought it would be, but I like it!!

On to another ugly to beautiful:

This is another that ended up taking much more time than I thought it would.  Five layers of paint!!!

The photo on the left shows the first two layers, but as I went I found black, pink and red!!  I have to admit, at one point I found myself  thinking the multiple layers looked kind of cool.  There was something very graphic about the colors — sort of destressed graphic.  Or maybe I’d call it shabby graphic?  I don’t know there was something that reminded me of comic book artwork.  Well, I decided not to keep it and keep sanding.  And the final result???

Ta daaaa!

I’m now obsessed with the idea of using two tones of one color, so yes you are seeing two shades of red.  I think this is my new favorite piece.  I want to keep it but I know it will sell.

So those are the two BIG dramatic make overs…or rather flips.  I’ll post a few other soon.

Thanks for checking it out!

Happy 100 to me!!  I realized last night that I had reached the magic number of 100 sold flips!!  That doesn’t count clocks, boxes, lanterns, etc, only furniture.  And I also counted pairs as one, so technically I’ve sold over 100 items since I started selling three years ago.

The scene of the event.

What was the luck 100th piece?

This baby!

What made it even better was that it was the one piece I REALLY wanted to sell yesterday.  It’s a big, ol’ heavy, awkward-to-carry  1970’s end table.  I REALLY didn’t want to have to take it home and carry it up the stairs only to have to take it back to market next week. I priced it to sell, and sell it did!  PHEW!

It’s hard to see but the glass doors are dark yellow which is why I went for the yellow color.  How many of you grew up with similar pieces of furniture?  I know I did!  My mother bought a set which include a coffee table and two side tables–one of them in the shape of a hexagon.  No glass doors though, wood.  Ugh.

I found it on the side of the road and it had three feet, one was missing.  I tried to see if I could find another one to make the four, but no such luck.  So I opted to just remove the feet all together.

A work in progress.

I’m glad it found a good home. The girl who bought it was excited and luckily her roommate’s boyfriend was there and was given the job to carry it back to the apartment.  He was a big guy so I’m sure he no problems.

She also bought this little cutie.

 
It didn’t turn out exactly the way I wanted but that’s okay.  She liked it and it has a home.

I’ll post more later and share with you the story of the horrible people who came into my booth.  Stay tuned!