Furniture Flipping: How, Why and Where!
Furniture flipping is a great way to transform your home on a very small budget, or even make some money on the side.
I’ve upcycled loads of furniture and have plenty of tutorials here on Upcycle My Stuff, so I have plenty of experience to share with you if you’re just starting out.
Upcycling furniture is a great way to breathe new life into old worn pieces of home decor that might otherwise work their way to the dump.
In this tutorial, I’ll share the step-by-step process that you need to do for EVERY furniture flip, and then I’ll share some examples of some of my favorite flips featured here on Upcycle My Stuff.
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Table of Contents
Why Should I Flip Furniture?
Furniture flipping can be a great side income or can even become a full-time job if you want to leave your current 9-5.
Upcycling furniture is surprisingly profitable, because each time you create a unique and one-of-a-kind piece of furniture, and people will normally pay a premium for that.
Aside from being able to make money on flipping furniture, it’s also a cheap way to give your interior a quick new look, without buying brand-new furniture.
Upcycling furniture and stretching out the life of your furnishings is better on our planet too as it means fewer resources are being used to make new pieces of furniture.
Where Do I Find and Sell Furniture to Flip?
Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, and local thrift stores are all great places to start looking for old pieces of furniture.
Sometimes you can even find free furniture which is great for flipping. You can read about that in our article ‘How to Find Free Furniture’.
It’s important to remember that the finished piece of furniture will only ever be as good as the initial piece you start with. With that in mind, always try to find a piece of furniture that has a solid base to start with.
You can fix and fill little dents, or even chips, but if the quality of the furniture is very poor to begin with, stay away from it.
Solid wooden furniture is generally the best type of furniture to flip. Avoid MDF or other cheaply made furniture as it just won’t scrub up as well.
How Do I Start Flipping Furniture?
Once you’ve chosen your first piece of furniture, it’s time to start upcycling it.
Step One: Clean
First up, you need to clean your furniture. The best cleaning solution is sugar soap as it does next to no damage to the furniture and removes any grim and dirt.
Leave your project to thoroughly dry before you give it a gentle sand all over.
Step Two: Prepare
Using a wood filler, fill any holes or scratches, wait for the filler to dry, and then gently sand them down.
Always sand in the same direction as the wood grain, and start off with a lower grain of sandpaper (80 grit or so).
Continue sanding using higher and higher grits of sandpaper until you have a smooth finish. I normally do three separate sands. One with 80 grit paper, one with 120 and a final one with 180 grit.
Give your project a wipe over when you’ve finished sanding to remove any dust.
Step Three: Finish
Depending on whether you want to wax, stain, or paint your piece of furniture, you can go ahead and prime it in the best way possible for the method you’ve chosen.
Wooden furniture will need priming before painting as will most metal and plastic furniture.
When it comes to painting, keep your layers thin and build them up rather than trying to cover the furniture with one thick layer of paint.
Lastly, you can add new fixtures and fittings. We’ve got loads of amazing unique knob and drawer handle ideas that you can check out here.
With all of these tips in mind, let’s take a look at some of the best furniture flips here on Upcycle My Stuff!
Furniture Flip Examples
Furniture Flips
Whether you're looking for a quick and easy flip to make a quick return, or you want to do a quality upcycling job for a piece of furniture for your own home, you'll find plenty of tutorials here that you can follow along with.
You can pretty much transform any piece of furniture you like if you have the right resources and know-how.
Marble is a super expensive and sought-after material when it comes to high end decor, but you can quite easily make faux marble and this tutorial shows you exactly how to do it.
Drinks trolleys went out of style for a little while but have made a strong come back in recent years, so tying these two things together makes perfect sense.
Prior to upcycling this coffee table, it had a really old-fashioned mesh top that just wouldn't fit in with any modern decor.
Now, it has a removable glass top, so that you can store and display little decor pieces inside the table. I love this idea!
When you hear 'paint' and velour', you'd assume those two words cannot possibly be used in the same sentence, but this actually works!
This tutorial shows you how to repaint velour and velvet, and guess what?! You don't even need specialist fabric paints!
This is a truly bespoke and unique piece of furniture, it looks almost unrecognizable from the original piece of furniture - that's one of my favorite things about flipping furniture!
This tutorial includes very detailed instructions from dismantling and cleaning furniture to sanding, painting, and adding finishing touches.
Sometimes furniture only needs a very minimal makeover to really bring out its original features, this is certainly the case with this elegant buffet.
The walnut stain was already pretty perfect before the upcycle, so just by adding a touch of paint to the edges and draws, you can keep the original look of the furniture but add a touch of modernity.
If you're looking for other sideboard upcycles, check out our article on 23 ideas for things to do with your sideboards.
Many dressing tables, especially dark wooden tables, are simply outdated for most modern bedrooms now, and you can pick them up relatively cheaply.
That's great for us upcyclers as we can give them a whole new modern look using paint and wallpaper just like this tutorial!
Sometimes you just want to flip an old piece of furniture into something completely new, like this fabulous piano turned into a stylish bar!
When opening the lid to the piano and seeing how beautiful the inside was, that's when inspiration struck for a bar. And this is often the case with old furniture, sometimes it will tell you what it wants to become!
If you're new to furniure flipping, sometimes starting out with a small project is the best way to get stuck in. You won't feel too overwhelmed and can quite quickly upcycle a piece of furniture just by adding a new surface.
In this project, I added tiles to a slightly worn looking side table and it immediately gave it a uplift! It also means I can put my drinks straight onto the table without needing a coaster!
Do you have a piece of furniture that just doesn't work for your family anymore? I had a cot that neither of my sons wanted to sleep in, so I decided to repurpose it into something else - a garden bench!
This is another great way to flip furniture - give it a brand new purpose and turn it into something completely different.
If you're on the look for other garden decor ideas, check out these fun upcycled planters.
Armchairs can be notoriously difficult to upcycle due to the amount of fabric and upholstering that goes into them.
This tutorial really simplifies the process so that even a beginner could have a go at upcycling an armchair!
Not all upcycles require a complete revamp of the whole piece of furniture, sometimes you can add just one thing and it completely changes the look of it.
That is what I decided to do with this old toy chest. I added a padded cushion on the top of the box to make it multi-purpose!
This really detailed tutorial walks you through how to paint a wooden chair, from the thorough prep and sand, all the way through to the top coat.
In these types of chairs, there are lots of difficult bits to get in between, so if you have a piece of furniture that has tricky and awkward angles, this guide will give you plenty of help.
Nicknamed 'The Pink Lady', this is one of our favorite upcycles on Upcycle My Stuff.
The difference between the old and worn dark stained chest of drawers and the upcycled modern and chic pink drawers just goes to show exactly how much you can change a piece of furniture through flipping it!
Sometimes flipping furniture involves more than sanding and painting, especially when the piece has fabric incorporated into it. This is common for many different chairs ottomans and bed headboards.
This tutorial shows you how to upholster a dining room chair but the ideas can easily be used for any furniture that has a fabric element.
Can You Make Money Flipping Furniture?
You’ve probably seen the TikTok trends where people get an old piece of furniture, show a few short videos of themselves sanding and painting, and then VOILA, they have a brand new piece of furniture that sold for four times what they bought it for. Is this actually possible?
In short, YES! People are always willing to pay a premium for one-of-a-kind pieces. As long as you make sure you market your upcycled furniture in the right place and start with good quality pieces in the first place, you should be able to make a decent profit from each flip.
A good way to value your flips, is to take the original cost, add on the price of any resources you used, and then add in the cost of your time.
Many people don’t value their own time enough, but we would definitely suggest setting yourself an hourly rate and including this in the cost of the upcycled piece of furniture! Check this post about how to price your upcycled items if you aren’t sure how to price your work and still make a profit.
Ready To Do Your Own Flip?
We’re always looking for new flips to feature here on Upcycle My Stuff, so if you’d like one of your upcycled masterpieces to be featured, feel free to send us a message or leave a comment!
More Upcycled Furniture Projects For You To Check Out
- Upcycled Furniture & Decor
- 15 Ways to Turn an Old Door into a Table – DIY Tutorials
- 13 Fun Ideas for Upcycling Old Chairs
- How to Upcycle Antique French Fauteuil Chairs – Painting & Upholstery Tutorial
- How to Spray Paint a Metal Chair – Easy Ombre Upcycle Project
- How to Paint Grain Sack Stripes on Fabric: A Video Tutorial
