BEDFORD COUNTY, Tenn. (WTVF) — Furniture flipping is becoming a popular way to earn extra income, transforming forgotten pieces into profitable sales with just a few tools and some creativity.
Jen Beck is giving worn and well-used furniture a second life with her business, Saved By Design.
Her Bedford County workshop is now filled with tools, but this all began with simple supplies.
"A couple of paint brushes and some chalk paint," said Beck, owner of Saved by Design.
Beck started a furniture flipping business after leaving a corporate furniture sales job in 2018.
"I was very much in a rat race situation," Beck said.
She and her mom painted a table and put it online.
"We sold it for either $250 or $280,” Beck said.
Since then, Saved by Design has grown to a six-figure-a-year operation.
For those looking to start furniture flipping on a budget, Beck offers several tips.
First, look in your home or online for solid wood furniture at a lower price point.
"Nightstands, dressers, really functional pieces," Beck said. “The easiest thing out of the gate is just training your eye to find a piece that's already solid, could definitely be resold, that either has really bad photos on the listing that you find, that you can just clean up and freshen up.”
The flip can be as simple as cleaning up the piece and taking good pictures with your phone.
Beck recommends using natural light and staging furniture against an attractive wall; you can even use a piece of painted beadboard if you don’t have a clean wall at home.
You can list items for sale on sites like Etsy or Facebook Marketplace.
After making initial profits, flippers can move on to painting furniture or even restoring pieces like Beck does now, but only if it makes financial sense.
"Don't invest in a lot of things up front because you may not necessarily need what I need," Beck said.
For more tips on how to flip or restore furniture, click here to follow Saved By Design on Facebook, and here for Instagram.
Many flippers, including Beck, have built massive online followings by documenting their work on social media.
While social media can help, Beck says it's not necessary to start earning money from furniture flipping.
"This is not like a pyramid scheme or something where you might get lucky. No, this is something very real that everyone can do," Beck said.
This story was reported on-air by journalist Robb Coles and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Coles verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
Do you have an interesting story to share? You can email me at robb.coles@newschannel5.com.
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