Saturday, February 4, 2017

Bring Home The Bacon By Restoring Old Furniture

Everybody can use a little extra cash from time to time, but where does this “little extra cash” come from?! There are many ways to make a bit of side money online, but these opportunities can be pretty elusive, and even when you find one you’re normally competing with many other online workers for the same job. Another option is to look for what we can make ourselves, and one thing we can all do is restore old furniture. It’s simple: we make old, make look like new, and then sell for a handsome profit. Sounds too good to be true? It really isn’t! Read on...





Finding Old Furniture

There’s plenty of people willing to get rid of their old pieces of furniture. Just take a look at eBay, or your local classified listings, or any second hand stores you have in your area. Obviously, you’re not looking for how good it is now, you’re looking for how good it could be with a little TLC. Anything that has too much damage probably isn’t worth your time, but things that are just a little roughed up probably will be!

Get Rid of Imperfections

Before you do anything else with your furniture, you’ll have to identify any obvious imperfections, and then get rid of them. If the wood has little nicks in it, use a piece of sandpaper to smooth it down, or use a benchtop planer if the wood is warped. Other issues such as doors that are hanging off can be easily fixed, as can most other structural damages. Once the structure is sound, you can get to work on making it look glamourous.

Painting

The easiest, most straightforward furniture DIY job that just about anybody can do is buy some chalk paint and wax. Give the furniture two coats of chalk paint, wait for it to dry, and then apply the wax. You’ll be amazed at how good it looks - like a completely new piece of furniture! There are other paints and styles you can use, so take a look at furniture Pinterest projects and let your imagination run wild.


A Unique Spin

Chalk paint will make it look good; a unique spin will make it look great. One easy way to make your piece of furniture stand out is to add handles that pop. It’s probably the one way you get to add a creative touch to a limited piece of furniture, but it’s a powerful one. Pick up a color chart, find which color would compliment your paint, and make that the color of your handles - easy! 

The Selling Part

Once it’s dried and ready to be cold, list your furniture on a local classifieds site, in the paper, or spread the word through word of mouth. A $100 piece of refurbished furniture can easily sell for $3-400! And after you’ve sold your first one, you might just start getting order after order, so it’s on to the next one! 

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