Rising up, Christina Clericuzio at all times thought the dresser at her grandma’s home was so ugly — with walnut brown wooden and a diamond-like design on the drawer faces.
So when Clericuzio’s grandma was eliminating it, it appeared like the proper candidate for her new interest: furniture-flipping, the follow of taking a chunk of outdated furnishings and restoring or refinishing it.
Clericuzio sanded down the walnut, eliminated the wooden veneer, added drawer pulls, and painted many of the dresser white. When she posted the earlier than and after photographs on-line, she liked the brand new beachy look.
“I used to be like, ‘Oh my gosh, I am a magician. I am so wonderful,'” the Connecticut-based content material creator advised Enterprise Insider.
However then got here the feedback.
“That is legal.”
“That is evil.”
“You actually ruined it!”
“I bought humbled so fast,” Clericuzio stated, including there have been individuals calling her dumb and all kinds of names.
She nonetheless thought the piece was cute and was capable of promote it for $400 — however now she is aware of a mid-century fashionable furnishings piece like that, restored to its unique look, can promote for a lot, far more.
As much as $8,160, to be actual, in line with a present Chairish itemizing for what seems to be the very same dresser — a mid-century nine-drawer lowboy piece made by United Furnishings.
Clericuzio is amongst numerous furnishings flippers on Instagram and TikTok who usually get berated and even threatened of their feedback over a few of their work — particularly after they paint over wooden furnishings, and even moreso if the colour they go along with is white, beige, or the extensively mocked “millennial grey.”
Jennifer Beck, a Tennessee-based furnishings flipper who runs Saved By Design along with her mother, advised BI she’s thought of making shirts for her model that say, “Overlook about politics. How do you’re feeling about painted furnishings?”
Nonetheless, furnishings flipping is booming. Some content material creators, like Clericuzio, bought into it in the course of the pandemic and have been capable of flip it from a facet hustle right into a full-time gig. Furnishings flippers additionally give new life to a chunk which may in any other case find yourself in a landfill — which occurs greater than you’d assume with donated furnishings — and shopping for secondhand is more and more interesting to Gen Z, who view it as a extra environmentally pleasant option to store.
So why all of the hate?
Halfpoint Pictures/Getty Pictures
Demand is up for classic wooden furnishings — with out paint
A part of the backlash definitely stems from the present state of the furnishings business, during which it is more and more troublesome to get your arms on brand-new, high-quality furnishings.
The decline in high quality in mass-market furnishings has led many individuals to hunt out classic or secondhand items, particularly these fabricated from actual wooden, which was widespread in American furnishings manufacturing within the mid-1900s however makes up a a lot smaller share of the retail market immediately, which is saturated with merchandise made out of engineered wooden and different low-cost supplies.
Consequently, the secondhand furnishings market is booming, with classic furnishings sellers proliferating on locations like Instagram and Fb Market.
The flippers stated many of the hate feedback have a tendency to return from flips of midcentury fashionable furnishings, specifically, a beloved and lasting design aesthetic from round roughly the Thirties to Seventies.
Most of the flips that draw probably the most backlash are of distinct midcentury items getting reworked right into a extra fashionable, and sometimes extra generic, painted piece that would slot in at Anthropologie — a model Clericuzio loves and takes inspiration from for her flips.
However now that she’s been doing this just a few years and is extra knowledgable about furnishings normally, Clericuzio stated she understands the place a few of the critics are coming from, if not the hateful manner they specific their distaste.
“I actually attempt to solely work on midcentury fashionable items that, for my part, are simply objectively ugly,” she stated, or items which might be so broken they is likely to be past a traditional restoration job.
As for a way she’d deal with her grandma’s outdated dresser immediately?
“I most likely would not even contact it,” she stated, including now that she is aware of extra about furnishings, she even sees extra magnificence within the unique piece.
The Washington Put up/Getty Pictures
Furnishings restoration vs. portray
Ask any flipper and so they’ll let you know how divisive portray furnishings is, however some acknowledge that the need to simply paint over any outdated piece of furnishings can come from a scarcity of ability.
“After I first began out, I didn’t know what I used to be doing,” Beck, the Tennessee-based flipper, stated. When she began furnishings flipping, portray was the one factor she knew do.
“All we have been making an attempt to do was change the look in order that we might have a earlier than and after photograph and promote it,” she stated, including that meant her merchandise weren’t as prime quality as they might’ve been and she or he was promoting some items for a lot lower than she might if she really restored them.
As she realized extra about furnishings and improved her abilities, Beck stated she was capable of be extra discerning about portray. Now she does high-end restoration and refinishing work, usually promoting her items for hundreds of {dollars}.
She nonetheless makes use of paint, however in a way more restricted capability, like when the piece is simply too broken for full restoration or some use of paint will add to the design and make it extra interesting for her prospects.
Beck stated she additionally considers what sorts of items will really decline in worth if they’re painted, in line with appraisers, like high-quality vintage, historic, or mid-century fashionable items, usually with a maker’s mark indicating the craftsmen who produced them.
It is not nearly making probably the most cash. Beck believes there are some items that needs to be restored and preserved just because they’re uncommon, beloved, and culturally invaluable.
However in the end, it comes right down to what she will promote to her prospects. Regardless of all of the vocal on-line haters of painted furnishings, there is a cause furnishings flippers do it: the items promote.
Mike Coleman, a classic furnishings vendor and the proprietor of Large Mike’s Classic in Chicago, stated he was strongly in opposition to portray over items, however after assembly expert sellers who do it nicely, he is opened as much as it.
“It is your home, your furnishings,” he stated, including, “Do need you need always.”
However he stated he is seen loads of TikTok flippers who simply do not know do it nicely in a manner that can really final, and he thinks most individuals ought to go away it to the professionals.
“You’ll be able to’t simply spray paint over lacquered walnut,” Coleman stated.
Christina Clericuzio
Critics of furnishings flippers do not at all times know what they’re speaking about
One flip that drew hate feedback and pissed off Clericuzio concerned a brown shelving unit she picked up from Goodwill for $12.
She sanded down the shelf — which revealed it had beforehand been painted over thrice: purple, blue, after which brown — then painted over most of it with a light-weight blue paint and added some mirrors, distinctive drawer panels, new knobs, and legs. She left the highest wooden seen, which means there was really extra of the unique wooden displaying than when she purchased it.
Nonetheless, the hate feedback rolled in. One which bought over 4,100 likes learn: “the best way u take lovely classic items, n make em boring n fashionable needs to be put within the bible as a sin.” Many commenters have been particularly exasperated that Clericuzio threw away the “unique” knobs.
However after the TikTok of the flip went viral, the lady who initially donated the shelf bought in contact with Clericuzio.
The shelf had come from someplace like Ikea, and the lady had painted it over herself a number of occasions within the years she owned it.
As for the “lovely vintage knobs” that commenters could not consider Clericuzio tossed?
They promote for $3.99 a chunk from Interest Foyer.
Have a information tip or story to share? Contact this reporter at kvlamis@businessinsider.com.
