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Furniture can be flipped just like houses and cars, but the investment is usually a lot smaller. While many types of interior decor can be refinished, upcycled and resold, we’re going to focus on cabinets since they’re a popular choice. The lessons learned can be applied to most furniture pieces.
Of course if you don’t have the energy to refinish furniture just feel like just getting a cabinet with upcycled look, you can always find a display cabinet for sale.
Find the Furniture
To upcycle a piece of furniture, you’re need a piece of furniture. Plenty of flippers shop on Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist and garage sales. Of course, some just browse the attic for an old forgotten heirloom.
To get a high value finished product, you typically need to begin with a well-made piece. Ideally begin with a piece that’s solid wood rather than particle board. Older well made pieces typically weather time better and often have more interesting details.
Tools and Materials Required
In order to do some basic refinishing, you’ll need a few tools (many of which are found in an essential toolbox): power sander, drill, screwdrivers and paint brushes, to start. For a more complicated upcycle, you may need a heat gun, handheld power saw and vices for gluing sections together.
Depending on the type of finish, you’ll need paint stripper, primer, paint or stain. Stencils and tape can also be necessary for some techniques.
Plan the Style
Part of refinishing a cabinet or other piece of furniture is deciding if you’re going to restyle it and picking the right color. You can turn a credenza into a wet bar or an rolltop desk into a display case.
Prepare the Surface
First, remove all of the hardware. Then, using a combination of the chemical stripping and sanding, you’ll need to remove the paint and any coating. Putty or other some compound will be needed to fill in gaps, divots and gashes.
Painting
Restyling the furniture requires planning, priming and often a bit of masking. Most projects require several coats of paint and a finish.
Reselling
When it comes to selling upcycled piece of furniture, it makes sense to consider the cost of the materials and the labor you put into the redoing the furniture. Then you can relist the piece on Marketplace, Craigslist or just keep it yourself.
Furniture Flipping for Beginners
Even though Christina Muscari refinishes nightstands in the above video, all of the lessons are applicable to upcycling a cabinet.
Flipping a Kitchen Cabinet into a Drinks Bar
You shouldn't think that a cabinet always needs to be a cabinet. It can be a drinks bar. And an old steamer trunk can become a cabinet. So many possibilities exist.
Upcycling a Cabinet into a Greenhouse
To make a cabinet into a greenhouse, Finagan Fish House changes the interior lighting to make it more hospitable to plants.
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