A 33-year-old marketing professional has been able to make $25,000 a year by turning her passion for flipping furniture into a successful side hustle.
Carrie Anne Harmon lives in the Seacoast region of New Hampshire with her husband Steve, 39, and her stepson.
Ms. Harmon, who describes herself as a “crafty” person, has always enjoyed DIY. As a child, she would constantly work on little decoration projects for her bedroom.
“I was like one of those kids that would rearrange my room every other month and constantly do DIY lamp shades and pillows,” she told The Epoch Times.
After graduating from college and renting her first apartment at the age of 23, Ms. Harmon bought a few old pieces of furniture and worked on them as an affordable way to furnish her apartment.
At that time, one of the projects she worked on was a $10 wooden item. When she moved out of her apartment, she sold the piece for $40. A few years later, she refinished a rocking chair as a gift for an expectant friend. However, it wasn’t until the pandemic that Ms. Harmon’s hobby grew into a business. With plenty of free time—living in a condo with her then fiancé—she began trying things out.
When a new kitchen table arrived, Ms. Harmon recalls her now-husband suggesting they list the old one for free. Instead, she painted and sold it.
“I probably spent $35 on supplies and sold it for $300,“ she said. ”I flipped a desk, again making a few hundred dollars, and then I got hooked; I became obsessed.”
She would cruise the neighborhood, pick up discarded pieces of furniture left outside peoples’ homes, take them back to her garage, and create cool designs. She watched “a ton” of YouTube videos on furniture flipping, channeling her “can-do” attitude.
“I’m a pretty confident person. … I think I’m a little delusional,” she said. “I look at stuff and think, ‘Oh, I could do that.’ And I just go all in on it.”
Sometimes, despite not having an idea of how things will turn out, she'll approach the project with the trust that she will be able to find the necessary resources to complete it.
She’s found upcycling pieces of furniture is a great way for her to stay busy during time at home, learn something new, and bring in extra income.
Sharing her process, Ms. Harmon said she begins by scouring Facebook Marketplace for low-priced goods with potential.
“Normally I don’t spend more than $50 on a piece of furniture,” she said, adding that sometimes she also accepts old furniture from friends and family.
Next, she assesses any damage to the furniture, plans a course of action, and gets to work. After the initial cleaning, if the piece is made from wood, she’ll often strip it down before re-staining it. The prep stage—stripping, sanding, filling in scratches, repairing, and removing water stains—takes a long time. Painting involves scuffing the whole piece down for adhesion before adding one or two coats of primer; then a couple of layers of paint and a topcoat.
Since she lives in New Hampshire and is surrounded by old farmhouses, Ms. Harmon finds that lots of the furniture available to her is antique. However, she prefers working on mid-century modern pieces and high-end contemporary styles.
Having a special affinity for blue and green, she’s used these colors in some of her favorite projects. A beautiful empire dresser was painted green, and another antique bureau was finished in distressed robin’s-egg blue.
Providing an insight into one of her favorite pieces, a navy blue secretary desk, Ms. Harmon said she replaced all the hardware and added new keyholes.
“I put a lot of time into it. And it turned out almost like a perfect piece,” she said.
Besides working on her pet projects, Ms. Harmon takes on commissions and special requests. Her wedding last fall momentarily halted her side hustle, but one great bonus was being able to renovate their family home using the proceeds from furniture flipping and brand partnerships. Some brands even gifted the couple lighting and flooring.
When asked how she manages to find time to flip furniture with a full-time job and family commitments, Ms. Harmon said, “For a long time, I was really prioritizing my business and my career. Now, I try to pace out my projects so I can leave time to enjoy with my stepson and husband. They’re what matters most to me.”
She spends about six to 20 hours a week flipping furniture and an additional 10 hours each week creating content for her social media accounts.
Meanwhile, Mr. Harmon is extremely proud of his wife’s entrepreneurial streak.
“He’s so wonderful,” Ms. Harmon said. “He’s been so helpful throughout this whole process. Anytime I want to do a project, he’s right there with me. He’s excited about it, too.”
The side business has enabled the family to embrace new experiences while improving their home.
“There’s so much good that comes out of it,” Ms. Harmon said, adding that the extra income from flipping furniture has also contributed to funding family vacations.
Ms. Harmon said she'd love to make her side hustle a full-time job and possibly even progress to flipping properties. However, for now, she’s excited about what she feels is a special moment in home DIY and furniture upcycling for women.
“There’s so much visibility around women doing these types of projects on their own,“ she said. ”You see lots of women online gutting their kitchens, renovating their homes, learning how to use power tools for the first time. I think it’s really empowering.”
Ms. Harmon believes that for women and moms, having their own practical skill set and extra income stream can offer much freedom.
“You never know what life is going to hand you. Having a backup ... gives you that financial freedom to live your life more how you want to live it,” she said.
