Mom Earns $1,000 Per Month Flipping Thrifted Furniture, Here's How

A mom-of-two has revealed how she started flipping furniture as a hobby with no prior knowledge or experience—and now she earns $1,000 a month.

Ashley Brandfass quit her job as an human resources manager so she could home-school her children Aidan, 8, and Alex, 6, during the coronavirus pandemic. During that time, she transformed an old dresser and hasn't stopped since.

"All of my family have a 'do-it-yourself' attitude, but I had never picked up a tool before," she told Newsweek.

Three years later, the 34-year-old has a garage filled with "trash" that she turns into stunning pieces that sell for $300 to $1,000.

Speaking to Newsweek, Brandfass said: "It all started during the pandemic, I like to keep busy so when I saw a video of someone flipping furniture, I decided to give it a go.

"I had never used any tools before because society tells you that women can't.

"Previously, I would expect my husband to do it and work around his timeline but then suddenly it clicked and I believed in myself.

"With the help of YouTube, I managed to learn a lot and after much trial and error, my whole mindset changed and now I feel more empowered than ever."

Initially, flipping furniture was just something to do during lockdown and Brandfass only upcycled pieces for her home. But since, she has turned her passion into her full-time job.

In a viral TikTok video captioned "All dressers deserve to be saved from the landfill," Brandfass, who uses the handle @studio_adash, explains how she gave a set of drawers a new lease of life.

During the clip that has over a million views, Brandfass refers to the product as an "ugly dresser" that is 90 percent particle board. She can be seen sanding and filling in any holes before painting and covering them with pole wrap to create a modern look.

Speaking about the start of her interest, she said: "I managed to kit out my home office with upcycled furniture and then we didn't need anything else but I had fallen in love with it.

"So I continued to make old items look brand new and sold them to locals via social media."

"Over the years, flipping has grown so old items are in demand and people have started putting a price tag on things." she added. "My threshold is $50 to ensure I make a decent profit."

Brandfass told Newsweek that she determines the price of an item by working out how much she spent on materials and how much labor went into the transformation.

"Some projects take eight to 12 hours whereas others take me the whole week.

"I tend to avoid thrift stores as it's not necessarily time well spent unless you are open to whatever.

"The only materials I use are paint and it is from the 'oops' section so that I can get a gallon for $8.

"A gallon is enough for around 10 projects and I mostly get hardware like drawer pulls, and handles online."

"My goal is to make 40 percent profit on each item," she said.

Brandfass regularly shares content online to encourage others to turn one man's trash into another man's treasure.

One step-by-step video from November 2022 shows an old set of drawers turn into white sleek ones. The on-screen text states the furniture was purchased for $40 and sold for $550. The video racked up 1.6 million views and 92,800 likes.

She said: "90 percent of my followers are women, they call me an inspiration.

"I love showing them that DIY isn't as hard as it looks and that they can do it too."

But putting her work online has its downfalls as she has faced criticism from some users.

Reflecting on her profession, she said: "I see flipping furniture as an art.

"But some people hate it when you paint old furniture that they consider antique, they don't understand why I paint rather than restore, so they are in shock and say I have ruined an antique."

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