“Everyone doesn’t need to like a specific piece that you upcycle. Just the person who takes that piece home.”
– Danyelle Arianne
When it comes to salvaging, upcycling, and repurposing items we all have our own styles and preferences. While each of us may be drawn to a certain look such as midcentury modern, primitives, or boho chic, try things outside of your niche. I do my best not to pigeonhole myself with too much of the same style. I mean honestly, how many pieces of furniture really need to be painted white and gently distressed?
Waiting for the Perfect Piece!
On the other hand, we also all have 30 Pinterest boards with thousands of images of furniture, décor, inspirational quotes, recipes, and exercise plans (that we’re all too busy to get to). Images that we’ve saved in the hopes of finding that perfect piece that would look amazing in that style! The downside is, while we wait for that perfect piece to embody that inspirational image, we let dozens of pieces of furniture get tossed!
Therefore, I encourage all of we who redo furniture to become “Opportunistic Upcyclers“. Of course you can save inspiration, you’ll need it when that perfect piece comes along! But in the meantime, when you see a piece of furniture for sale that’s not really your style, or maybe it was just given to you and not the era that you like to work on, redo it. I encourage you to figure out what it is, then go search for inspiration surrounding that specific piece!
Some of my absolute favorite redo’s came from something that I didn’t have a vision for. By becoming more “opportunistic”, we work on the pieces available rather than just what we like. By doing this, more furniture gets done, you get more practice and range, you make more money, and you’re saving a lot more pieces of furniture from becoming garbage.
Not Afraid to Ruin it.
It’s a winning scenario however you look at it. The best part? If you redo something you really don’t like, you’ve gotten that out of the way! You can try again with the same piece and you didn’t ruin something you really liked!
Remember, everyone doesn’t need to like a specific piece that you upcycle. Just the one person who takes the piece home.
