Having been keen furniture up-cyclers for many years, we decided to paint up some furniture for one of our shops to use for displaying our products. We were delighted when customers started to ask if they could buy this furniture and we then started to paint up furniture to sell. To compliment this new business opportunity, we decided to sell a range of chalk paint and furniture accessories. Part of the condition to become a stockist was to attend the supplier’s training program, after which we felt even more confident in being able to complete work to a professional standard. So, we had our paint nicely displayed with up-cycled furniture for sale and we started doing paint demonstrations. What we did not anticipate was the amount of people who would ask us to paint their own furniture, which quickly became the most rewarding part of the business. At this stage we also realised that most people just wanted their dark pine furniture painted a different colour (not

necessarily shabby chic). As the chalk paint is great for shabby chic, but not so good for a producing a modern smooth waterproof finish, I searched for an additional paint range that would enable us to offer a finish suitable for all types of furniture including kitchens. We also discovered that once you

did a piece of furniture for a customer they would want more doing. For example, I painted 2 kitchen stools for a customer, who then asked me to paint their kitchen, dining & utility room. The other advantages are, a very high profit margin with the materials just costing 5-10%, working for ourselves and choosing the hours that suit us.