Rob & Melissa Stephenson from Flea Market Flipper interview Jen Tally about her furniture flipping business.
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Reseller Hangout Podcast - Interview With Jen Talley
Rob: What's up, guys? Today, we are stoked to talk to Jen Talley with perfectly imperfect furniture and super-stoked to get a look inside of her business and to see some of the amazing stuff that she's doing and some tips on how we can do the same thing. So, Jen, thanks for jumping on here with us.
Melissa: Thanks so much.
Jen: Yeah, absolutely. It's great to be here. Thanks for having me.
Rob: Absolutely.
Melissa: Of course. So let's go ahead and dive right into, how did you get started in this whole furniture flipping business?
Jen: Yeah. So it's been a while it's almost eight years that I've been doing this. It kind of started almost by accident.
I would say my husband and I bought our first home. And we had moved from a duplex. We had just been renting and we needed to fill our home with furniture. And of course we went to the big box stores, purchased furniture that was expensive. But, you know what I mean? So after, you know, six months or a year when I saw this furniture was falling apart, the wheels kind of started spinning in my head.
Like I'm going to see what I can do for myself. And I had like a desk, that would get used previously for one of our kids. And I'm just going to paint that. And then like one thing led to another and I was constantly going to rummage sales, looking on the curb, thrift stores, all that good stuff, and just finding my own pieces that in my opinion, were better quality than the big box stores. Plus I could make them how I wanted to, to fit my style. So we ended up filling our home with almost all of my own pieces. And then I honestly fell in love with it. It became a burning passion of mine. So I couldn't stop. And then just little by little, I got my work out there, made a Facebook page, Instagram page, and it just kind of blew up and it's still here and it's wonderful.
Rob: Awesome. I love it.
Melissa: Yeah, your pieces are beautiful. I love following you on Instagram.
Rob: Absolutely. So the stuff that you do kind of get drawn to, I know you're talking about the big box store versus the, is it more typically older stuff that you're drawn to?
Because we know older stuff is built way, way better with the real wood you have dovetails, you have all that kind of stuff. Is that more to what you're drawn to?
Jen: Yeah, for sure. I love vintage pieces. I love the really old antique vintage pieces. I also love, you know, mid century. But even now, when we're talking about vintage, we're even talking like eighties furniture.
It makes me feel old, but, just, it doesn't necessarily have to be old for me to do it, but I am definitely looking for pieces that are in good shape. You know, mostly, mostly solid wood dovetails are great. You know, it doesn't have to be, but I do look for those solid pieces. As far as my style, though, I will work on anything from, you know, a 100 year old gentleman's dresser all the way up to, like I said, something that was, a mid eighties part of a bedroom set, you know,
Rob: I love it.
Melissa: Oh, we do have some vintage electronics and they're like the eighties and stuff. It's like, okay.
Rob: We're vintage now.
Jen: Oh, is that vintage? But yeah, I get it.
Melissa: That's funny. I did notice the other day or for Christmas I wanted some nightstands and he got them for me from Hobby Lobby.
And I love Hobby Lobby to shop at, but their furniture, like, it's not very good. Just kind of cheap. And so we have a mirror from them and like, yeah, I love this store, but it's just not the same.
Rob: No.
Jen: Yeah. It's cute. It's you know, for little items, but yeah, I've done. I've been there. Done that.
Melissa: Yeah. So when you dove in, like were you doing this, you do this for your own house?
And then how did you make the transition to doing it like as a side hustle then to full-time? How did that go?
Jen: Yeah, I, like I said, it honestly kind of happened just organically after I did a few pieces and I got better at it, I guess. I had people like friends and family saying, you know, you should get your work out there.
You know? And I did, you know, just as simple as starting my Facebook page and, for me, word of mouth was everything. So in the beginning it was, you know, my Facebook page, a few friends and people sharing it, and a few clients that bought my pieces and they would share it with their friends and family.
And that was huge for me. I live in a fairly rural area. So that was one thing that helped me grow for sure. And, yeah, then it was like you said, it was kind of a side hustle, just something for fun. I love doing it. It didn't, it still doesn't feel like work. But I also had, at the time, you know, my kids were much younger, so I've, I've been a stay at home mom my whole life, my husband works in healthcare. He has an incredibly crazy busy schedule. So I always had to be available. I had to be the one that was available for my kids. Like I said, his schedule is just unpredictable. So this allowed me once they went to school, it allowed me to have my thing, help provide a little bit for my family and still be available for my kids.
And, you know, then it just kind of grew. And the more that I got my work out there, the better I got at it, then the more I was able to work with different companies and, you know, here we are.
That's awesome.
Rob: That sparked a question. Like we're really big on telling people what we do.
People come out of the woodworks when they know we resell stuff. Give us stuff. Do you have people pre-ordering like, they see your amazing creations? They see what you're doing or transformations. And do you have people once you get the word out, there are people saying, hey you know what? I really would love a nice set of night stands.
Can you keep your eyes open and try and make me that? Do you have people doing that?
Jen: Yeah all the time. I'm sure you guys get that a lot. Right?. Because like, well, I do both custom work and, you know, I just pick up pieces on my own and do them the way I want and sell them. So, a lot of times, you know, someone will see something and I'm like, that's exactly what I'm looking for, but I'm looking for a different color or, you know, that's a little bit too big.
So then they'll ask me, you know, if I can find X, Y, or Z. I am not at the point where I can, you know, I'll kind of put them on a list, a mental list. Yeah, keep it in the back of my head, but I'm not, I'm kind of too busy to be like individually sourcing items, but for sure if I come across something that I know a client is looking for, then I will do that.
Rob: Yeah. Awesome.
Melissa: Now, do you have a favorite style piece? I know you said you do everything, like, do you kind of lean towards one that you like more or do you just like them all?
Jen: You know, honestly, I like them all. I couldn't pick a favorite. I actually just posted a reel this morning with just a few few of my pieces.
And it's a question that I get asked a lot. What's your favorite style? And my answer is always pretty furniture. It's honestly, whatever I like, whatever I feel, you know, right back here that I love the style and I can't see it, but it's, it's a very tall vintage gentlemen or high high boy tall boy dresser.
And the reason why it's still sitting there because I can't, I love it so much that I can't decide what to do with it. You know, but I love vintage furniture. I love mid-century furniture. But I just liked the transformation. I like pretty furniture.
Rob: Yeah. Awesome. That actually brings into another question too, where, so you're finding these cool, cool pieces of furniture.
Where are you finding the majority of these? Are they at thrift stores, yard sales, sales on the side of the road. What is your favorite place or where do you find the most good stuff?
Jen: All of the above. Honestly, I have a few go-to thrift stores that over the years, I just know which ones have the good pieces.
So I usually hit up the thrift stores a couple of times a week, because it's ever changing and, Facebook marketplace is another go-to, which, you know, I think people have a love, hate relationship with. You can find some really good things and then you can have bad experiences. So, I've kind of found ways to make that work for me the best.
We go to as many estate sales as we can. I live in Wisconsin, so most of those are in the spring and summer when the weather is nicer, same with yard sales. And then you have curbside finds I mean, that's like a goldmine, you know.
Melissa: Yeah, people throw stuff out and just this morning you saw the table.
It was like a weird looking desk. I'm like, that could be so cool.
Rob: Yeah, really cool stuff that people just throw out because they don't know what to do with it.
Jen: They don't know what to do with that. They don't know what they have sometimes, you know.
Melissa: That's cool. That's fun. And then if you have a creative eye, you're like, oh, that could, I could make that into something really cool and desires.
Jen: Exactly.
Rob: So many great places out there, guys that you can find some cool stuff and some of it cheap, some of it free. So yeah. Just take note of that. For sure, that's awesome.
Melissa: You were first, like getting started in this, what would you say was one of the harder obstacles to overcome, like to learn?
What do you think?
Jen: Probably, furniture wise, picking the right pieces, knowing what to look for. I, you know, I do think that in the beginning I would take anything and everything, you know, if I did see curbside find, or something that through the thrift store that was really cheap. It was like, or people offering me, you know, hey, do you want this?
And I would take everything. And I ended up with just a garage full of honestly, half junk. And, I think the more that I got into it, the more that I learned about furniture and what to look for was, you know, you don't have to save them all. In fact, you can't save them all, some of them truly are meant to be on the curb and it's okay to say no to that.
So you do have to, you know, I think that was one of the obstacles, like look for the high quality, know what to look for. So I mean, that's one, and I think also just kind of finding your own, finding your own style, I guess. I think there's a lot of furniture or creative people refinishers out there and, you know, you might look at other people's work and think like, oh my gosh, I want mind to look like that.
Or I wish mine looked like that. And I think the comparison game in the beginning was a little hard, but I'm telling you once I found what I liked and what I was good at and kind of stayed in my lane with that, that's when people started saying I love your work, you know, and recognizing my work because I wasn't trying to be like anybody else to be my thing.
So I think that's important too.
Melissa: Learning your own style. Where are you storing all of your pieces? You said your garage?
Jen: So I have half of garage full with furniture. The other half is one of our vehicles. I have two storage units. And then, like I said, this is my house. This is kind of our front foyer area.
And this is where we work and store furniture. And luckily my family doesn't mind.
Rob: That's awesome.
Melissa: Yeah. Yeah, they do. That's cool. Yeah. So would you say like, how long does it take for an average piece from start to finish? Has that gotten shorter over time? I'm sure it has, right?
Jen: Yeah, absolutely. You know, I'm pretty fast, honestly. I just, I think that just comes with experience and repetition and overtime.
You just get better and faster. Honestly, I could finish a piece that didn't require a lot of repairs easily in a day and a few hours. A lot of it is waiting for paint to dry cure, stuff like that. But, typically, if someone brings me a custom piece, I usually tell them about a week turnaround time.
It's not going to take me the full week, but you know, just working it in with the other, you know, nooks and crannies of my other furniture and stuff like that. But, yeah, so we tell people a week, honestly, I could get it done in a couple hours, but typically, maybe a day or so.
Rob: Yeah. Cool. And that sparked another question too.
You mentioned repairs, stuff that did need repairs and stuff like that. How did you learn to do repairs? Like what is your best resource or, if, yeah, if you had a broken leg on something or the back of a door fell off, how did you figure it out? And when you started, how did you figure out how to do these repairs?
Jen: Oh, you know, a lot of it was trial and error and just trying to figure it out. My husband helped me a ton in the beginning, because I was very, you know, I wasn't very familiar with tools and things like that. So he helped me a lot in the beginning. And then of course, you know, the good old Google and YouTube, and then, Instagram has been an amazing community.
There's so many furniture people on there that are willing to share and help. And so, and I do that as well. Now that I know more, so just kind of looking to other people and trial and error.
Melissa: Yeah.
Rob: Awesome.
Melissa: Yeah, that would intimidate me. I think at first too, I didn't even even know you could repair like some of the stuff and make it smooth again.
I'm like, oh, I can't, you can't do anything with it, but you can.
Rob: Especially when you have good bones, when you have real wood, there's a lot you can do with real wood sanding stuff and fixing stuff.
Melissa: So, and what did we do before Google and YouTube? He fixes a lot of stuff to, we sell just random stuff on eBay too.
And people are like, how do you know how to fix it? And he's like, well, YouTube.
Rob: Yeah, somebody did it. So let's figure it out. So that's cool. That's really, really cool.
Melissa: And, where are you selling most of your pieces for now?
Jen: Most of my pieces sell from my Facebook page. So I have a Facebook page, Facebook business page, and an Instagram page.
So between those two outlets, that's where most of my pieces sell. I don't have a storefront. Um, you know, I don't open up my home to customers or anything like that. So it's online. If a piece sits for a little while, I'll put it on Facebook marketplace, but luckily my pieces sell pretty quickly and just through my social media sites.
Melissa: Well, that's interesting. That's also a lot of people use, you know, like a marketplace you're using just your page and your Instagram. That's really cool. So you have a lot of local people.
Jen: I do, I do. So I've been on Facebook much longer than, Instagram and you know, I think I started that page, like I said, eight years ago.
So I have a nice following on my Facebook page. And I think, you know, because my following has built up over the years and because it's a strong, local following, that's what I'm talking about with the word of mouth. That's kind of where, where it all started for me. So I think that's why I have luck on my, on my Facebook business page.
Rob: Cool. No, that's it. That sparked one more question. So what if you find a fan that is not local, do you ship furniture or what do you do in that case? Because I think people find you that way. Is that something that you've dealt with or what, how do you handle that?
Jen: I've shipped furniture twice and both were to a client who basically arranged the shipping herself because it's not easy. It's really expensive. A lot of my pieces you're going to pay as much if not more than what the piece sells for. And I personally don't feel comfortable with that. I mean, if a client is okay with it and they want to do it, they can. And that's kinda the case with, with this person. She was like, I want to, I don't care.
I'll arrange shipping and that worked out well, because then the kind of the other issue with shipping furniture is you have to find someone that's reliable. That's going to care for the piece. Well, you kind of have to look at their reviews and all that kind of stuff. And I always think, oh my gosh, what if something happened. I feel responsible even though it wasn't me, that did it. So I, I kind of put it on the clients if they want to ship and they find a reliable shipper and they find a price that they're willing to pay then. Sure. But otherwise, otherwise I typically don't and like I said, Luckily, my pieces sell pretty quickly locally, so I don't really even have to worry about it too much.
Melissa: Yeah.
Rob: Awesome.
Melissa: That's great that you don't even have to worry about the marketplace so much, so because it can be hit or miss too, especially now with them wanting shipping, like they will every tell you all these other stuff. I'm like just show the locals. Exactly.
Jen: Exactly.
Melissa: It's so annoying. So what if somebody did want to go that route and sell locally on their Facebook or Instagram?
What kind of tips would you give someone like trying to grow really grow their page?
Jen: Well, so like I said, first of all, for a word of mouth is everything. So make sure that you, are providing good product. First of all, you know, you're proud of your furniture, but, you know, it's not gonna be perfect at the beginning.
So don't feel like it has to be perfect in order to get it out there, but you know, do quality work, you know, don't just, you know, kind of slapping on furniture and expect that everyone's just gonna all of a sudden love it. So make sure you're doing quality work, providing great customer service.
And then if you're just starting out, this is a piece of advice that I would give someone too. I know that in the very beginning, my stuff was underpriced. I know it was especially looking back at it now, do I regret it? Not at all because that's what got my work out there. That's what got my name out there.
And then, you know, someone told someone until someone that, you know, look at this piece, I love it. And that's how, that's how it grows. And then I felt comfortable raising my prices as I got better because I just, I knew. Yeah. Yeah. So I was fine with it. And now I have this core group that they were willing to come along with me.
So, so, you know, I don't want to tell people to undervalue your work at all, but be open to, you know, it's okay if you have to start, start a little bit lower than what you hope to be at someday, because you do have to gain that exposure. Another way to gain exposure is, work with local businesses. I used to have, a couple, pieces and a couple of like downtown.
One was a flower shop that also had like little home decor. So I reached out to them and said, hey, would you ever be interested in having some of my pieces in your store? You know, and then I would have business cards there and my, my name and contact info. I had that at a couple different stores. I've donated pieces to, different gallas or, silent auctions.
And that again, you know, especially if you don't have a storefront, how are people going to find you? So you need to get your work out there. And especially with furniture, it's like, you know, seeing the petty pretty pictures on Instagram and Facebook art. Wonderful. But when you see something in person and it can feel it and touch it and move it, like that's so important.
Rob: Yeah, absolutely. No, there's some great, great things, stuff that I've never even thought about. Even local stores, trying to get your pieces in their silent auctions and donating stuff. Yeah. That's really, really cool to get your name out. So there's a huge value right there for sure. Telling people how to expand.
Melissa: I wanted to ask you too do you have a favorite paint they use, or do you kind of go back and forth with different?
Jen: I do. You know, over the years I've used them all, starting out from just buying it at the hardware store then you know, making your own chalk paint too. You know, I was thinking the Annie Sloan in the beginning cause and I still love Annie Sloan.
I just don't use it as much because I only use that when I'm going for a specific look. It's just, that's just something that you learn as you, as you're in this business, you kind of learn like this paint is good for this kind of piece. This page is good for that. So I've used them all. But in the last year, and a half, I've come across a paint brand that is like my hands down number one, go-to. It's Melange Paints. They're out of Sugarland, Texas family owned business, and their product is incredible. They reached out to me and just asked me to try their paint. You know, I get that, I get that a lot. And you know, most of the time, you know, I'll, I'll try your paint sometimes you love it.
And sometimes you're like, oh no. And I, I never, I won't ever like publicly come on. And, and you know, that's a paint brand because just because it's something I like, it might, it may, you know, just cause it doesn't work for me. Doesn't mean it won't work for someone else. Everybody finds what they like.
So I won't ever publicly, you know, diss them. But when I find something that I love, I am like, you guys try this, this is it. So after I used that for a few months, I was just. I'm done. I'm sold. I am at the point that I, if paint comp companies reach out to me to try, I have to kindly decline because I'm like, I found my thing.
So that's, that's what I use, 95% of the time. And then I still use, milk paint, which is a totally different kind of paint. You can see the screen dresser in the background here. It's when you're going for that really chippy old look, then I'll use milk paint. And like I said, Annie Sloan chalk paints. So I'm down to those three: Annie Sloan chalk paints, Shackteau Interiors, milk paints, and then, Melange Paints is my go-to.
Melissa: I want to try all the paints to see which ones. I think it's therapeutic just to paint. Like I'm not really good at it, but I'm learning. And I think it's just, it's fun to do. It's just an outlet.
Jen: Yeah. And that's, you know, that's another piece of advice that I love to give people is that, you know, I'll get the question all the time. Like how does it look?
How does that look so smooth? Or how did you get it to us? And it's like, you guys, you have to realize that I've been doing this for a long time. And my work eight years ago does not look like it looks like now one of the best ways to get better at it is just to do it. Just get your paint on a brush.
And I only brush I don't spray, get your paint on a brush, try different brushes, and just do it. And you will learn something from every single piece that you do. So even if you make a mistake and you feel like you ruined it, You didn't really lose. You learned something. I still learn something from every single piece that I do get better.
Yeah. That's that's awesome. And that made me think of, if you have something, you know, is not, no piece is ever perfect, but like you've made a little thing. Like you're like, oh, I can't sell that now. Or how do you recover?
You know, my whole business is built on perfectly imperfect. I stand behind that a hundred percent when people are buying vintage furniture or painted furniture or refinished furniture, in my opinion, they're not expecting it to be perfect if they wanted it to be perfect, they would go to the big box stores and buy that furniture.
So that is not the client that I want, or that is coming to me. So none of my pieces are ever going to be perfect. And I love it that way. That's the way I want it. So that also helps me to not stress. Not overthink, you know, I see some people, mostly on Instagram that are just nitpicking and it goes on for weeks and weeks and weeks.
And, oh my gosh, look at this and this hinge and that, to be honest makes me cringe because I'm thinking you guys are losing the joy and, and this, because that's, that's stressful. What I do is fun, and it doesn't feel like work at all, however, you know, so perfectly perfect. That's my philosophy. So yeah.
My pieces are not perfect. However, if I do something where it's like, oh no, or a drawer is falling out or, you know, there's a big vineyard chip, you know, that I have to fix, like, I won't sell something that is, you know, bad by any means. But you know, honestly, I have never found a mistake that I couldn't fix.
So I think it might take awhile, you know, you might have to do more Google searches or find answers on YouTube, but don't be afraid to make those mistakes and you, most of the time, you're able to up.
Rob: Yeah, I think that is a huge point guys. Especially when you're talking about the more you do it, the better you're going to get at it, the better your work's going to come out, but you have to do it.
You just have to consistently do it and you'll get better and better at it. So I think that's a huge, huge piece.
Melissa: I do. I agree with you too. I think people see the, all the pretty pieces on Instagram and everything and they get like all my piece isn't perfect like that and start where you're at.
Jen: So yeah, absolutely.
And, and, you know, that goes back to the comparison. It's like, If you're just starting out, don't compare yourself. Someone who's been doing it for eight years. I have made all the mistakes and that's, you know, you have to make them to learn. You can watch other people do it. I can tell you use this brush, use this paint, but until you physically do it for yourself, you won't, you won't be able to grow.
Rob: Yeah, Jen, thank you so much for doing this greatly. Appreciate your time. We appreciate all your knowledge. I mean, you're definitely bringing some amazing stuff that people are going to think about and definitely work into. So thank you for your time. Where can people find you? Where can people come see some more of your work? Let us know.
Jen: Yeah, I am on Facebook and Instagram, both perfectly imperfect furniture. Just type it in and you'll find me, I think. Yeah, and right now, no website, no store, but, you can find me on Facebook and Instagram. Definitely. Hopefully YouTube soon. My son is 14. And he's like, mom, you got to get on YouTube.
And I'm like, dude, I'm old school, but he's really good with computers. So maybe he'll help me do that.
Melissa: If he can edit, I mean, that's a find.
Jen: I know, that's what I tell him. He's like, mom, I can do the editing. So I'm hoping to get there.
Melissa: We'll look for you there soon.
Rob: Absolutely. But we do have the links below. Go check her out. Facebook, Instagram guys. Super, super awesome. Thank you for your time, Jen. This has been amazing. Thank you so much.
Jen: All right. Thanks for having me you guys.