Good Vibes Blog

Selling is the only way I can keep painting furniture, one piece per week, more or less, depending on what life throws at me. The selling landscape where I live in lower-mid Michigan is competitive. I’ve experience different shop management styles, rates, and philosophies. 10 years and 5 different shops later here is what I’ve learned to avoid and what I’ve learned to seek.

Consign vs. Rent

Booth renting is higher risk than consigning. Time is money. If a piece or two doesn’t sell within the month then rent comes out of the pocket.

Consigning is basically storage on display, which is nice to have no concern about coming due any rent, however, consignment is more expensive. Consigning is less risky and less pressure. There is no need to pay a dime except when a piece sells. This fact alone may settle the question but there are a few draw backs to beware. A consignment deal with shop owner can cause severe heartburn if you aren’t getting a good enough return. I consigned once in an upscale furniture resale shop with a 50/50 deal. My stuff sold so-so but I lost money even at higher sticker prices. Even 60/40 (I get 60%, shop owner gets 40%) is a stretch to make profit. I could be persuaded to do a 65/35 deal in a top notch, high traffic home decor boutique if there was one nearby.

Join Similar Vendors

I love arranging and filling my own booth. It’s decorated the way I want and it gives me great pleasure to display my furniture and smalls. I’ve learned. First, painted furniture, as the main theme of the booth, is not enough. Second, booth sales are better when among other similar vendors. For painted furniture, the more booths containing painted furniture, on-trend decor and good styling, the better. No painter is the same as the other like artists. There isn’t as much head-to-head competition as you would think. Choose a shop that has other vendors categorically like you and has high traffic. Being the lone ranger in a shop is not an advantage like I once thought.

Does shop owner have a booth or sell merchandise?

Assess the shop owners dedication to promote vendors merchandise and the shop as a whole. Shop owners that sell their own merchandise are easily tempted to focus a majority of promotions highlighting their own stuff. In that position, vendors are stuck completing with the owner for sales. They sometimes get unequal promotional air-time plus they get a distracted leader.

When vending with a shop owner who doesn’t sell his/her own wares, I feel I am getting my fair attention, promotion but more importantly, my stuff isn’t unfairly competing with the owners stuff. My rent should be the reason they work their business. I feel some shop owners get vendors for the soul purpose of paying rent so their booth is free to them.

Does the shop take all credit cards?

If you can choose, or have any say in the matter, take ALL credit cards. Some shops won’t take American Express, for example. That’s like saying “I want your money but only my way“. As a previous shop owner, I don’t like sending that kind of message. My message is “I want your money any way you want to give it”. So what that it costs more. I’d rather adjust the commission rate then say no to a paying customer. Local shops must make this choice, like it or not.

Blended vs. Booth space

A few shops exist where the owner rents ‘space’ to vendors without defined booths. The shop owner is responsible to accept your merchandise and display it in any fashion that they feel works. Painted furniture is placed anywhere in the shop with anything, and possibly everything, on top. This can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on shop owner tastes and styles. And, because you have no control how it’s handled, there is a slight higher risk of damage.

Be sure to keep a written inventory of items when stocking and selling because your merchandise can be anywhere in the shop. Selling small things in this business scenario is a nightmare if it’s scattered around the shop. You might loose your stuff. This is what happened to me. My furniture sold well and I was pleased with the outcome, but I lost on small stuff that somehow grew legs and walked away. Some small stuff is probably still in that shop tucked away somewhere behind other merchandise hard to find.

Space here is not well defined. Rent is based on it but no one really knows, not me or the shop owner, how much is being used with my merchandise. It can be sticky if the shop owner feels you’ve used your space allowance, but you feel differently. I was able to narrow down my space allowance with the owner agreeing to a number of pieces. I was allowed so many pieces for a set rent. That worked because furniture is large and easy to count. I didn’t care for having no control how it was displayed though.

Facebook and Promotional activities

The best shops are focused on customer service and have creative promotions. An active shop is the more successful for all parties. Does the shop have several activities through the year? My favorite shop has events to draw customers without offering discounts – that is the best of the best. They have Valentines Chocolate extravaganza, Halloween Witch competition, and live curbside music in the summer, for example. The have 4 store wide sales in the year actively advertised with advance store signs, FB posts, direct email lists, inside sales and flyers.

Speaking of Facebook, the best shops understand how it works, ruthlessly build a following, and posting often. It’s free, for Pete’s sake. And there is no sin in spending a little to boost store posts. Shop owners that complain there’s not enough income from commission need first to assess promotions, not to raise the rate. Every new customer is a potential frequent shopper.

I’ve participated in 5 different locations none of which was successful without my personal Facebook Marketplace postings. About half the furniture sales comes from customers that my personal posts have driven in. Yeah, sometimes I wonder if it’s better to sell them off my porch and be done with rent and smalls. Then a store customer comes along a buys a piece from my booth. I used to hate smalls but in the last year since I’ve HAD to have them, I’ve come to enjoy picking – a lot!

Hours of operation

The best shops are open 6 or 7 days a week period and they have easy to remember set hours. I’m leery of joining a shop that has different hours on different days, is not open past 5 or is open not open earlier than 11. It’s a shame any customer shows up expecting to browse and finds a closed sign, especially when neighboring shops are open. Shops on the block should match hours.

There is a strange logic that some shop owners believe reducing hours during slow times is the right thing. Not only do I think it sends the wrong message to customers but as a vendor I’ve just been robbed. I make sales only when the shop is open. When it’s closed, I’m paying for storage. It’s not fair to vendors that enter an agreement with a shop open 7 days a week to then be stuck having to pay the same for 6 days, or worse 5, which has just happened to me. Changing hours is just confusing to everyone. Penny wise, pound foolish.

Found What I’m Looking For

There is a place. 45 minutes away. No shift work. No commission but direct credit card fees for vendors. 7-days a week. Great parking. Quality vendors. Great rent rates. It is well known in the region, visited by shoppers often driving an hour or more. I just signed on the waiting list and as it should be, it’s one year long. It will be worth the wait.

My strategy for 2024 starts with a confession from 2023. it has taken me an entire year to notice and accept big changes in decor style, economy, and thrifting. It was a hard year. Painted furniture sales slowed and if I were to think about it, sales really started to slow in 2022. I blamed the slowdown in sales on myself not able to zero in on THE popular style that would sell quickly. I blamed it on the antique mall where I rent a booth (though there really was a mismatch there). I blamed it on my inability to set the right price for my ‘masterpieces’. I did everything but see reality.

So What Happened in 2023?

Furniture Fashions Moved Toward Exposed Natural Wood Finishes

The year is marked by seeing less farmhouse white distressed on Pintrest, TikTok, Instagram and Facebook and more natural and bleached wood furniture. So, I learned how to bleach wood and painted a few pieces expecting them fly out of my booth. After a long couple months, they finally sold. I moved my aesthetic around to simple colors and styling, less bedazzling with paper clay and image transfers, etc. Then back to farmhouse white distressed and to modern and blingy. All seemed to sell equally slow. Scratching my head I thought that perhaps my rust-belt automotive industry region lags behind those touted hot trends on the internet. What else could be going on?

Lush Covid Money is Long Gone

Though styling is always a factor, there had to be more affecting sales. Could the problem be price? I lowered prices each month to those found all the way back to 2019. Beginning 2022 and solidly through 2023 I could not get for my pieces what surely what I should fetch, especially factoring in soaring inflation. I miss those days in 2020 and 2021 when furniture flew out the doors. Finally, while my thinking cap was on it occurred to me, that all that Covid money dispersed by the government was no longer circulating. Little did I know, Covid money was the thing that made my painting side hustle profitable and easy, and I thought I had it in the palm of my hand. I can adjust sales expectations and pricing with a better understanding why and that it’s not just blaming antique mall or my painting work.

Thrift Industry Went Wild

Just as I was getting in the groove of picking for small items to resell, the thrift industry went wild. During the lush years there was no thought given to stocking my booth with smalls. I paid rent and made good profit painting and selling only furniture. As it became harder to make rent, I looked to staging and reselling smalls. That meant going to thrift stores and estate sales (my regular source for paintable furniture). Prices soared last year! Thrift stores learned to display items much better and started rotating them in and out. Dang what fire got lit under them? It’s a perfect storm of Inflation and Conservation, Millennials and Boomers. Boomers are unloading years of accumulation into the thrift market. Simultaneously, as prices for new stuff inflate, Millennials are using their purchasing power and concern for global health by buying used.

Now the gap in prices that used to exist between thrift stores and antique stores is smaller than ever.

My Strategy and Trend for 2024

Grandpa Chic Academia Style

The days of light minimalism may be limited. I’m hearing and seeing it in stores, podcasts and pintrest a new old style that uses dark and moody colors. Clear on the other end of the spectrum. I’ll be picking colors for furniture for resale items very narrowly and targeted towards the Dark Academia aesthetic. Colors I’m starting to use on furniture are black, sage, walnut, rust and dark denim. While picking, I’m looking for style that would be found in an old English den library like brass objects, dark framed classic art, and a few old style encyclopedias. A related style, called Grandpa Chic includes brighter colors mixed with dark country club look.

Pick By Curating Your Theme Carefully

Prior to 2023, I spend very little time and thought towards smalls. Booth rent was made easily by selling painted furniture. But, as the quality and price gap between thrift stores and antique malls close and as sales are generally lower due the tight economy and as the styles are shifting, making rent as gotten harder. This year I’m expecting to spend much more time picking and spreading out buying sources. Adding to my usual Saturday estate sale-ing, I’ll seek out church rummage sales and garage sales (ugh). New to me as of late last year are online auctions.

To adequately price items for resale for a some profit, my booth will have to offer something above and beyond thrifts. It’s a time decide whats sets my booth apart from a thrift store. For me it’s to focus picking by style AND objects for furniture staging. Modge podge picking what I think is cute or pretty won’t work. I’ll be thinking about specific styles to shoot for, what objects will go with a piece I’m painting and things to add to basement inventory. I am having fun ‘shopping my basement’ as it were but it does mean tying up some money there.

Competitive Pricing

Painted furniture pieces that would have fetched $300 in 2021 goes for only $200 today. Since my mall has pop-up storewide sales (not a fan), proper pricing is made especially difficult. Painted furniture prices have been set lower as of late, but high enough to suffer discounts the store offers. Yeah, it’s a tight rope but adding targeted smalls in my booth, more and more, will help off set reduced furniture prices. Picking thrift stores has made it way more difficult for buying for resale. If I don’t think I can double the price I won’t buy it, which is why plenty of alternate sources for picking has become important.

Summary Plan for 2024 Booth

Darker and moody furniture colors and style, reduced prices, targeted and curated smalls. Much more of my time will be spent picking for smalls and painting able furniture mostly estate sales and on-line auctions. I’ll put more money into buying and creating a smalls ‘basement inventory’ to help carefully stage furniture. Wow. this has gotten serious!

The pandemic was good to me. Painted furniture sales were terrific and since I paint for sanity, it was almost heaven in Michigan. My how times have changed. An economic slowdown in 2022 and a move to an antique shop (of near flea market quality), my painted furniture sales screeched to a near halt.

In response to slow sales, I made furniture makeovers neutral and simple. I figured they would appeal to larger audiences. I also added a bunch more re-sell smalls by picking thrift stores and estate sales for things I thought would sell. Still, it’s been a struggle to sell one furniture piece a month and make rent. That’s not near enough to keep KellaChic emotionally and creatively afloat. And, being totally honest, I go a bit negative without a busy brush.

18 months later

I am finally getting my head out of my ass and the very familiar ‘woe is me’ head space, just long enough to make a couple decisions as a business woman:

• Bring back the bling (i.e. color and transfers) on furniture to create wow more stunning statement pieces. Neutrals don’t sell – who knew?
• Shift from buying smalls to painting smalls like little tables, candle sticks, picture frames, piano benches, you know items I can sell under $50. This should keep my brush busy.
• De-clutter the tops of the furniture pieces leaving only a couple staging items on them.

Below is a picture my booth as of September, a sort of Before shot. It is operating under ‘more stuff is more sales’ and ‘simple furniture is better’ strategy. I still can’t understand why sales are slow but, reality is still reality no matter what I think of it.

It’s October 2023

This month was a ton of fun making ‘to paint’ small hauls and studying how to transform them into cool re-purposed gems. Many thanks to “Confessions of a Serial DIYer” for more than just inspiration. Christy James is a source of hope for this old painter. She has a massive bank of ideas to restart my creative engine. I’m just getting started with the new strategy. It may take a few months to transition my booth space but already there is impact.

I found this shelving unit on FB Marketplace to display smalls in attractive vignettes and I love it. It meets shop criteria for ‘see through’ or temporary booth partitions. Not only are the smalls looking more cohesive but it helps furniture look better with only a couple items on top. More pictures to follow.

My attempt to style with more bling: Doing them moved the needle on the fun to paint scale – yay me! Painting simple and sleek designs is just not as fun really.

The first one is only half way to full wow. The second one . . . made it all the way to wow. It is my first time doing the faux linen painting technique and it is so much fun! My execution is spot on but, in my opinion, the color is . . . meh. Hopefully someone will like it. It goes to my booth today. Wish her luck. I’ll use different colors next time.

This second piece, Vigorous Violet, is full on bling. She’s quite a statement piece that I can not take credit for. I’ve seen this same design from other wonderful painters and love it. I plain and simply copied — except for the iridescent stripes and harlequin stencil on the sides. Thats my touch and I’m glad to have it. And a funny thing, I got a call from a buyer about the MCM piece in my booth and she asked if I had more painted pieces available. Both of these pieces, (above and below) were still on my porch so I sent her pictures. She bought Vigorous Violet right off my porch! Wait what!? Is this fluke or does bling win the game? We shall see.

Booth Reset

It’s a small booth. Making it look uncluttered is a task. Accomplishments from this reset: only one or two staging items are on painted furniture, there is better use of the “walls” (which are backs of neighboring booths) and, adding the shelf unit for a better display of smalls. Gone are the ‘dogs’, as in low value and not very special items sitting in my booth for months. My church is having a rummage sale so there it goes!

Dear Fellow Painters and Lurkers

Thanks for reading what goes on inside the head of a driven furniture painter. It’s been a while since there was enough enthusiasm (or lack of feet dragging discouragement) to update the website. Honestly, writing it has helped me claim the learning lessons. It kind of draws a distinct line between struggle and hope, making a little gap. The most relief and hope comes from other DIY’ers who are brave enough to expose their inside thoughts, bloopers and re-do’s. (Thanks again Christy James.)

Original post dated 4-10-2019. For a little less than $4.00 per batch, my home-made paint is ALMOST as good as $30.00 name brand chalk paint. Here’s how to make chalk paint as smooth and robust as the expensive pre-mixed boutique brands.

Update 10-28-2020 – slightly increased the amount of Floetrol, decreased the amount of water and added paint extender. These changes resulted in a much smoother less gritty feeling chalk paint product with slightly longer open time.

Update: 7-4-2021: The pandemic plus the big storm and power outage earlier this year in Texas is causing serious shortages in many things include paint ingredients. This is resulting in increased prices of General Finishes product and a lack of general paint supply.

Update 4-17-2023 – removed the paint extender completely. This change had little affect on the wet edge or open time but was found to be the culprit of unsatisfactory paint storage longevity. The paint became horribly gritty after about 6 months in storage. Somehow the extender may have chemically reacted to the Plaster of Paris to harden crystallize it. Well, that’s my story.

KellaChic Chalk Paint Recipe:

• About 1 1/2 cup latex acrylic paint (satin is preferred but flat and semi gloss can work). Sherwin Williams in the best.
• 3 (not heaping) teaspoons Plaster of Paris
• 2 teaspoons of water
• 3 teaspoons Floetrol (found at hardware stores)

Mixing Instructions:

1. Place the teaspoon of water and paint extender in a small container or jar.
2. Add the Plaster of Paris.
3. Mix thoroughly to dissolve the plaster powder.
4. Add and mix the Floetrol. It helps to maintain body.
5. In a separate jar pour the latex paint then add the plaster of paris, water and Floetrol mixture.
6. Tighten the top on the jar and shake thoroughly to mix well.

WARNING! ALWAYS USE OIL BASE PRIMER OR SHELLAC BEFORE PAINTING! Without it, you risk pesky stain bleed through more often. This is because latex behaves differently than the acrylic base that professional chalk paint manufacturers use. So, oil base or shellac primer coat is required for each project! I learned this the hard way and believe it a small price to pay for the large savings and the result is a robust makeover job.

*Paint Brand Matters*

The Sherwin Williams ‘test’ paint quarts are perfect for making DIY chalk paint. During the pandemic they became unavailable – for more than a year!! So, I turned to ACE brand Royal quarts. It’s possible that the dark color (lots of added pigment) is the culprit but . . . the paint is runny and thin even after adding extra plaster of paris. Using, it felt latexy, kind of rubbery not chalky. Peeling and low adhesion is why straight up latex paint is not recommended for furniture so I’m a little concerned about this batch.