Vintage Peppler buffet makeover

We come across a lot of old wood furniture for sale for cheap or even for free. But how do you know if it’s a good candidate for a furniture flip? Will the time and effort it takes to refinish a piece outweigh the potential profit? We share with you our tips and tricks for picking the right piece for flipping furniture.

The before – furniture worth flipping

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We picked up this lovely buffet from Maxsold for $1. That’s right, $1. I’m always amazed not everyone can see the potential of these vintage pieces! Sure it looked dated and cluttered, but this hidden gem was the perfect candidate for a furniture flip.

How to recognize good furniture to flip

There are a few reasons we knew this would be a good piece to flip:

1. We got it at a great price. When you can pick up a piece of furniture for almost no money, there’s always good potential for profit. (However, price should never be the only reason to choose a piece to flip.)
2. It is fantastic quality, by Henry Peppler. We’ve written before about the booming furniture business in southern Ontario in the late half of the 19^th century. Henry Peppler was one of the original manufacturers in Hanover, Ontario and his pieces are known for their superior craftsmanship (he worked with Knetchel until Peppler branched out on his own in 1909).   
3. It has a solid wood top. Stuart loves sanding and staining real wood. It’s rare that we get to do pieces with solid wood tops since most pieces, even good quality pieces, have wood veneers. This fact alone made this piece a contender for us.
4. It has interesting lines and details. The doors on this piece have some nice simple details that are appealing to a modern aesthetic. There are no knobs or pulls so we knew the finished product would have a clean look that would appeal to many buyers.
5. It is multipurpose. We find more and more people are buying buffets and sideboards to use as tv stands or media consoles. Because this piece is so versatile, it expands the market of people who may be interested.
6. Condition. This piece was in very good condition and we knew it would take too much work to fix it up. The worse the condition of a piece, the more work it will take to refinish. More work = more time = less profit (because it takes longer to get to the next piece).

So to sum it all up, when looking for good furniture to flip, consider: price, quality, solid wood, interesting features, versatility and condition.

The process – flipping furniture

We selected Raw Silk by Fusion as the color for the body of the buffet. Fusion describes Raw Silk as: “A warm old white with barely a hint of yellow and just a touch of grey. The colour of newly formed silk – the perfect off white.”  This warm old white pairs perfectly with Fusion’s Stain and Finishing Oil in Cappuccino. These colors are both neutral and classic and, from past experience, we knew they’d be popular for buyers.

We cleaned the piece with TSP (this alternative is also very good), sanded down the top with Stuart’s favorite palm sander and gave the bottom a light scuffing.

Mineral paint is super easy to work with. You can read about why we like it here. Because we used white and we didn’t prime, we did 3 coats of Raw Silk to get the best coverage. Painting white can be tricky but we have some tips and tricks to help you here.

We applied the Stain and Finishing Oil with a rag to the top. It’s also very easy to work with – wipe on, wait a minute or two, wipe off. Repeat.

The after – flipped furniture

The finished buffet is, as we had hoped, simple, clean and elegant. We chose not to really stage it much so buyers can envision their perfect look more easily. We think it would look good with a more modern, contemporary vibe or country farmhouse décor.

You can read more about how to increase your profits flipping furniture here.

What do you think of this furniture flip? Do you have things you look for in choosing good furniture to flip? We’ve love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!