FLIPPING FANTASTIC

Furniture artist and upcycler Joanne Condon's new book takes you step-by-step through the process of furniture flipping from simple stencils to more advanced projects. We catch up with her to find our more.

- JOANNE CONDON

JOANNE, WHEN DID YOU FIRST GET INTO FLIPPING FURNITURE AND WHY?

When I was building my first home with my husband Vinny about 14 years ago, I had dreamed and I envisioned pink chairs, and turquoise dressers and when I went shopping for furniture there wasn't anything like that. I started collecting old furniture and upcycling it myself into exactly what I wanted. Once I discovered the old gems of discarded furniture full of character, well made with endless possibilities for tiny amounts of money I felt like I had hit a gold mine. The furniture flipping bug took hold.

WHEN DID FURNITURE FLIPPING BECOME YOUR FULL-TIME CAREER?

I was an art teacher and thought that would be my career for the rest of my life, but when I started flipping furniture it really snowballed. Friends and family saw what I was doing and then their friends and it just took over. I started my business while I was still teaching and then decided to give it a year just upcycling to see what it was like in 2011 and I never went back formally teaching. But I do teach my own workshops all over Ireland so I suppose I have combined my two passions into one career.

DO YOU THINK FLIPPING FURNITURE HAS BECOME MORE POPULAR, PARTICULARLY IN THE LAST FEW YEARS?