If you missed Day One or Day Two of our experience on HGTV’s Flea Market Flip, just click on the days to see the full blog post about it.

Day 3, the last day of filming is the Sell Day. The timing of when the filming will occur varies but our filming days ended up being about a week apart. On the final day, we went to a different flea market from where we had purchased the items. The goal was to sell the finds that we repurposed at a higher price point. Whoever makes the most profit wins the show! I’ve sold furniture at markets before and it’s a hard sell. Mostly because furniture is so big and people are coming to find quick deals not to find large items that we’ve spent a lot of time repurposing and have to charge retail price for. We only had 4 hours to sell everything so the staff encouraged us to take whatever offer we get because it’s better to get a little than nothing. We filmed at the Long Island City Flea market.

It’s a really small market and not many people were there. Driving into the city that morning, my brother Jesse called me and asked if I was nervous. For some reason that day, I was. He told me not to be nervous because everything we were selling had a story and I am the girl with the story. He was so right, that is what set us apart and hearing that helped calmed me down. I told everyone that came to our booth about the history of each piece and what we did to transform it.

When we walk into the flea market everything was wrapped up so we unwrapped it and staged it in the booth. We priced each item and of course checked out  what our competition was selling. Each team doesn’t know the other teams price point until the prices are already set. The cameras started rolling and people started to slowly trickle in. Not that many people were walking through the market but with film crews and Lara Spencer, we had the attention we needed to get those pieces sold. The bar went fairly quickly to a sweet young woman who just moved to the city to be a writer. We paid $10 for the parts and sold it for $450 for a $440 profit right off the bat! 

The second piece that sold was was the coffee table and that was maybe an hour or so after we started. We paid $50 for the parts and sold it for $300. $250 more towards our grand total! Yay!

The last thing to sell was the desk made from the old trunk. I was surprised by that! I thought the bar would sell first, then the secretaries desk, then the coffee table. John thought the desk, then bar, then coffee table. We were both wrong! :) Right toward the end of the 4 hours a lady came by and wanted the desk but couldn’t pay much. As she was asking me if we would take less, I heard our opponents yelling “fire sale, fire sale” so I knew they were selling everything cheap. That’s why I took the low ball offer because at least she could get a fun piece of furniture and we would add a bit to our total. She was thrilled and I was thrilled and it was so fun!

We knew before they announced it that we had won just because they didn’t sell anything throughout the day and did the fire sale at the end of the day. The producers were really encouraging about our work and kind! It was our anniversary on the sale day and they bought us celebratory lemonades at the end of the day! That’s why our episode is called Happy Flipping Anniversary. WE WON HGTV’s FLEA MARKET FLIP! Sayyyyyy whatttt??? So exciting!

If you missed Day One or Day Two of the experience, just click on the days to see the full blog post about it.

It was such fun experience, I would love to do it again in a heartbeat!! Thank you to Lara Spencer for being approachable, for the producers for going out of their way to make us feel comfortable, and to the work day helpers that made it all doable in such a short time. You’re all awesome!!

Do you live in upstate NY? We can custom build furniture so you can have one of a kind flea market upcylced furniture in your home. Use our contact us form for more information. You can also purchase already finished furniture on our Shop page!

We offer Interior Design, Kitchen Cabinet Painting, and custom Furniture For Sale.

Here’s a quick snap shot of some of our furniture makeovers. You can see more by clicking the See on Pinterest  button at the bottom of the page.

Follow Sarah Trop – FunCycled’s board FunCycled Painted Furniture Projects on Pinterest.

Thanks so much for stopping by!! Happy upcycling friends!

Sarah ;)

If you like what you see, please like FunCycled’s Facebook page to keep up to date on the newest finds, vote on colors and give your input on our creativity. There is a box at the top right of this page to enter your email address in to receive notifications by email when I post something new on this blog.

Please sign up today! Last but not least, let us customize a furniture piece for you. We create custom furniture and will deliver for customers in upstate NY and will also ship throughout the US. Send us a note with what you would like using our contact page. Or buy something that we’ve already designed from our furniture for sale page.

If you haven’t read our post about being on HGTV Flea Market Flip – Day 1, check it out here. 

Today we head to day two of filming – Build Day!!

On the build day, we went to Stamford, Connecticut and the show staff brought all of the flea market items that we bought on day 1 to a large garage/warehouse type building. We were assigned a team of 2-3 people (depending on what we were working on sometimes people on our team helped the other team). Here’s what we started with:

This was my favorite day by FAR! The designer in me absolutely loved having the freedom to think up any design and then have a team of experts there to help us make it happen. We had a master carpenter and a welder/builder that helped us most of the day. You’re given a $100 budget to buy things to help complete your project. We used that $100 to buy 2 legs for our coffee table, old legs for our “Stylish Storage” project and an old burlap sack for our “Mixed Texture” project. You have about 12 hours to finish the projects. We arrived at the workshop at 9am and worked straight until 9pm with only a quick break to scarf down lunch and no dinner.

I started working on the ironing board that would become a coffee table which was our “Modern Americana” challenge. I sanded the ironing board and stained it a new color so the mid century legs we purchased could be stained to match. I’ve never welded before and was able to give it a try as we needed to weld a base plate on the old tractor gear for one side of the coffee table. It was so much fun!! I only did a little bit of it, our welder did the rest.

While I was working on the “Modern Americana” project, John started prepping the cable spool that we would be turning into a bar which was our “Mixed Texture” project. We welded a metal plate on the top of the industrial light post to attached the cable spool. John had to figure out how to drill the holes for the neck of the wine bottles to make them all sit at the same angle. He practiced quite a few times on a separate board. Then he brought the cable spool wood back to life by using shellac and sanded down the metal base a bit to make it smoother. I came in to do the finishing touches using the burlap sack and metal detailing.

Our master carpenter did most of the work on the “Stylish Storage” project! We wouldn’t have had time to finish them all if he hadn’t done the majority of the work for that project. He built the base out of the old dining room table legs we had bought. He and John worked on the dividers that would go inside of the desk. I shellacked the wood on the trunk to make it shine again. We cut it close on this project. At the end of the day the latch to hold it closed wasn’t working right and our master carpenter really pushed to make it happen for us. He was so amazing!!

The behind the scenes of filming was interesting on this day. I had a hard time initially speaking my mind! I came with all my design plans but then I had amazing people suggesting changes. I didn’t have the heart to say no. The whole time we were filming each team had their own producer and then there is a producer in the back that is watching everything on TV’s. I called her that “phantom producer”.  Lol! At one point, we were filming and the staff suggested a change to our Modern Americana project that I thought would look horrible but I said OK. The “phantom producer” stopped everything and came out to me. She said, “Sarah, you’re thinking things you’re not saying, right?” I told her she was right. Then she goes on to say, “You are much more fun and interesting in real life, you need to speak up and say what you want. These are your designs and if you don’t stand up for them, no one will.” That was the moment that the show became really fun for me. She gave me the freedom to be me and be open about my thoughts. So we rerecorded and I kept to my original plan for the piece! Yay!

It felt a little weird having the team we were competing against working right next to you. The longer I watched them the less I was concerned about whether we would win. I was confident in our designs and the functionality of each piece in a NYC apartment. The producers definitely encouraged us to be playful and pick on our opponents work which John was game for but I just couldn’t do it. I didn’t sound genuine at all. Lol! It was a good balance between us I think though. :)

One thing that is interesting about day 2 is that you only have that day, if your makeovers aren’t done, you have to stop. So it is very fast pace, but the staff was so amazing and helped make it happen. Next week, I’ll share about the final day of being on Flea Market Flip and show you how the transformations turned out!

The next day of filming was the workshop day and my favorite of all the days!

Check Out Day 3 on Flea Market Flip Here! 

We offer Interior Design, Kitchen Cabinet Painting, and custom Furniture For Sale.

Here’s a quick snap shot of some of our furniture makeovers. You can see more by clicking the See on Pinterest  button at the bottom of the page.

Follow Sarah Trop – FunCycled’s board FunCycled Painted Furniture Projects on Pinterest.

Happy funcycling friends!

Sarah ;)

If you like what you see, please like FunCycled’s Facebook page to keep up to date on the newest finds, vote on colors and give your input on our creativity. There is a box at the top right of this page to enter your email address in to receive notifications by email when I post something new on this blog.

Please sign up today! Last but not least, let us customize a furniture piece for you. We create custom furniture and will deliver for customers in upstate NY and will also ship throughout the US. Send us a note with what you would like using our contact page. Or buy something that we’ve already designed from our furniture for sale page.

Hi Everyone!!!

We were on HGTV’s Flea Market Flip competition and the show aired on March 1st showing that WE WON! If you missed it you can download it from iTunes here: Happy Flipping Anniversary Or you can watch it on Amazon Prime here: Happy Flipping Anniversary

Fun isn’t even a good enough word to describe what it was like being on the show. It was a dream come true for me. I’d been watching the show for years with my friend, Marcie. We would eat ice cream and drink coffee until all hours of the night watching one DVR’d episode after episode. Marcie urged me to try to get on the show. I really thought there would be no chance at all. We emailed the casting crew and didn’t hear anything back for about 4-5 months. Then they emailed us back and asked us to do a Skype interview. That was AWKWARD at best. Holy cow, I thought for sure there was no way we would be chosen. Have you ever had a Skype interview? Well, then you understand. ;)

When John and I got to the hotel late the night before, I realized I forgot my bathroom bag. Good thing I wasn’t going on TV the next day because I had no hair straightener, shampoo, blow dryer, tooth paste, or deodorant. And I forgot my phone charger and iPad. Oh wait! I WAS going on TV the next day. Do you think I was stressed or nervous? Maybe, just a touch :).  I totally begged the front desk for the necessities and made it work.  To bed we went and it was one of those night’s when you wake up 100 times to make sure you didn’t miss the ungodly early alarm that was set. A girl must not be late her first time meeting Lara Spencer and miss being on Flea Market Flip. I woke up early and forgot to ask for shampoo so I had to walk to the front desk looking like poop. Who did I  meet in the hall while looking like poop? One of the guys working for Flea Market Flip… the sound tech. I found out that was him later when we met at the filming. Oh hi… yeah, you’re the guy in the hall this morning. lol

The first day of filming was a brisk, misty day. We had to be there bright and early (about 6am) to meet our producers and get set for the day.

 When we got the the flea market, they wired us with our microphones and we met our producer (each team gets one). There are usually multiple teams being filmed at the same time. I had read on other blogs that you usually get time to look through the flea market to get an idea of what pieces you would like to buy before filming starts. That morning we found out we were the first team up for filming so had no time to check out the flea market. We had never been to the Stormville Flea Market and it’s HUGE. That being said, it was overwhelming! I asked the producer if we could run it for like 10 minutes to get an idea of which direction even had furniture. Every other team would have time to look as they waited for their turn to be recorded. They gave us 10 minutes and we ran! I found a couple things I liked, but you can’t talk to any vendor for any reason. Just look!Then we were given our flip list.

Modern Americana was the trickiest one for us. We took it as meaning we should do something that was a vintage American made piece and make it have more modern lines.

We had 1 hour of live time to find and purchase all the furniture. That was extremely difficult just because it was such a large flea market and we lost our bearings and couldn’t find the pieces we had run by for 10 minutes. Everything takes much longer while filming so the 1 hour felt like 10 minutes. They have to stop to have the people selling at the flea sign waivers saying they would be on TV and stop to film from different angles and have us explain why we bought what we did. By the end, we were running just to find something what would work with the tractor gear to turn into a coffee table.

By the end of the hour, this is what we bought.

I was worried that the ironing board wouldn’t work right with the tractor wheel. I loved the cable spool and what we could make it into. I was a little disappointed in the trunk. I didn’t want to buy a trunk  because I feel like that’s so cliche. We were running out of time and HAD to buy something.  I was thinking of turning it into a coffee table, but decided later it had to be more. I wouldn’t settle for a coffee table.

This is what our competition bought.

At the end of the day, I was thinking… how would they make this into style storage? Would the couch be too big for a NYC apartment? I was a little worried about the chairs mostly because seating can make a huge profit if it was done right. The lamp had potential depending on how they redid it.

The next day of filming was the workshop day and my favorite of all the days!

Check Out Day 2 on Flea Market Flip Here!

Check Out Day 3 on Flea Market Flip Here! 

We offer Interior Design, Kitchen Cabinet Painting, and custom Furniture For Sale.

Here’s a quick snap shot of some of our furniture makeovers. You can see more by clicking the See on Pinterest  button at the bottom of the page.

Follow Sarah Trop – FunCycled’s board FunCycled Painted Furniture Projects on Pinterest.

Happy funcycling friends!

Sarah ;)

If you like what you see, please like FunCycled’s Facebook page to keep up to date on the newest finds, vote on colors and give your input on our creativity. There is a box at the top right of this page to enter your email address in to receive notifications by email when I post something new on this blog.

Please sign up today! Last but not least, let us customize a furniture piece for you. We create custom furniture and will deliver for customers in upstate NY and will also ship throughout the US. Send us a note with what you would like using our contact page. Or buy something that we’ve already designed from our furniture for sale page.