My wife and I started this as something fun for us to do as a little side hobby. Of course we thought we could possibly sell our refurbished projects as well. We started selling a couple of items and people starting asking about what we were doing and how it was going. During one of these conversations, a person mentioned they were wanting a side table to put outside so they could put some drinks on it as well as a small music player. I showed them a couple of pictures of some pieces we had but had not restored yet. Nothing I showed them was what they were looking for. So I asked them if they were wanting something more specific. As well as a table, they wanted to be able to sit some animal food bowls underneath it and a storage space would be helpful but not necessary. By their description, I knew a piano seat would be a perfect fit for their wanted item. It contains a storage space, has the flat seat to put a music player and drinks on and the legs are going to give the open area underneath the seat for the animal food bowls. So I started looking for some piano seats to convert into the perfect piece for this person. Luckily it did not take me long to find a piano seat for sell that I could convert. This is what I found.
After I bought the piano seat and took it over to show the buyer, I wanted to get an idea of whether they wanted it stained or painted and the color they wanted. When I arrived and brought the piano seat to them they thought it was absolutely perfect. It fit exactly in the spot they had laid out for it. Once I put the seat now table down in the spot the person loved it. The first hurdle in if it fit the space they had and if the bowls would fit underneath. It did. Now I started asking if they wanted to keep the wood look and color or if they wanted it painted a different color. I wanted to make the piece absolutely perfect for them and they just wanted the piece right away. Their focus was on time. So after some discussion, I agreed to keep the piece as is except for one added benefit for them.
I added a couple of clear coats onto the piece. I knew they wanted to keep this piano seat outside so I wanted to protect it as best as I could from the elements it would be in. This meant at some point the now table would get rained on. So I added two coats of this clear coat to give it some added protection against the rain. This would greatly reduce our work time to get it finished and back to the customer.
Since I was only adding the clear coat, it only took me a couple of days of painting and letting it dry. This shortened my work time from about a week down to a couple of days. This got me to finish the work quickly and back to the customer. And at this point the work time was the main focus of work.
This project was one of a kind for us. We started to get into refurbishing furniture because we wanted to get into a hobby that we enjoyed. Now we are trying to sell most of the things we restore, but that is the added benefit and not the main purpose. Because of this we are not doing any special orders or projects. We are doing what we want, when we want and how we want. The selling portion is secondary in everything we do. However, this project was something we wanted to do for somebody we knew. We have no expectations of starting to take orders on any future projects. We are not looking to add any additional time constrictions or stress of getting projects finished. If you are wanting to do something like this and are following along with us and possibly doing some work on your own, my advice to you is to have a definitive reason for doing this. If you are just wanting a hobby then keep that as your focus on your decision making process. If you are wanting to turn this into a job then your decision making process is going to be focused much more on the financial aspect of the work. Above all else have fun. We are enjoying the work we are doing, we are enjoying bringing this work to all of you reading this and following us, and we hope you are enjoying following along with us.