furniture flipping 101:
How to Photograph
Furniture that SELLS!
Ready to profit from selling furniture? Since 2019, I’ve honed my furniture flipping skills and I’m excited to share my insights with you. In this blog post, I’ll outline key factors for enhancing your furniture flipping photos and provide links to the products I swear by for selling my flipped pieces.
Follow my social media and blog to discover my frugal approach. While I’ve learned from my past mistakes of always opting for the cheapest options, I’ve now found a balance and raised my standards without losing my thrifty nature. I’m all about getting the best bang for your buck!
Rest assured, the products I recommend are ones I personally use and adore. If I’m promoting something, it’s because I truly believe in its value and quality. Hopefully, you’ll find some of these tools beneficial for boosting your own business success!
No.1: Lighting
When it comes to capturing quality photographs, lighting reigns supreme! While natural light is ideal, it’s not always accessible for everyone. In my case, my home doesn’t offer the best staging walls, and sometimes lacks natural light exposure, leading to shadows and other issues. But fear not, alternatives exist!
I found a solution in an inexpensive lighting set from Amazon, which has permanently resolved my natural light challenges. Now I can take beautifully lit photos without waiting on the sun—it’s a time and money saver!
Here’s the link to the Photography Lighting Kit I rely on:
Photography Lighting Kit.
Why I LOVE this purchase:
You get 3 lights for the price of one! so I can set up multiple detail highlights in one shot! They are DIMMIABLE! Each light comes with their own adjustable tripod! They come with color films that you can easily add to the front of each light to change the color of light you are looking for- I use the soft white & LED clear light films for most of my photos.
My favorite part of this purchase? I didn’t break the bank making this purchase.
Now, I can take my staged furniture photos to sell on MY time! I can take my pictures in the middle of the night if I feel like working late! (yes, I do this often).
Ready to solve your lighting problems for good?
I highly recommend purchasing this affordable lighting option here.
No. 2: Backgrounds
Now to talk about backgrounds. Yes, backgrounds matter! I tried for years telling myself that the stagging process was bogus & that the quality of my work would speak for itself, but I was wrong. I found myself selling myself short every time and didn’t realize then that I was literally ATTRACTING the WRONG buyers by NOT staging my furniture with decent backgrounds!
The problem wasn’t with the quality or style of the furniture I was painting.. The product I was selling was worth just as much, if not more than the similar listings on the market at the time- it appeared that my competitors were selling quicker & for a higher dollar amount than mine- I couldn’t wrap my head around the additional effort in staging until I tried it and saw the results work in my favor, overnight.
Once I put in a little more effort in the listing part of my business- starting with quality photographs & staging- I realized that this was a HUGE factor to the road blocks I kept finding when I was ready to sell. With a few small changes to photography- I was able to reach the customers I wanted to work with that were willing to pay my asking price.
Stagging furniture & décor is a GIFT! When I say it’s a gift, I mean that most of your customers need the added help in visualizing how they can use the furniture. People will spend top dollar to eliminate the need to use creativity in purchasing- they want to know how to use it, what to use it for and where to use it! Train yourself to THINK like your target market.
If you want to sell your furniture for high dollar- YOU HAVE TO stage your furniture & use backgrounds that your target market can relate to..
Well, unless you have already made it in this lifetime and this is just a “hobby” for you… most likely, you don’t have the access to luxurious high ceilings, ship lapped walls & crown molding- if you do, my hats off to you, congratulations- I for one do NOT have such luxuries, today.
So, if you’re like me- & don’t have a wall like this to backdrop your flipped furniture, what do you do?
MY SOLUTION- Photo Backdrop Stand
This lightweight photo backdrop stand is your solution to ALL background problems.
This eliminates the need to move your furniture in & out of the house for staging- you bring the background to the furniture!
Easy set up & store away when its not in use!
And of course, this met my quality & PRICE standards- it didn’t break the bank & paid for itself immediately. Now, I can easily change the color & theme of my background based on the furniture piece. No more boring backgrounds that are repeated over and over in every listing!
I also found affordable, durable backgrounds to interchange with my stand on TEMU. While I will mention that quality is variable on this marketplace site- I have purchased several backdrops from here & have been pleasantly surprised when they arrive.
If you don’t have a TEMU account- I suggest getting one. They do have free returns that are just as easy as Amazon returns (Free returns & drop off options are UPS & USPS). THEY PRICE MATCH TOO!
Check out the TEMU app now! Everything is so stupid cheap- I can’t stop ordering. Shopoholics beware!
Temu runs massive storewide sales daily! Free shipping & free 90 day returns!
Click the link Temu Marketplace Link to get 💰$100 coupon bundle or use coupon code: afm79383 on the Temu App to get 💰50% off discount !!
Here are a couple of links to the backdrops that I have ordered, personally- Be sure to reference the SIZE options, as some backdrops are smaller than others! If you order the wrong size- You can easily return & stop orders through the app.
Back Drop 1: Brick Wall << Link to Product
Back Drop 2: Green Screen << Link to Product
Back Drop 3: Rustic Brown Shiplap <<< Link to Product
No. 3: Cleanliness
It should go without saying that your furniture & photography area needs to be clean & tidy! Make sure that the area is swept & free of visible dust/stains. If the area in which the furniture is photographed is visibly dirty- the potential buyers are going to assume that the furniture is too. Show buyers that you take pride in ownership.
No. 4: Decor & Accessories
Minimal is always better. You want to add a couple of added accessories to dress up the furniture- without letting the décor & accessories take away from what you’re really selling! Make sure that your focal point is the furniture & NOT the décor.
Also, keep your accessories in the right theme. Use colors & styles that are current & ones that don’t clash with the furniture style you are implementing. They should complement each other and stay true to your BRAND!
No. 5: work those Angles
WORK YOUR ANGLES! Make sure that you have pictures of every angle so that they can see that the quality transitions throughout.
No. 6: The Details
The devil is in the details. Details are going to be something that will also set you apart from competitors! If you did something special on the trim- get a close up! If the drawers are dovetail- get a close up! Anything that makes your furniture piece stand out should be captured in a close up.
No. 7: Portrait Mode
In my personal opinion- using portrait mode (available on iPhone cameras) is the easiest way to enhance the quality of your furniture pictures! I like to put the portrait mode on & slowly move the phone in & out of focus at different angles & snap a bunch of photos- I then go through and sort which ones capture the intended details & angles the best for my listings!
I hope that you found these photography tips helpful & would love your feedback! If there is a particular topic, product, technique, etc. that you would find helpful, please leave a comment or send me an email!
- Reconciliation Furniture
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