How our furniture upcycling commission service works

I’ve talked a lot over on our socials, and in our last blog about why I believe painting furniture is better than buying new. Not only can it look fabulous but it also reduces our impact on the planet by using what we already have.

But how does our upcycling furniture commission service work? It’s all fair and well me talking about it and making noise about painting what you have, but perhaps I should explain our service in a little bit more detail too.

So here goes…

Firstly, if you’ve got a piece of furniture that you’ve been thinking needs a bit of refurbishing, then get in touch with us! We are based in Coxhoe, County Durham and can offer our services within up to an hour radius of us.

How can we contact you?

There are several ways to contact us about a furniture commission. The most popular way though is via Facebook or Instagram. 

You can also contact us via email at gjffurnishings@gmail.com, or through the contact us page on our website (however, I don’t think this give you the option to attach a photo, it just starts the general enquiry). 

We have a business WhatsApp that you can reach us through, as well as the option to call us. If you do call us, we will still require photos to be sent. Where this is not possible due to accessibility, please let us know and we will do our absolute best to accommodate your needs. You'll find this number on the contact us page.

When you get in touch we will ask you for the following pieces of information:

• Photos of the piece(s) of furniture you are thinking about having refurbished – we ask that they are of the actual piece of furniture in your possession and not a stock photo from which ever company you brought it from. This is so we get a real reflection of what we are likely to be working with.
• Photos of any damage that might need repairing – whether its dents that need filling, missing handles or bits that are broken off, let us know so we can not only factor that into our pricing, but also be absolutely certain that it is something we can repair. The last thing we want to do is say we can restore your furniture and end up letting you down because there is something we can’t do.
• Measurements of the item(s) in question – so we can price the cost of materials accurately. Photos don’t always reflect the size of a piece of furniture clearly.
• A rough idea of a style/colour you are thinking of – for example, would you like part of it sanded and left as natural wood? If so, is it solid wood, or veneer? We can strip veneer but it helps to know in advance. If you don’t know, we will give a rough quote, and stipulate that it may change depending on the level of work required, which we will assess accurately on collection of the furniture. What colour would you like it painted? You don’t have to know exactly which colour, but it helps us to plan what we’re doing. Are you thinking about some stencilling, some wallpaper detail etc. All of these things help us to price the work for you more accurately.
• YOUR POSTCODE – probably the most important piece of information. We don’t want to mislead you into thinking we can work with you when you live much further away. We will happily factor in collection and delivery costs for furniture up to an hour away from us.

So after all of this information has been discussed, we will calculate the quote for you. We like to think our prices are reasonable, therefore encouraging you to paint and refurbish furniture rather than buy new. Sometimes this may not be the case, particularly if collection and delivery is towards the further end of our distance, but we will always do our best to provide a reasonable quote. We try to get a quote back to you the same day, but this may take a little bit longer if it’s a weekend or during the school holidays.

Once we’ve provided the quote, if you decide to go ahead, here’s how our payment arrangements work at present (correct at the time of writing in May 2024):

• A £20 non-refundable deposit is taken in order to secure your booking. This will be taken off your total balance. However, if you cancel your booking after this, you will not be refunded this balance.
• Prior to us collecting your furniture (or you delivering it to us) we will send a request for a payment of 50% of the balance – less the £20 deposit.
• Before we return your furniture once the work is complete, we will send a request for the final balance. If you prefer to see the finished item first, we can bring our card machine with us to take payment upon delivery.

How are payments made?

We have a Sum Up card machine that we send payment links from. This ensures your payment is secure.

Alternative methods can be arranged at our discretion.

How long will we have your furniture for?

Typically, we aim to have your furniture for 2-3 weeks. But this will be assessed on an individual basis. If we can have your furniture finished sooner than that then we absolutely will. If we are working on multiple items for you, such as a dining set, we will most likely take it in stages, depending on your location. Occasionally we might have it for longer than this, particularly if we’re painting and reupholstering your furniture. We will always keep you updated, and if things are taking longer than planned we will let you know.

What else do you need to know?

• We will keep you updated with regular progress updates and photos, as well as sharing reels and images on our social media channels which you will see. If you do not want us to share the work publicly please let us know.
• We are a family run business and our children are always our first priority. This means sometimes we have to change our work arrangements in the event of school activities, sickness and school holidays. We can usually work around these with notice, but in the event of sickness, naturally this is unexpected does cause us delays. However, we will of course keep you informed if this is going to have a significant impact on our plans.
• We typically use chalk paint brands such as Frenchic, Annie Sloan and Rustoleum. We may use others from time to time too, if it gives us the best colour and finish for your furniture.

We absolutely hate to see furniture being thrown away, so please do think about having your furniture painted, sanded or whatever is required to bring it back to a point where you can love it again before you buy something new to replace it.

So there you have it, an in depth run down of how our furniture commission service works.

Please do get in touch with us to discuss your furniture and how we can help. If you’d like to see some of our upcycled furniture for ideas inspiration, you can take a look here. We also have some example photos of upcycled furniture before and after below.