Rising Stars: Meet Caroline Gibson

Today we’d like to introduce you to Caroline Gibson.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I started refinishing furniture in 2011 when I moved into my first apartment after college. I didn’t have a lot of money and hated brown/redwood colored furniture. I researched how to paint furniture and painted a hand-me-down dresser. I fell in love with the creative process and loved being a DIYer. This love prompted me to create a blog/website to document my DIY journey. Over the years, I have painted pieces for myself and family members and branched out into other DIY projects, such as a full kitchen renovation. At the beginning of the pandemic, I started painting furniture again, this time with the purpose to sell. I had zero expectations that anyone would buy furniture during the pandemic, given that a lot of people were furloughed, but my furniture pieces sold! I enjoyed the creative process of refinishing furniture during the pandemic. It was an outlet I needed to relieve stress.

I turned my hobby into a business in the fall of 2020. I started taking on custom pieces and became a retailer for my favorite furniture refinishing supplies. I am a retailer for BB Frösch Powder, which is a powder you can add to any latex paint that creates a durable paint for furniture and cabinets. The powder is a cost-effective way to refinish furniture and it allows you to pick any color paint you want. In January of 2021, I released my first e-course. My e-course teaches anyone how to create a stenciled piece of furniture. Stenciling is my signature design technique! My e-course has over 4 hours of video that walk you through every step of the furniture painting process, including stenciling.

What I love about refinishing furniture is helping people fall back in love with furniture they’ve purchased and used for years, heirloom furniture they’ve inherited, or new furniture they want to design for their home!

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
As far as my furniture business, in 2020 it was relatively easy to sell furniture. I didn’t expect it to be easy, given the pandemic. As we transitioned into 2021, it has been harder to sell furniture that I’ve created for my shop. It has been hard to figure out what changed to cause a shift in my business. At the same time, I have received more custom inquiries in 2021 and that has helped sustain my workload.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am most known for my stenciled pieces! I love transforming a brown, boring piece of furniture with an overall stencil design. My favorite color combination to use with stenciling is Navy and White. It is a bold contrasting color combo that allows the stencil design to shine. I am proud of the stencil pieces I have created. I am proud of having the vision in my head and translating that vision onto a piece of furniture. Creating an overall stencil design can be intimidating. I think a lot of people may think that your stencil has to be perfect. But the reality is that stenciling is not perfect, it is hand-painted and will have a hand-painted look. The variation in hand painting brings character to each piece and is one of the reasons people purchase refinished furniture. To help introduce stenciling to other furniture artists, I have created a 4-hour video course for anyone interested in learning how to refinish furniture with an overall stencil design. It is available for purchase on my website.

Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?
If you’re in the Raleigh area and you are a DIYer, you can purchase BB Frösch from my website. It is my go-to product for furniture and kitchen cabinet refinishing. If you’re also in the area, I take custom requests to refinish a client’s existing furniture or furniture from my inventory.

Contact Info:

• Email: caroline@livingonsaltwater.com
• Website: www.livingonsaltwater.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/livingonsaltwater/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LivingonsaltH20

Image Credits
LivingonSaltwater