We were lucky to catch up with Autumn Heseman recently and have shared our conversation below.

Autumn , appreciate you joining us today. Are you able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen?

Jumping in to Being a Full Time Furniture Refinisher/DIY’er and creative coach/influencer was one of the hardest things I have ever done. I am a certified Speech-Language Pathologist with a Masters in Science, and a Bachelors in Audiology and Speech Pathology. I absolutely loved getting the opportunity to do this job, but learned that my passion is art and education. I absolutely love getting to teach others about what I do, and empower them to pick up power tools and a paintbrush with no fear.

This career started as a hobby that I was doing just to make some extra money to pay for my kiddos to attend church camp, and quickly became a passion and something I looked forward to coming home to do after my full time job. At the same time I also was diagnosed with a heart disorder that can be triggered more by stress. After finding out they could not complete a procedure to fix my heart issue, the doctor sent me home and told me to work on changing my lifestyle to decrease the issue. I remember sitting and working on my furniture and realizing that I never noticed having a heart palpitation during my furniture refinishing.
It was then that I decided to really pursue this dream and try turning it into a career. I even looked into research that showed that pursuing creative activities/arts has been shown to highly reduce stress. How cool is that?

I will say that I did not go full time immediately. I went part time as a speech-pathologist to help supplement my transition to full time as a creative. This allowed me to grow in my networking. I began working with brands related to my niche and they paid me to create videos for their content. This helped to supplement the transition as well.

With the support of my husband and family, I decided to jump in with faith and go full time as a furniture refinisher. My following grew on Instagram and this greatly helped expand my audience. I have recently started a Youtube channel called “The Furniture Flipper’s Guide” where I teach others how to do what I do and make a profit flipping furniture. I also sell my pieces on my social media channels and do custom refinishing for those in my community. I am now just starting to expand and offer shipping of my pieces.
I also created a course on how to begin furniture flipping, and plan to offer more courses and consultations down the road.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Hi Y’all! I’m the furniture flipper and DIY’er behind Prayed Over Pieces ~The Furniture Flipper’s Guide. I live for the before and afters! Be sure to check out my other social media pages and Youtube channel “The Furniture Flipper’s Guide” for even more of the fun!

I turn trash into treasure while remembering to keep the focus on who the pieces are for.

For the past 5 years I have learned the art of DIY’s, how to use power tools and even more tips and tricks for Furniture Flips!! My goal is to empower others to jump in and let go of their fears. Whatever is holding you back from trying new things needs to go!

Prayed Over Pieces? “What does that mean?” Let me tell you that my goal is to always remember to find joy in the everyday. In order to find our joy, we have to find gratitude. By saying a prayer for the person I am refinishing the piece for, this centers me and helps me remember my blessings.

I live for trying new products, techniques and DIY’s while sharing this experience with you. I always say, “My goal is to be the teacher and content creator that I wish I had when I was first learning to refinish furniture pieces and DIY my home.” That includes showing all of the sides of refinishing (including the many twists and turns that go along with it)! It’s definitely not always sunshine and rainbows lol, but it is always pretty entertaining around here.

You will likely find me taking clients pieces from outdated to updated with a modern feel. I also throw in home DIY’s and house updates that have a classic modern look. One of my favorites was my popular hidden mirror door, and a viral painted front door tutorials (where I found a squished frog eww). And I have plans for so much more!! Can’t wait!

I have over 51k Followers (Between my pages) but I feel like each one of you are my friend. I love all of the messages and conversations I get to have daily, and cherish each one. I absolutely love what I do, and hope you find joy in joining in, or even just following along.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

I wish that I would have invested in a course that is for beginners so I wouldn’t have to gather all of my information from many different places. I have created a course like that and also a Youtube channel where I teach step by step how others can create pieces just like me.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

My goal is to not let Fear and Anxiety stop you from trying new things. I started working on furniture and would constantly feel like I was not qualified to use a nail gun, a table saw or even just this week a router. I’ve learned that if you are willing to constantly learn, find others who are willing to teach you and listen well then you can do anything. It is so hard to hear other women say, “well I will just wait until my husband gets home.” I say this because I was one of those women, and guess what…. he did know more (at first). But now I am teaching him how to use a paint sprayer, my new router and all of the tips and tricks that I have learned from DIY over the last 5 years. He even tells people he has to ask me to borrow my tools now lol. I love working with him and knowing that because I was brave enough to step out of my comfort zone, I now have got this. And You’ve Got This too!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.prayedoverpieces.com
• Instagram: @prayedoverpieces
• Facebook: @prayedoverpieces
• Youtube: The Furniture Flipper’s Guide
• Other: Course: https://prayedoverpieces.retrieve.com/store/#/

Image Credits
Autumn Heseman – Prayed Over Pieces / The Furniture Flipper’s Guide