We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Michelle Felan. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Michelle below.

Michelle , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Coming up with the idea is so exciting, but then comes the hard part – executing. Too often the media ignores the execution part and goes from idea to success, skipping over the nitty, gritty details of executing in the early days. We think that’s a disservice both to the entrepreneurs who built something amazing as well as the public who isn’t getting a realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. So, we’d really appreciate if you could open up about your execution story – how did you go from idea to execution?

At the time I was young mom and I have always been into design and style. I remember having subscriptions to interior design magazines and stumbled across a diy furniture flip. Now keep in mind this is before Pinterest, all I had to go off of was pictures and step by step instructions on this particular magazine. This being said I really had no video tutorial to thoroughly walk me through this, so this side table did not come out as the magazine picture. It took me awhile (years) before I even considered redoing another piece of furniture. This time I kinda threw all caution to the wind and decided I needed to just teach myself by trial and error. I started slowly on small furniture pieces and gradually gained enough confidence to work on larger pieces. This is really what launched what has become of our full time furniture business. I continue to learn all things design and can appreciate all styles of furniture. Ive learned to not limit yourself on things because then you can’t fully take in this experience. I love to explain to our customers/clients that this is art in a way and it’s subjective, so everyone is allowed their own style. Were allowed to tweak furniture to your home your space your design ideas. I feel this is what sets us apart from different furniture restoration companies.

Michelle , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

We are a modern furniture restoration company, that being said we offer everything from repairs, full restorations and redesign to upholstery big and small. We love to learn all things furniture past and present, while staying current on furniture trends. We really took off during covid since everyone was home and had all the time and money to play around with their design ideas. I had so many custom orders and I continued to just grow everyday with more orders and customers. I had so much work, I myself couldn’t keep up with them so my husband left his corporate job to embark on this journey with me. I was really just taking orders from instagram or doing some small markets in the area. Then we decided we needed a website and then an Etsy store, an instagram shop and now we have our own full time vendor space inside the Painted Tree Boutiques. I love that we continue to evolve and grow as a company trying to stay with the times. The only platform we have yet to tackle is TikTok but I hear this is the place to be. I want us to continue honing our trade and craft while teaching ourselves new skills. For example we do offer caning options for your furniture but not specifically the hand woven style and yes there are different styles of cane furniture. I really want to teach myself this skill and hopefully get into our own furniture builds from scratch. We have yet to conquer all things but for being a young company I feel we have a lot under our belt already. We’ve been featured with our local news segments, we have had commercial contracts with Holiday Inn and Fossil. As long as its furniture we like to think its something we can do and if not were not afraid to learn.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

Being a full time business owner has been very challenging to say the least, especially as a full time mom of girls with autism. My role has always been to tend for our daughters since they have always needed extra care. My sole purpose was taking them to and from school, doctors appt, therapy appts, and any other place they needed/wanted to be. It’s been even more exhausting caring for them and juggling working constantly. I knew I wanted to be and do more than a stay at home mom, I never expected that reading one magazine article would ever turn into this journey for myself and my family. But I learned that as a special needs family the only way for us to do this is together. We have been blessed with our custom furniture pieces being purchased and shipped to all over this country. Luckily we have been able to personally deliver these pieces while taking road trips with our girls and sharing this with them. Even if this journey doesn’t last a lifetime it has taught me enough lessons to last me my whole life.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

I think our product speaks for itself, Im not trying to toot my own horn but we really put our heart and sole into each and every piece of furniture we refinish. We always love staying in contact with our customer throughout the whole process to make sure they are getting a finished product they love and are beyond happy with. Sometimes I feel overwhelmed with work but when we reveal their furniture to them for the first time we love their reactions. We leave their homes and hearts knowing we really had their best interests in mind.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.freebirdrestorationsanddesigns.com
• Instagram: Freebirdrestorationsanddesign

Image Credits
Self pics