If you don’t know Maggie McGaugh, you should get caught up now—because this Fort Worth mom and DIY furniture flipper is blowing up on social media. Success wasn’t years and years in the making for 26-year-old McGaugh, whose son Harrison will be 2 in January. In fact, she started flipping furniture right when COVID-19 hit.
Now she has about 1.4 million followers and fans across Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest and YouTube, and she’s already been on the Today Show with Hoda & Jenna. We connected with McGaugh and found out that the old saying is true: One person’s trash really can be another’s treasure.
You can connect with McGaugh and find knobs, handles, wallpaper and more for your flips at maggiemcgaugh.com and sign up for her e-course here.
One-on-One with Maggie McGaugh
DFWChild: Tell us a little more about what you do with furniture.
Maggie McGaugh: Most of my pieces are found in the trash around Fort Worth. Some pieces are thrifted online or in person. I bring them home, clean them, sand them, prime and paint, stage and sell! Some pieces get new hardware or are lined with wallpaper. It all depends on the piece. It’s so fun to try different looks and styles.
C: Is furniture flipping your full-time job?
MM: Yes—which is awesome, because I actually spend only a few hours a day flipping, on average. I’m also a mom, so it’s a major balancing game.
C: What did you do before flipping furniture?
MM: I’ve done many things. I was a stay-at-home wife and mom, photographer, social media manager and business owner, wholesale director and even a receptionist. I studied marketing in college.
C: It’s amazing that this has all happened for you in such a short amount of time.
MM: It feels like I just started flipping furniture yesterday, which makes everything seem even more surreal. I had my son in January 2020 and started flipping around April, I believe. It all started when I found a wooden bread box in a thrift store. I learned from trial and lots of errors what to do. Next I found a lingerie dresser on the side of the road. So my passion was born! I started truly documenting it all on social media a few months later.
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C: What does your husband do?
MM: Matt does lawncare, but my business has become so busy that he actually only works a few days a week now. Some days he even comes and helps me in the garage. We met on Snapchat, believe it or not!
C: So you owe a lot to social media! It connected you to your husband and jumpstarted your success. Is that how the Today show found you?
MM: Exactly. I’ve had quite a few videos go viral on Instagram and TikTok since starting out. I was shocked to my core when a producer for Today with Hoda & Jenna reached out last fall. It took a few months, but I was finally on the show this spring. I livestreamed from my garage. It wasn’t very smooth—thanks, technology—but it was an unforgettable opportunity.
C: What’s your favorite flip?
MM: My dining room table. I still use it daily. It was one of my first projects—a little more complicated than I recommend for beginners. It was also one of my first viral videos.
C: How about the most challenging flip you’ve done?
MM: Refinishing is one thing. Repurposing is a whole other ball game. I turned a broken turntable into a pet bed. I had to take apart the entire piece, partially rebuild it and stabilize it to hold up one or two pups. I love how it turned out, though!
C: What do you do if you’re not happy with a piece?
MM: I either sell them as is or redo them. That’s the cool part. If you don’t like it, or it turns out to be a huge disaster, you can always try again.
C: You mentioned that your husband sometimes helps you in the garage. What role does he play in the furniture flips?
MM: He’s my problem solver! If I can’t figure something out and I’m getting frustrated, I get his help. He helps with stripped screws most of all. He’s also my biggest encourager. When I find myself wanting to cry from mean comments online or simply a color I didn’t like on a dresser, he helps me see the good in everything, all while helping me make improvements both personally and artistically. And he just built me a huge organizer and storage bin for my hundreds of knobs and handles. He’s super creative, too, just in different ways that complement mine perfectly.
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C: You don’t just flip furniture, you teach other people how to do it. Why is that important to you?
MM: I used to be the girl who wanted to be creative but didn’t know how. When I first started, I was so overwhelmed. I think I may have cried from frustration. Google has about 10,000 articles telling you the “only” way to flip furniture. Once I figured it out—actually, I’m still figuring it out every day, let’s be real!—I wanted to provide entertainment and education.
This is an amazing hobby, source of income, stress reliever, creative outlet, way to recycle and way to save money. I can’t keep it to myself! Not to mention that I get about 100 comments a day asking for help. Once my accounts grew, I knew I needed to create an e-course to teach every single step.
I have some free content on Instagram, Instagram stories and highlights, TikTok and YouTube. I teach everything I know—how I find furniture in the trash, how to barter, how to sand, prime, paint and seal, how to stage the furniture, pricing information and way more—on my e-course.
C: You mentioned you didn’t know how to be creative at first—are you saying that even non-crafty moms out there can do this?
MM: Absolutely! I get this question all the time, and I always chuckle. Weeks before trying this, I was following DIY influencers on social media while I rolled my eyes and whined to my husband that I wasn’t creative. I’ve had the Pinterest fails. I’m the mom that pinned “homemade organic homemade cheese snacks” but ended up packing goldfish. I get it.
Furniture flipping is not hard! It may not be flawless on your first try, and you will hit roadblocks. But at the end of the day, you’ve created something with your hands. It’s an amazing feeling. Fortunately, flipping furniture doesn’t require much. When you’re starting out, you can get by with a sander—maybe even sandpaper alone—primer, a brush and some paint. It’s not rocket science!
C: What do you think it is about furniture flipping that appeals to people?
MM: It’s good for the environment. You can use it to pay your bills. I know a woman who just paid off all her student loans and quit her full-time job to do this. You can save money by furnishing your house for free. And it’s so stinking fun. And anyone can do it. The feeling of making something ugly into something beautiful, and for cheap, is indescribable.
C: So if our pieces turn out terrible—and spoiler: They will; you overestimate our crafting abilities—where can we just buy yours?
MM: I sell my furniture only locally. To purchase, you may spot my pieces on Facebook Marketplace, but many sell via Instagram DM before I get a chance to list them. If anyone wants to purchase furniture, I recommend they shoot me a message on Instagram, but do it fast! Some pieces sell before I even unload them from my truck to paint.
C: Finally, we need to follow up on something. How did you meet your husband on Snapchat?
MM: I accidentally added him on Snapchat thinking I knew him. A few weeks later, I responded to his Snapchat story asking a question. We quickly realized I’d made a mistake. But we started texting and FaceTiming every day. I flew out from South Carolina to visit him, strictly as friends, a month or two later. We started dating that same trip, got engaged 6 months later and we were married 4 months after that. Hilltop elopement. Highly recommend.
This interview was originally published in October 2021.
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HGTV No Demo Reno’s Jennifer Todryk
HGTV Flip or Flop Fort Worth’s Ashley Williams
HGTV One of a Kind’s Grace Mitchell
Urbanology Designs’ Ginger Curtis
Photography courtesy of Maggie McGaugh
